Former Mountaineer backup quarterback Barry Brunetti has emerged as the starting quarterback for Mississippi heading into the upcoming football season. Mississippi head coach Houston Nutt made the announcement after junior Randall Mackey was arrested for disorderly conduct for a bar fight in downtown Oxford earlier in the week.
Mackey and Brunetti had also been competing with Zack Stoudt for that starting quarterback job. Brunetti transferred to Mississippi from West Virginia following his freshman campaign with the Mountaineers in 2010. He was also granted a medical hardship waiver from the NCAA so he could be closer to his mother who was battling a medical condition which made it difficult for her to travel to games in Morgantown.
Brunetti saw very limited playing time in 2010 at West Virginia behind starter Geno Smith. Overall, he completed just four of nine passes for six yards with the Mountaineers.