Vanderbilt’s tight end room is in the middle of a reset, and the challenge is obvious: replacing Eli Stowers.
Stowers, the All-SEC tight end and now NFL tight end, leaves behind one of the biggest holes on the roster. For Vanderbilt, that makes the position one of the offseason’s central questions, right alongside quarterback.
The Commodores do have Cole Spence back, and he’s positioned for a season with more chances in the passing game. They also added Jayvontay Conner from East Carolina, Walter Taylor from Ball State for his second stint in Nashville, and Maurice Veney from Morehouse College.
That kind of turnover brings the usual growing pains. Tight ends coach Brendan Flaherty said the adjustment has shown up in the details, from working with the offensive line to sorting out pressures and combos.
“The system and the communication, whether that be being on the same page with the offensive line, whether it be communicating pressures, combos, different things of that nature, communicating to each other, you know so there were growing pains that way,” Flaherty told Vandy On SI.
The learning curve has carried into the passing game too, where route communication and defensive reads take time to settle in. Flaherty has seen mistakes, but he’s also seen the group respond and improve, which has given the staff reason to feel good about where things are headed.
What Vanderbilt is not trying to do is find a single player who simply becomes the next Eli Stowers. That bar, especially after Stowers won the 2025 John Mackey Award, would be too high for any one tight end to clear. Instead, the plan is to spread the job around and let the room’s different skill sets cover more ground together.
“Moving forward this year, just with the balance of talent and skill sets that we have, the plan is for Cole to still kind of be the leader in the run game, but take an expanded role in the pass game. JC [Jayvontay Conner] and Walt they’re kind of right now the main rep getters at that H spot, and they're both going to be able to do a little bit more run game stuff, just kind of body type wise, compared to what we asked Eli to do,” Flaherty said.
“Mo [Veney] missed most of spring, but it’s starting to start to click for him. He’s gonna be a guy who should be very, very good in the run game with his background and what he's been, but also should be able to be a little bit more of a pass threat.”
The numbers from last season show just how much Stowers shaped the offense. Vanderbilt had a passing tendency of 72% when he was in the game and an 83% run tendency when he was not, according to the program’s analytics Flaherty shared with Vandy On SI.
That gap underscores the task ahead, but Flaherty said the new group is moving in the right direction. Spence remains the steady presence in the room, while the newcomers keep learning the system and each other.
“They’ve all worked hard and evolved. It’s been fun to see,” Flaherty told Vandy On SI.
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One Vanderbilt Defender Could Decide If Clark Lea's Rise Continues
Vanderbilt enters this season with real momentum after a program-best 10-3 finish, but the next step under Clark Lea will depend on how well the Commodores handle the turnover that comes with success. Diego Pavia and Eli Stowers are gone, yet the roster still brings back a rare amount of experience, especially on a defense that should again be the backbone of the team.
One player who could shape how far that rise continues is Ouattara, a physically gifted defender whose upside has been a talking point around the program. Vanderbilt expects him to take on a bigger role this fall, and if he makes the leap the staff believes is there, it would give Lea another difference-maker on a unit already positioned to carry a lot of the load. [Read more 🡒]