Two-way players are rare in college football, but one year after Travis Hunter won the Heisman Trophy in his wildly productive final season at Colorado, another potential standout could emerge in 2025 as a contributor on both offense and defense. At Vanderbilt, defensive back Martel Hight is poised to expand his game this fall and line up at wide receiver in addition to his duties in the Commodores’ secondary.
To prepare Hight for the challenge of taking reps on offense and to learn how to properly deploy a player with such an expansive skill set, Vanderbilt conferred with the coach who just produced the most dynamic player in the country. Commodores coach Clark Lea said his staff took pointers from Colorado’s Deion Sanders, who not only oversaw Hunter’s climb to stardom but also shined as a two-way player himself at the college and NFL levels.
“Coach Kill has had conversations with Coach Prime at Colorado to talk about what their approach was,” Lea told CBS Sports’ Richard Johnson on Monday at SEC Media Days. “We’ve spent time on it as a staff, too, just talking about ‘Hey, what does this look like for us?’ What’s most important to me is we have a guy that has the ability to tip the field — where is he going to make the biggest impact for us?”
Hight’s workload will shift on a week-to-week basis, Lea said, depending on where he can make the biggest impact. Vanderbilt plans to use him in a 50-50 split between offense and defense, but he could see a more lopsided split if matchups and performance dictate a need to emphasize one side of the ball.
“What is the amount of time that we use for him on offense, on defense? Those are important questions for us to answer,” Lea said. “We don’t want to run him into the ground, but we need him to impact winning, and he can do it in all three phases, so we’re going to position him to do that.”
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This season will be Hight’s first as an offensive weapon. He has been a defensive mainstay for Vanderbilt in his first two years in Nashville with 71 tackles and three interceptions across 24 career games. But he has yet to log an offensive statistic. Hight took on a special teams role last year, though, expanding his game as Vanderbilt’s primary punt returner. He took 18 returns for an SEC-best 14.7 yards per attempt and ran one back for a touchdown.
“He’s an established playmaker in the league,” Lea said. “What he did with the ball in his hand last year as a returner helped us win. It made a difference for us. He’s got the speed and the skills. Playing receiver, though, is about more than just running routes and getting open. So there are finer technical points. We’ve taken the summer to really let him dedicate himself to that side of the ball, to learn the concepts, to build the rhythm and chemistry with our quarterbacks. It’s been fun to see him grow and develop.”
The broader role will mark a return to two-way production for a player who shined in high school in the defensive backfield and at wide receiver. Hight played both safety and cornerback and was a starter on offense for Rome (Ga.) as a three-star prospect. He signed with Vanderbilt in 2023 as the No. 49 cornerback in the class.
The Commodores are coming off a 7-6 season that culminated in a win over Georgia Tech in the Birmingham Bowl. That victory marked Vanderbilt’s first bowl victory and winning record since 2013, James Franklin’s final season as coach before leaving for Penn State.
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