Exclusive: Inside Martel Hight’s Transition to Wide Receiver
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NASHVILLE — When Vanderbilt football’s season began, then-cornerback Martel Hight had aspirations of playing on both sides of the football. Hight and the coaching staff did some experimenting during the 2025 season with Hight playing cornerback and wide receiver.
Trying to replicate what Travis Hunter did for Colorado during his Heisman season in 2024 did not last long for Hight in 2025. He took snaps on both sides of the ball for the first few weeks before he ultimately stuck with playing cornerback the remainder of the season.
Hight still wanted to get some playing experience at wide receiver. When the season started, he let Vanderbilt offensive coordinator Tim Beck know he would be available if need be.
“I said at the beginning of the season I did want to play both ways, but I told coach Beck whenever my number needs to be called, call it. I’m there for him and here I am, now playing receiver,” Hight told Vandy On SI.
During Vanderbilt’s bye week at the end of October, the moment arrived. The Monday morning during the bye week, Hight was in the football facility getting some work in when he got a call from Beck.
Hight got called to Beck’s office, where he told Hight he felt the offense needed him at receiver. Without hesitation, Hight agreed. After Vanderbilt’s win over Mississippi State out of the bye, Vanderbilt head coach Clark Lea confirmed that Hight’s position change over to receiver was a permanent change.
“He just straight up told me ‘hey, we need you at receiver. How do you feel about that?’ And I’m like ‘yeah, let’s go.’ I’m pumped for it,” Hight said as he recalled the moment he found out he was going to play receiver.
Hight’s first game as an official designated receiver was this past weekend against the Bulldogs, where he caught one pass for three yards.
Wide receiver is not a foreign position to Hight. On top of the snaps he took at receiver in 2025, he also played as a wide receiver in addition to being a defensive back at Rome High School in Rome, Georgia.
Hight feels like he has the ability to make a positive impact on Vanderbilt’s wide receiver room going forward. He feels as though he can be a versatile presence on the field by being a guy that can be a vertical threat with his speed and a receiver that can get the ball in space in the middle of the field.
For Lea, he feels that Hight can give the offense something on the inside, middle of the field production. The team feels confident in having Junior Sherrill and Ja’Cory Thomas being threats on the perimeter and still feels good about what Tristen Brown has done working the middle of the field.
But with more speed and ability available, Lea feels like Hight can give Vanderbilt a boost with some play packages.
“We think Martel can be part of that, just giving us some juice inside there. Just some catching on the jet sweep kind of skillset that he falls into really easily,” Lea said to the media Thursday. “Hopefully as we go and finish out the season, those route depths, tempo and timing are cleaned up.”
With Hight joining the offense late in the season, it is reasonable to think that it may take a while before Hight gets synced up with five-star freshman quarterback Jared Curtis. With Hight playing defense, the two have not had a ton of time to individually build a strong rapport with each other.
However, the two have been practicing throwing the ball to each other before. Lea revealed Thursday that Hight caught some passes from Curtis after practice earlier this season just in case Hight ever took snaps at receiver.
From Hight’s perspective, he does not feel there are any bumps in the road or growing pains in his connection with Curtis. In fact, Curtis along with Beck and wide receivers coach Alex Bailey have gone out of their way to make sure Hight is comfortable with the offense.
Curtis even reaches out to Hight and invites him to work on stuff together.
“Jared made it easy for me. He’s good at communicating. He’s a true leader. He’s a freshman but he’s actually a leader,” Hight told Vandy On SI about his relationship with Curtis. “He makes sure I’m okay. He checks on me in the locker room, asks me ‘hey do you want to go work on this?’”
Hight feels like his experience as a punt returner and cornerback will translate well now playing as a wide receiver. He already knows how to track the ball as a returner. Defensively, he knows the mindset and the tendencies of a cornerback, which he feels gives him an advantage on the offensive end.
The confidence is there and the abilities of speed and tracking are there for Hight, too. The only thing that remains to be seen is how effective he becomes at his new position. Lea certainly thinks Hight has a chance to make a meaningful impact.
“He has access to the full route tree because we think he can be a really good receiver,” Lea said.
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Graham Baakko is a writer for Vanderbilt Commodores On SI, primarily covering football, basketball and baseball. Graham is a recent graduate from the University of Alabama, where he wrote for The Crimson White, WVUA-FM, WVUA 23 as he covered a variety of Crimson Tide sports. He also covered South Carolina athletics as a sportswriting intern for GamecockCentral.
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