Vanderbilt Lands Former Four-Star Cornerback, Tennessee Transfer Jordan Matthews
The Vanderbilt Commodores have been extremely active in the transfer portal and capped off a huge day on Wednesday with the commitment from former four-star cornerback and Tennessee Volunteers rotational piece Jordan Matthews.
Matthews was a top-20 cornerback in the class of 2023 according to 247Sports Composite Rankings. Ranked as the No. 7 player in the state of Louisiana and the No. 157 player in the nation overall in his class, Matthews initially chose the Volunteers over offers from massive programs such as LSU, Texas, and Michigan.
After redshirting his first season, he appeared in 12 games for Tennessee this year mostly in a reserve role and on special teams.
On the season as a whole, he recorded three tackles and two pass breakups, both coming in the season-opening game against Chattanooga.
The commitment of Matthews comes shortly after the Commodores secured another huge pledge from the portal via Liberty offensive lineman Jordan White.
Ranked as the No. 3 interior offensive lineman in the portal, White was sought after by programs like Michigan, Miami, and South Carolina.
Vanderbilt head coach Clark Lea has been open about the fact that his team is going to be forced to utilize the transfer portal year after year in order to field a competitive roster due to the sheer fact that it's difficult to retain their best players from being poached by bigger name programs.
Though that's an unfortunate reality, the portal has overall been a net positive for the Commodores.
Coming off their most successful regular season since 2018, and first time they secured bowl eligibility since then after years of being the punching bag of the conference, Vanderbilt doesn't match talent with the best teams in the conference, but the ocean-sized gap has certainly been closed in recent years.
Just ask the Alabama Crimson Tide about that.
Currently, the Commodores boast the No. 39-ranked portal class in the country, but it's a figure that still sits 14th in the SEC.
In other words, Lea needs to continue recruiting portal guys to come to Nashville in order to replicate the same magic from 2024 and build upon it further in 2025.
The game has changed at Vanderbilt, and Lea must continue to take full advantage.
