Buford’s Martreece Dillard Jr. has seen his recruitment explode over the past couple of weeks, and the 6-foot-5 and 263-pound defensive lineman made his first college visit to Vanderbilt yesterday.
“My visit was very exciting especially for it to be my first college visit. The campus and athletic facilities are amazing, and the coaches are great. They talked about their program and how they run things there,” said Dillard.
“It seems to be a very solid and well run program. Coach Black, the defensive line coach, went over his expectations. Mostly, he expects 100% effort. There will be no problem meeting those expectations on my behalf.”
When he came away from the visit, Dillard was most impressed with how Vanderbilt takes care of their student-athletes.
“What stood out is how well structured their program is ran and how they take care of their student athletes on and off the field. They help them physically as an athlete and mentally in the classroom as a student. Vanderbilt, known for their academics, is a fairly difficult school to get into academically,” said Dillard.
“The coaching staff, talked about the tutoring program for athletes. Basically they set us up for success, again, on and off the field. As an added bonus, the nutrition program is pretty legit.”
Vanderbilt is currently renovating its athletic facilities as part of the Vandy United campaign, and Dillard talks about those new facilities.
“They talked about the new facilities. They said they should be done with the facilities somewhere around 2025 or 2026. Like Coach Lea said earlier today, they’re a rising program, and they’re willing to do whatever is necessary to become successful,” said Dillard.
Despite it being his first trip to Vanderbilt, Dillard is familiar with the Music City.
“Nashville is an amazing city, I actually used to live in Nolensville TN. not to far from Nashville, back when I was younger. I was born in Georgia, moved away when I was 6 and just came back not too long ago. We relocated a few times because of my dad’s job,” said Dillard.
In addition to Vanderbilt, Dillard holds offers from Michigan, Auburn, Duke, Florida, Mississippi State, and others. He plans to visit other schools this spring.
