NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Vanderbilt football tight end Eli Stowers’ path from Denton, Texas, to Nashville was not linear but at the center of his journey to a starting job in the SEC was trust.
Growing up, Stowers was an athletic kid, a state champion in the high jump and a four-star prospect as a quarterback. His athleticism and talent as a signal caller led him to the first stop on his journey, College Station, Texas.
After spending two seasons at Texas A&M, Stowers headed west to New Mexico State, his father’s alma mater. It was also the school where Vanderbilt’s Jerry Kill was the head coach and Tim Beck the offensive coordinator. In two seasons, Kill and Beck helped the Aggies improve from a 2-10 record in 2021 to six regular season victories and a bowl win in 2022. The duo’s accomplishment caught Stowers’ attention, but the conversation he had with them sold him on their vision.
“I could tell they had a really good culture over there,” Stowers commented. “That’s what appealed to me. I wanted to be a part of that and help rebuild.”
A few months after arriving in a new place, Stowers, still playing quarterback at this point, found himself looking to fill a new role on the Aggies’ football team.
“I kind of saw the writing on the wall, and I knew that I probably wasn’t going to start,” he said. “I went into Coach Beck’s office and said, ‘Hey Coach, I understand that I’m not going to be the starter, and I just want to be able to help the team in any way.’ I didn’t even care – I was like, ‘I’ll play special teams; if you want me to play defense, I’ll do that.’”
“I think that it shows his unselfishness,” Beck said of Stowers’ willingness to change positions. “He’s willing to give what he can to the team to make the team better. And I think in the long run that’ll pay dividends for him, because I think he’s going to see this is a great position for him.”
Looking for a way to contribute, Stowers found himself stepping into the tight end position and finding success there. In his first season consistently playing anywhere other than quarterback, he grabbed 35 receptions for 366 yards and two touchdowns, also adding 29 rushes for 113 yards and two scores. Stowers’ four receptions for 48 yards and a touchdown contributed to New Mexico State’s win at Auburn, the program’s first-ever victory over an SEC team. He also capped his initial campaign in Las Cruces with an All-Conference USA honorable mention nod.
“I think having played quarterback definitely helped me succeed at tight end with just having the understanding of the game,” he explained. “A lot of the stuff at tight end is just reading defenses in the same way quarterbacks do. Also, when you’re at quarterback you have to know what every single person on the offense is doing, so when I moved positions, it helped me be able to understand the scheme.”
After helping New Mexico State achieve a 10-3 regular season and a Conference USA championship game berth, Stowers would finally find himself in Nashville, Tennessee. It was a path that was largely paved by Beck and Kill’s hiring at Vanderbilt and former Aggie quarterback Diego Pavia’s commitment to the Commodores. At the center of Stowers’ decision to join Vanderbilt football was trust – trust in his former coaches and teammate, and trust in head coach Clark Lea.
“He’s one of the best leaders I’ve been around,” Stowers said of Lea. “He’s the epitome of discipline. He’s been an amazing example of what we’re supposed to do on the field. He’s one of the realest coaches I’ve ever been around. He just makes us want to play as hard as we can for him because he really wants to win, and he really believes we can win.”
Stowers knew that coming to Vanderbilt wouldn’t be easy, acknowledging some of the doubts and outside noise surrounding the program. Inside the program, though, that couldn’t be further from the truth.
“There’s a whole lot of people who doubted us,” he admitted. “But you go into our program, into our facility and there’s no one saying that we can’t go out there and win every single game. When you have that belief, it translates on the field in the way you play.”
The on-field results of that belief have been evident this fall with the team having its best season of the Lea era. With two regular season contests and a bowl game to play, Vanderbilt has racked up three SEC wins and clinched bowl eligibility for the first time since 2018. The Dores also took down then No. 1-ranked Alabama at home in a historic 40-35 win.
“You play with a different mentality believing that you’re going to win,” Stowers continued. “And it’s not a complacency that you’re going to go out there and walk to a win. No, we’re going to go out there and put our all, our whole effort into the game to get the win we know we can.”
This season, Stowers leads the SEC and is fifth among Power 4 tight ends with 557 receiving yards. His on-field success earned him a spot as one of eight semifinalists for the Mackey Award, which is presented annually to the nation’s best tight end. It is also his first full season as a tight end, because although he played the position at New Mexico State in 2023, he remained in the quarterback room.
Stowers is the only Vanderbilt tight end since 1996 to have multiple 100-yard receiving games in a season, doing so in games versus Alabama, Ball State and Georgia State. He is also just the sixth tight end since that fall to record at least 100 receiving yards against Alabama.
“It’s been really cool,” Beck commented on watching Stowers success at tight end. “He’s a such sharp guy and understands the game and leverage and where to go. It’s been an easy transition for him not only because of his intelligence and athletic ability, but his desire to be a good football player is really high. So it’s been fun to watch him make this transition from the quarterback to the tight end position.”
For someone who has overcome obstacles to rise to the top and now found success at highest level, Stowers hasn’t lost sight of what has always been the center of his focus.
“My faith is one of the biggest things to me,” Stowers said. “I can have faith that whatever happens in my life is for the best in me. I can go out on the football field just playing free and playing to the best of my ability with no worries because I have a lot of trust and faith in the fact that God is going to handle it. If I go out there and get zero catches or if I go out there and get 15 catches, I understand that’s what God wants for my life, and ultimately, I go out there to play to glorify Him.”
It’s trust – whether it’s in his faith, coaches or teammates – that keeps Stowers optimistic while moving forward, daring to grow.
Instead of focusing on his success so far this season, Stowers is looking ahead. Saturday, Vandy takes on LSU in Death Valley before returning home to host in-state rival Tennessee to close out its regular season.
“We want to make this season the best season that it can possibly be,” Stowers concluded. “In order for that to happen, we need to go out and attack every single day like we’re still the underdogs. People still doubt us, so we just have to go out and execute every single game and put our best foot forward, because we have LSU, then Tennessee and whoever we play in the bowl game, so we’re going to have some stiff competition these last three games. We can’t focus on what we’ve already done but continue to just get better.”
Stowers and the Vanderbilt football team are back in action after the bye week when they head to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to take on RV/RV LSU at 6:45 p.m. Fans can watch the game on SEC Network and listen on 94.9 The Fan.
