Aug. 17, 2016
By Zac Ellis
VUCommodores.com
On campus in Nashville — National Signing Day was anything but ordinary for Bailey McElwain.
On Feb. 3, in a press conference at McElwain’s high school in Trussville, Ala., the three-star fullback recruit sported a cardinal tie, one dotted with tiny Stanford logos. It was a conspicuous nod to the school to which he’d committed the previous June, and those in attendance at Hewitt-Trussville High all but assumed McElwain was bound for Palo Alto. The only variable, of course, was his signature.
Instead, McElwain called an audible: He announced he would delay his enrollment at Stanford until the fall of 2017. In the interim, McElwain planned to attend prep school, and he later tweeted on Signing Day that his gap year would allow him to “grow and challenge” himself. But McElwain remained committed to a future at Stanford, reaffirming his pledge from months earlier.
Six months later, McElwain’s Cardinal tie is long gone. Now he sports black and gold as a Vanderbilt Commodore, living proof that things don’t always go according to plan.
But is McElwain complaining? Not a chance.
“I had to do a lot of thinking and praying,” McElwain says, “but I ended up in the right spot.”
On National Signing Day McElwain didn’t divulge that Stanford had previously asked him to delay joining the team until the fall of 2017. But McElwain never signed a National Letter of Intent, so he became the college football equivalent of a free agent following Signing Day. Soon programs like Alabama, Ole Miss and Michigan State began to show renewed interest in his services. Vanderbilt also jumped into the fray, and in mid-February Derek Mason lured McElwain on an official visit to Nashville, which is just a three-hour drive from his hometown of Trussville.
Soon the Commodores offered McElwain a scholarship. Suddenly an SEC school – one closer to McElwain’s home in Alabama – wanted him to play immediately. Once dead-set on a future on the West Coast, McElwain took the summer to weigh his new option. Then in July, he officially flipped his commitment to Vanderbilt.
“He originally wanted to go to Stanford,” Mason says. “I don’t think it had anything to with the staff or the school. I think it had to do with proximity and being able to have his family come watch him play. In the end, I think the Vanderbilt degree and the opportunity to play in the SEC – and play early – were all things he couldn’t have gotten without going across the country.”
McElwain arrived at Vanderbilt on Aug. 2, much later than most college freshmen. He was so late that his bio wasn’t even printed in the Commodores’ official preseason media guide. He came to campus as “The Last Recruit,” an outsider hoping to work his way into a signing class that had already jelled. But McElwain’s uneasiness didn’t last long.
“It was kind of – not scary, but I was anxious coming in, not knowing what to expect,” McElwain says. “Now they’ve embraced me like a family.”
Now McElwain, who played fullback and linebacker in high school, stands to see the field a full year earlier than he expected. Mason sold McElwain on becoming the Commodores’ only true fullback on their roster. That adds an element to Vanderbilt’s backfield, which already features the likes of Ralph Webb, Josh Crawford, Dallas Rivers and converted linebacker Khari Blasingame.
That role has proven productive for the 6’1”, 238-pound freshman during preseason practice. With only two weeks left until Vanderbilt’s opener against South Carolina on Sept. 1, Mason offered a message to Commodore fans: Get used to hearing McElwain’s name. “He’s going to play this year,” Mason says.
Six months ago, major college football wasn’t in the cards for McElwain in 2016. But when Vanderbilt came calling, everything changed. Now the newest Commodore – “The Last Recruit” in Nashville – couldn’t be happier with his new home.
“I feel like I’m on track,” McElwain says, “with these guys here.”
