Exclusive: Eli Stowers Reflects on His Faith Through College And How He Wants Fans to Remember Him – Sports Illustrated

In this story:
When Eli Stowers walked onto the campus of Texas A&M in College Station, Texas as a freshman in 2021, he had a dream of being the next quarterback of the Aggies. The former four-star quarterback recruit wanted to be a starting SEC quarterback that would go on to play quarterback in the NFL. But as Stowers would attest to it, God had other plans.
“Thing just were not working out. I dealt with injuries and things just didn’t go the way that I expected them to go,” Stowers said.
After having surgery to repair his injured labrum after his sophomore season, Stowers transferred to New Mexico State where he had hopes to revive his quarterback career. After all, quarterbacks that have success at a Group of Five school could give themselves opportunities to put new plenty of reps on film and transfer back to a power conference program. But again, Stowers’ plans were derailed after complications from his past injuries made it more difficult to play quarterback than before.
That’s when Stowers’ faith journey in Jesus Christ came to a critical point. A point where Stowers knew he needed to rely on Him.
“I think that’s the part God was kind of making me lean on Him. Making me look to Him like ‘God, what’s going on? What do you want me to do?’ And He was like ‘I want you to do something else. I want you to go ask to do something else,’” Stowers recalled in an exclusive interview with Vanderbilt On SI.
That was the moment everything changed. Stowers went to his offensive coordinator Tim Beck, volunteering to do literally anything that would get him on the field. Beck allowed Stowers to play tight end. Little did Stowers know it at the time, but the small nudge from God to ask his coaches at New Mexico State to play a different position would change the course of his career in what could only be described in hindsight as the best possible decision he could have made.
Stowers played tight end for New Mexico State during the 2023 season, where he caught 35 passes for 366 yards and two touchdowns. A year later, he and a few of his New Mexico State teammates, including quarterback Diego Pavia, bought into Vanderbilt head coach Clark Lea’s vision and transferred to Nashville. The offensive coordinator that joined them at Vanderbilt? Tim Beck.
Pavia and Stowers would become one of the most lethal quarterback-tight end duos in college football during the 2024 and 2025 seasons. In 2024, Stowers led Vanderbilt in receptions, receiving yards and touchdowns with 49 catches for 638 yards and five touchdowns. In 2025, his receiving numbers only got better with 62 catches for 769 yards and four touchdowns.
Now, after a successful collegiate career as a tight end, Stowers is preparing for the 2026 NFL Draft. Getting to the point of preparing for the combine and the draft was always in his plans going back to his first day on a college campus, but he never thought at the start he would be training to become a NFL tight end.
“Stuff makes no sense. But that’s how God works, you know,” Stowers said.
Throughout his time in college, Stowers has always been a man of the Christian faith. During his collegiate career, he became more mature and bold in his faith in Jesus Christ. He is not afraid to mention that despite knowing plenty of things about the Bible and Christianity growing up, he struggled with actually spreading his faith and discipling to others. But upon seeing the boldness of some of his teammates at New Mexico State, it inspired Stowers to do the same when he arrived at Vanderbilt.
Making it a priority to be bold about his faith set off a chain reaction that made Stowers read the Bible more and continuously learn about Christianity. Ultimately, if someone is going to be bold about his or her faith and spread it, the person has to be prepared and be able to answer some of life’s biggest questions. As a result, his faith gradually strengthened and developed over time.
Stowers’ football career is just another facet of his life in which God has taught him plenty and only strengthened his faith.
“God kind of works in mysterious ways. He knew exactly what He was doing through my football journey and making me go through those struggles because it just helped me strengthen my faith. Every single year I got stronger in my faith with Him,” Stowers said.
During his time at Vanderbilt, Stowers was always looked to as a spiritual leader among players on the roster. From Clark Lea on down through the players, Stowers was a guy that discipled to his teammates and helped guide them toward God.
Of course, with all journeys that a person goes through, there are always lessons learned and retained along the way. As Stowers has taken time since the conclusion of the 2025 season to reflect on all God has done for him during his collegiate career, he feels humbled.
“It’s honestly one of the most humbling things that God has ever taught me,” Stowers told Vanderbilt On SI. “One of the things that we have to learn as humans and as children of Christ is we can’t do this life on our own. The devil kind of runs rampant around this world and life is designed to kind of bring people down. There are too many things that are too hard in this life to do things on your own. God taught me through football that I have to lean on Him and spend time with Him, fill myself with the Holy Spirit. Just kind of chase after Him and devote everything I do to Him.”
Stowers now moves onto the NFL, where he is more than likely going to get picked by one of 32 NFL franchises at some point during the seven-round event. But despite his departure from college, Stowers leaves a legacy that Vanderbilt fans will remember forever.
However, Stowers does not want fans to remember him by how many touchdowns he scored or how many plays he made. Nor does Stowers want fans to remember him as one of the guys that helped Vanderbilt football achieve its first ever 10-win season. Instead, Stowers wants to be remembered for his faith and impact God made through him.
“I really hope that the one thing they remember about me is Christ saved me and I hope I was able to be a light for Him,” Stowers said. “I hope that I’m not really just remembered as a football player or someone who was on a big stage at the school. I really hope I was able to impact lives in terms of teaching or telling people about Christ. And hopefully, someone’s heart was affected by that.”
Graham Baakko is a writer for Vanderbilt Commodores On SI, primarily covering football, basketball and baseball. Graham is a recent graduate from the University of Alabama, where he wrote for The Crimson White, WVUA-FM, WVUA 23 as he covered a variety of Crimson Tide sports. He also covered South Carolina athletics as a sportswriting intern for GamecockCentral.
© 2026 ABG-SI LLC – SPORTS ILLUSTRATED IS A REGISTERED TRADEMARK OF ABG-SI LLC. – All Rights Reserved. The content on this site is for entertainment and educational purposes only. Betting and gambling content is intended for individuals 21+ and is based on individual commentators' opinions and not that of Sports Illustrated or its affiliates, licensees and related brands. All picks and predictions are suggestions only and not a guarantee of success or profit. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, crisis counseling and referral services can be accessed by calling 1-800-GAMBLER.

source