Vanderbilt Competing With Two Power 4 Schools for Local Wide Receiver Recruit
After a successful season that helped them bring in a solid transfer class, Vanderbilt is turning their focus to recruiting in the 2026 cycle.
It's something Clark Lea and his staff know they need to improve this time around after putting the 2025 class on the back burner in favor of adding established players through the portal.
So far, the Commodores only have one 2026 commit.
If they're really going to take the next step as a program, they have to start winning recruiting battles for some of the top targets on their board who should be coming to play in Nashville.
One of the first ones that has developed is for three-star wide receiver Owen Cabell.
The 6-foot-3, 195-pound pass catcher from Christ Presbyterian Academy in Nashville told Justin Angel of 247Sports that Vanderbilt, Illinois and Wisconsin are the three schools going after him the hardest right now, but he also has offers from Georgia and Tennessee.
Ranked as the 91st-best player at his position by 247Sports Composite, these are the types of players Lea and his staff have to land, especially since he's local to the area and plays for a high school that has produced Commodores in the past, some of whom are currently on the roster.
If they blow Cabell away, it's hard to imagine they won't win this one.
Vanderbilt will get an early opportunity to stand out by hosting him in the spring.
"I will be visiting Vanderbilt for spring practice or sooner coming up. I like the program they are building and the trend forward that they are showing. Not to mention, I like the closeness to home. I also like the opportunity to play in the SEC. It would be a lifelong dream come true, just being from the South and growing up around (SEC football) my whole life," he said to Angel.
Based on those comments, the Commodores should be the front-runners.
Whether they do enough to get this one closed will be seen.
