The Commodores added a California native to their 2027 class late Monday night.
Vanderbilt football has been busy on the recruiting trail for next year’s class. Monday night, its 2027 class grew by another spot.from Rivals’ Greg Biggins, three-star quarterback Matthew Smith has committed to play collegiately at Vanderbilt.
The 6-foot-1, 190-pound quarterback attends Santa Margarita Catholic School in Rancho Santa Margarita, California. He is the second California native in the Commodores’ 2027 class to commit to Vanderbilt. The other California native is three-star safety commit Dillon Davis from Bellflower, California. On Rivals’ recruitment rankings, Smith is ranked as the No. 1,745 player in the 2027 class, the No. 122 quarterback and the No. 181 player in his class from the state of California.
In 247Sports’ rankings, Smith is not rated. Smith committed to Vanderbilt over Princeton, Utah, San Jose State and Idaho. His commitment as a quarterback to Vanderbilt comes at an interesting time for the program. The Commodores just left the Diego Pavia era, where he led Vanderbilt to a 17-9 record over the past two seasons.
But Pavia’s exit ushered in what could be a time where Vanderbilt is led by five-star quarterback Jared Curtis. Curtis flipped his commitment from Georgia to Vanderbilt in December and is in the middle of a quarterback competition ahead of the 2026 season. In his film, one of the skills Smith shows is his arm strength. Smith shows no issues throwing the ball accurately 40 or more yards down the field.
It is a trait that quarterbacks need to have in today’s game and he has it. Another thing his film shows is brief dropbacks that lead to throws into tight throwing windows. During his junior season as Santa Margarita Catholic, Smith had various examples of dropbacks that were just two or three steps followed by a quick throw to a receiver over the middle of the field.
In some plays, Smith does put an ability to spin out of the pocket and throw on the run on tape as well. He is not just a pocket passer on film, though. Smith also can escape the pocket, take off and run. Whether it be designed quarterback runs or improvising, Smith has shown that he can do a little bit of both.
What will be interesting to see is how Smith’s abilities translate to not just the FBS level, but the SEC level. Smith is the 13th commit in Vanderbilt’s 2027 class and he is the first quarterback in the Commodores’ class. 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.
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