When veteran coach Bobby Johnson was named the head coach at Vanderbilt a little more than five years ago, one of the things Johnson emphasized was not only better scholarship recruiting and development, but the South Carolina native also emphasized building a solid walk-on program.

With the 85 scholarship limit at the Division 1-A level, it has become important for programs in conferences like the SEC to not only recruit impact players but also build depth and make the practice or "scout" team be as strong as it can possibly be. With as many as three or four players being rotated and used for both starting and reserves during a season, a walk-on athlete has become just as important as a redshirted freshman player or lower tier reserve.

So, the Vanderbilt staff, like others across the nation, have made it a priority to recruit possible walk-on candidates throughout the recruiting process and invite a number of talented high school seniors as a perferred walk-on to the Commodore program.

The last few years, Vanderbilt has added some quality players through the walk-on program including contributors like Clark Lea, Jason Bourque, Abtim Iranamesh and most recently Adrian Reif.

Others like current Commodore receiver Chris Reinert, safety Roger Herndon, offensive lineman Nick Forte, tight end Matt Bubis, and linebacker Michael Garcia, all walked on to the program after being recruited athletes and some had even garnered Division 1-A offers at one time or another during their high school senior years.

This spring, the Commodore staff has again added some quality preferred walk-ons in North Carolina all-state defensive lineman Bo Cramer and record breaking Alabama all-state linebacker Davis Flowers.

And you can add Brentwood (Tenn.)'s Garrett Snoeyenbos of Class 5A powerhouse Ravenwood to the fold.

"The Vanderbilt coaches invited me to walk-on," Snoeyenbos told VandySports.com on Wednesday. "I had been talking with Coach [Ted] Cain for the whole of my football season, so after the season finished he offered me a position on the team.

"I chose Vanderbilt because I liked the coaching staff better than the other schools that I was looking at, and I practically jumped at the opportunity to play football in the SEC."

The 6-foot-5, 265-pound Snoeyenbos was a recruited athlete during the 2007 evaluation period and had the attention of several schools early on. A three-year starter for the Raptors program, Snoeyenbos was a part two back-to-back state title game teams and was a key contributor to the program's historic first state championship in 2005.

A solid student with a 4.3 GPA and a 32 score on his ACT, Snoeyenbos attracted some of the top institutions in the country and was actively recruited by the Ivy Leagues including Ivy power, Harvard.

"The other schools that I was looking at were Harvard, Brown, Bucknell, Columbia, and Tennessee, but not for football, just to attend in general," says Snoeyenbos.

"I knew that I wanted to go to Vanderbilt after I had finished my visits to Brown and Bucknell, I didn't quite like the coaching staffs there as I did at Vanderbilt."

Snoeyenbos visited the program on a couple of occasions during the season and made his decision to attend Vanderbilt in mid-February.

As a senior, Snoeyenbos was named first team all-midstate by the Tennessean and was also a all-region selection in the competitive Region 6-5A.

Snoeyenbos will be the first Ravenwood Raptor to enter the Vanderbilt football program. In the past few years, the coaching staff has recruited other notable standouts like T.C. Jennings and Daniel Becker but Snoeyenbos will become the first from the new Brentwood area high school.

He will be the sixth in-state newcomer in the fall joining 2007 signees James Williams, John Stokes, Chris Marve, Jamie Graham, and Theron Kadri.