Vanderbilt steals WR Jacobi Pasley from West Virginia
TLDR: Vanderbilt flipped 3-star 2027 wide receiver Jacobi Pasley out of West Virginia's class on Thursday, ending a commitment to the Mountaineers that had held since May 1.
The news broke on the Vandy side first, and nobody was hiding how happy they were about it.
Pasley plays at Bradwell Institute in Hinesville, Georgia, and the first thing to know about him is that he is fast. Not just fast for a football player, either. He won state titles in the 100, the 200 and the 400 meters, which reportedly made him the first athlete to sweep all 3 at the Georgia state championships. When he committed to West Virginia in the spring he was clocked at 4.40 in the 40 and 10.44 seconds in the 100.
On the field his junior year he caught 25 passes for 430 yards and 6 touchdowns, which works out to 17.2 yards a catch, and he played receiver, defensive back and kick returner. That is the kind of kid you put in space and let go.
This one has been coming for a while if you were paying attention. Vanderbilt offered Pasley on April 5, before he ever picked West Virginia, and he still took a visit to Nashville the weekend of June 5 after he had committed to the Mountaineers. The Commodores kept the relationship going all fall, and Georgia and Florida were sniffing around too. Vandy is the one that closed.
For Clark Lea it's a nice little win. Pasley is the 3rd wide receiver commit in Vanderbilt's 2027 class after Jeremiah Douglas and Davion Crumitie, and the class now sits at 21 commits, 4 of them from Georgia. Vanderbilt going into Georgia and taking a state-champion sprinter from a Big 12 school is not something people would have bet on a few years ago.
For West Virginia it stings. Pasley had been one of the most explosive pieces of the Mountaineers' 2027 class, and they lost him after holding him for more than 6 months. The thing to watch now is whether the flip holds until he actually signs, because a kid who kept taking visits after committing once can keep listening.
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