How Eli Stowers' Toughness Resulted in NFL-Like Performance in Vanderbilt Football's Auburn Win
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NASHVILLE—Eli Stowers took a massive hit over the middle on a late-fourth quarter drive, sat on the field for around a minute, popped up and walked off with trainers. A few plays later, Stowers was back on the field going back into the fight.
It was a microcosm of what it took for Vanderbilt to pull off a 45-38 win over Auburn on Saturday. It fell to the mat over and over again, yet it got up and battled over and over again before ultimately breaking through in overtime.
“It is [a microcosm of the team’s effort],” Lea said of the sequence in which Stowers got back up. “He took a bunch of hits, and he's a warrior, and he's tough. I'm just in awe. I think what he's doing there is absolutely a representation of Vanderbilt football. That's who we are. So he gutted it out and helped us win a big game.”
Saturday’s celebration wouldn’t have been possible without Stowers, though. The Vanderbilt tight end went for 12 catches, 122 yards and recorded 43 yards after the catch. Stowers led the Commodores in receptions and targets on Saturday while looking every bit of an NFL prospect. He’s also the first tight end in program history to record back-to-back 100 yard games.
Stowers took a beating more than any other player on Vanderbilt’s roster on Saturday night, yet he was perhaps its most consistently productive player.
“That’s a dawg right there, that’s a warrior,” Vanderbilt receiver Junior Sherrill said of Stowers. “He took a couple hits, a little bruised up, but he was back out there, back at it. Much respect for him.”
The performance was the second in a line of breakout performances for the Vanderbilt star tight end. The idea that Stowers could do something like this was never foreign after the standout production–including three 100-yard games last season–he put together in 2024. It hadn’t yet happened for him, though.
Whether it was because of Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia becoming more familiar with other targets, Stowers getting keyed in on more by opposing defenses, or merely gameplans that didn’t prioritize him, the Vanderbilt tight end didn’t have a 100+ yard receiving game prior to Vanderbilt’s loss to Texas in Austin.
Stowers says he learned something about selflessness through the stretch and has worked to show off his improved blocking ability, but his primary use has often been as a receiver rather than a blocker.
“There’s been goods and bads for me this season,” Stowers said on Tuesday. “I think that I’m just trying to get better in every single aspect of my game.”
Saturday was perhaps the best example of Stowers improving as a whole. His only noticeable poor play was his unintentional shove of a defender into a Vanderbilt ballcarrier, in which he put his hand up as to say ‘my bad.’
It was the classic Stowers performance that this program has grown to love since his arrival in 2024. It’s the type that Vanderbilt will need at least one more of if it’s going to have this season end where it wants it to and if he’s going to be selected where he’d like to be in the NFL Draft when this is all said and done.
“He’s gonna be a pro for a reason, he has a huge impact on our team,” Lea said on Tuesday. “We know what he can do with the ball in his hands, we know about his radius, we know his athleticism, but he's really built out kind of a complete package as far as his tight end play.”
_(1)-b3e453dfe426b2dd4b83a12540ebdb37.jpeg "Joey Dwyer")
Joey Dwyer is the lead writer on Vanderbilt Commodores On SI. He found his first love in college sports at nearby Lipscomb University and decided to make a career of telling its best stories. He got his start doing a Notre Dame basketball podcast from his basement as a 14-year-old during COVID and has since aimed to make that 14-year-old proud. Dwyer has covered Vanderbilt sports for three years and previously worked for 247 Sports and Rivals. He contributes to Seth Davis' Hoops HQ, Southeastern 16 and Mainstreet Nashville.
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