Eli Stowers is Aware of Potential Double Teams. Vanderbilt's Other Weapons Will Determine How Often They Come

Nashville–As flattering as it is, Eli Stowers knows that he’ll have to wear the preseason First-Team All American tag every time he takes the field.

That tag comes with a level of respect for the work that Stowers has put in as he’s quickly acclimated to learn the tight end position after beginning his college football career as a quarterback, but he also isn’t naive to the realization that it could make his life significantly more difficult than it used to be.

For the senior tight end to repeat the quality of season he had in 2024 while racking up 49 receptions and 638 yards on the way to being named to the All-SEC First Team, he knows that he’ll likely have to do it through some double teams and extra resistance.

“I think that’s definitely something that could be possible because there’s so much recognition and, I guess, attention on me,” Stowers told Vandy on SI. “I don’t know if we expect it, maybe we do. We’re just going to have to see in the gameplan based on what we see on film.”

No other Vanderbilt wide receiver came within 200 yards or 20 receptions of Stowers’ final totals in 2024, which could also force opposing defenses to make an effort to make Vanderbilt’s offense move the ball down the field through avenues outside of Stowers.

Vanderbilt’s first instinct when addressing the potential that Stowers could be double teamed appears to be to try to circumvent defensive coordinators’ emphasis on him.

“There’s ways to try to hide him in formations with motions,” Vanderbilt coach Clark Lea said. “We have to work to get Eli singled up, we can do that with motion, formation.”

Lea isn’t sugarcoating the idea that “there’s only so much you can do if they’re gonna put two guys on him,” though. Some days, Stowers will likely have an uphill climb towards any production as a result of coverage schemes and certain defenses bending over backwards in an effort to stop him.

Vanderbilt’s offense can still be productive in that scenario, but it’s going to take its wide receiver room stepping in and proving to be capable while Stowers is receiving all the attention.

“What you hope is that you’re developing skill around him where the choice to double Eli puts you in a situation where someone else has one-on-one coverage that can win,” Lea said. “We have those guys. Whether that’s Junior [Sherrill], Martel [Hight], Tre [Richardson], Trent [Hudson], on and on, Richie [Hoskins].”

Whenever a defense puts two defenders on Stowers, it naturally means that Vanderbilt will have a receiver in one-on-one coverage. Those plays will tell it how improved its wide receiver room really is after a 2024 season in which it struggled to hit on explosive plays and develop a downfield passing game.

Ask those within Vanderbilt’s program and hope that its receiver room will take a step forward–particularly while Stowers is drawing the attention–doesn’t appear to be lost, though.

“If they want to [double team me], we’ve got a whole more talent that will take advantage of that,” Stowers said. “We’re cognizant of [the attention], but at the same time I think it wouldn’t be wise for someone to just put so much attention on me this year considering that we have so much talent and we’re deep at so many positions.”

Vanderbilt can say it all that it wants, but it has to see a step forward from Sherrill and has to hit on its transfer receiver class if it’s going to be able to take the pressure to lead its offense by a significant margin in receiving off of Stowers.

Between Sherrill, Hight, Tight end Cole Spence, Hudson, Richardson and Vanderbilt’s young homegrown receivers it feels as if it’s got enough to answer the bell.

“It’s going to be hard [to catch the ball a lot in Vanderbilt’s receiver room] because you have so much talent around you,” Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia said. “We’re only gonna get 60 plays, 65 plays a game, so it’s going to be hard for everyone to touch the ball. So everyone just talks about ‘hey, if you touch that thing, you better take it to the house.’”