NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Vanderbilt tight end Eli Stowers has been named to the watch list for the ninth annual Jason Witten Collegiate Man of the Year Award it was announced on Tuesday.
Presented to an individual who has demonstrated a record of leadership by exhibiting exceptional courage, integrity and sportsmanship both on and off the field, the winner of the award will also receive a $10,000 contribution in his name to the school’s athletic scholarship fund made by Jason Witten’s SCORE Foundation.
Stowers is also a semifinalist for the 2025 William V. Campbell Trophy® recognizing an individual as the absolute best football scholar-athlete in the nation for his combined academic success, football performance and exemplary leadership.
On the field, Stowers has recorded 22 catches for 301 yards—both team-leading totals—with two touchdowns this year in helping the Commodores to their first 5-0 start since the 2008 campaign. He has recorded at least three catches in every outing this fall and has posted more than 65 receiving yards on three occasions including each of the last two weeks as Vandy has score 50-plus points in back-to-back contests for the first time since 1915.
He enters October second in the country in total receiving yards among tight ends and is also in the top five nationally at the position in receptions. Stowers needs 61 yards to reach 1,000 in his time at Vanderbilt, while his 1,305 career receiving yards are third among all active tight ends in the nation.
In his first season with the program, he was named third-team All-America by Phil Steele and was an All-SEC selection after finishing with 49 receptions for 638 yards and five touchdowns. Stowers was a semifinalist for the John Mackey Award after posting the second-most receiving yards and touchdown catches by a Commodore tight end since 1996 as his efforts helped Vandy to its first winning campaign and postseason bowl victory since the 2013 campaign.
In the classroom, Stowers earned his undergraduate degree—with a 3.91 cumulative grade-point average—from New Mexico State in 2024, and he has since added a master’s degree in finance from Vanderbilt. Currently enrolled in a master’s of legal studies program, he was named to the First-Year SEC Academic Honor Roll last year.
Stowers has also served as a consistent leader for the program both in the locker room—he was named a team captain prior to the start of the season—and in the community. The Denton, Texas, resident has participated on multiple occasions at events supporting children at the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital as well as the Dancing Dores campaign, has taken part in the university’s Student-Athlete Advisory Council holiday party and visited a veterans’ hospital before the Commodores’ appearance in the Birmingham Bowl last December.
Twenty semifinalists will be selected by a by a subset of the Jason Witten Collegiate Man of the Year selection committee and announced on Oct. 14. Three finalists will then be named for the award on Dec. 15. The winner will be announced at the award ceremony at The Star in Frisco, Texas, on April 16, 2026.
Vanderbilt’s next game is Saturday at Alabama, with the Commodores—now ranked in the top 20 of both the Associated Press and AFCA coaches’ polls—and Crimson Tide kicking off on ABC at 2:30 p.m. at Bryant-Denny Stadium.
