Liberty quarterback Mason Cunningham announced via his personal twitter account that he will be transferring. He says he will graduate with his bachelor’s degree in May and will have 2 years of eligibility remaining.

The 6’0″, 200 pound redshirt-junior transferred to Liberty in January 2017 after spending the 2016 season at Northeast Mississippi Community College in Booneville, Mississippi where he was 160-for-280 passing for 1,810 passing yards and 12 touchdowns. He also added 69 carries for 185 yards and 6 touchdowns. During his 2 seasons at Liberty, Cunningham played in a total of 4 games where he was 8-for-17 passing for 77 yards and 1 interception. Cunningham is originally from Shelbyville, Tennessee.

Cunningham had a disappointing spring game this past Saturday, as he was just 1-for-5 passing for 3 yards and 2 interceptions, 1 of which was returned for a touchdown. He has spent all spring to fend off true freshman and early enrollee Johnathan Bennett. Bennett shined in Saturday’s spring game, finishing the game 9-for-15 for 186 yards and 1 touchdown. Afterwards, head coach Hugh Freeze said that with his performance in the spring game, Bennett had solidified himself as a true contender to be Buckshot’s Calvert backup in 2019.

With Cunningham leaving, there is very little experience behind Buckshot.. The remaining quarterbacks on the roster, in addition to Bennett, are r-sophomore Landon Brown, r-freshman Brandon Robinson, and r-junior Henry Van Dellen. Van Dellen is the only one of the group with any collegiate playing experience as he played in 4 games for North Dakota State in 2017. Van Dellen was 4-for-9 passing for 27 yards with the Bison before being dismissed from the team for a violation of team rules.

“Mason handled that like a true gentleman and young man should,” Coach Freeze said following Liberty’s spring practice session Thursday afternoon. “He came and visited with me 2 days ago. I want our kids to be very transparent with me and candid, and I want to do the same thing for them. I’ve gotten to an age that I’m for the kids and I will speak what I think is the absolute truth to them. So, this young man has come to this University. He’s satisfied his academic requirements. That, to me, fulfills his obligation, and now it’s about what is best for Mason? I was very truthful with his fitting here and where that stood, and as much as I would have to have him on our team because he’s such a heck of a young man, I want to support what he and his family think is best for him. He’s got his degree and he’s got two years left, and he wants to get on the field. I can’t argue with that. We wish him the best, and I’m going to help him anyway I can get on somewhere.”