Vanderbilt lands defensive line veteran through transfer portal
Clark Lea and the Vanderbilt football staff picked up a veteran prospect to fill out its defensive line this season, bringing in Cal Poly transfer Myles Cecil.
Listed at 6-foot-3, 385 pounds, the native of Panorama City, California will bring experience to Vanderbilt, albeit at the FCS level. After redshirting the 2017 season, Cecil contributed at Cal Poly in 2018, 2019, 2020 (Spring 2021 season due to COVID-19) and 2021, so he comes to Vanderbilt with already five seasons of college football under his belt. Cecil started for four seasons at Cal Poly, first getting the nod in 2018 as a redshirt freshman.
In 2018, Cecil started seven of the 11 games in which he appeared during his first season with the program. He notched 39 total tackles (20 solo stops) and four tackles for loss, while also forcing and recovering a fumble on the year. He returned as a starting defensive tackle in 2019, and he once again made an impact on the Cal Poly defense, starting all 11 games and tallying 35 total tackles (16 solo stops), two tackles for loss and 1.5 sacks.
The 2020 FCS season, which was moved to the Spring of 2021 due to COVID-19, saw Cecil play in just three games because of the abbreviated FCS schedule. But in 2021, his final season with the program, Cecil had his best year to date. He finished the season with 43 total tackles (31 solo stops), 6.5 tackles for loss, two sacks and one interception.
Cecil took to Instagram to share his commitment on Thursday at 5:30 p.m. ET, with a caption pointing out the leap he’s taking from FCS football to the SEC.
While Cecil may have ended up playing FCS football for his first five seasons, he still received plenty of interest coming out of La Salle High School in 2017. At the time, Cecil was a three-star recruit, according to the On3 Consensus, a complete and equally weighted industry-generated average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies.