The Vanderbilt Commodores experienced a nightmare season in 2014. The Commodores went 3-9 (0-8 SEC) in Derek Mason’s first season as head coach, which led to the firings of four assistants.

When Mason took over in January, his first task was to salvage a depleted recruiting class. Former head coach James Franklin poached most of the 2014 class he was responsible for prior to accepting the same position at Penn State.

Mason managed to sign 22 players, but ranked No. 46 overall and last in the SEC. Vanderbilt’s upcoming class currently ranks No. 50 overall and No. 13 in the conference. The Commodores have two four-star commits, Donovan Sheffield and Josh Smith, and just seven nationally ranked players.

Mason has less than two months to add commitments to the 2015 class before National Signing Day. With the Commodores out of bowl contention, the coach needs to make recruiting a top priority in order to improve a struggling roster.

Here’s a look at Vanderbilt’s current 2015 recruiting class.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Saturday Down South’s references to recruiting rankings are to 247Sports.com industry composite ranking.

NAT RANK PLAYER H.S. (CITY, STATE) STAR POS HGT WGT
287 Donovan Sheffield Ensworth (Nashville, TN) 4 CB 5’11” 170
291 Josh Smith Oakland (Murfreesboro, TN) 4 ILB 6’3.5” 218
450 Kyle Shurmur La Salle College (Glenside, PA) 3 PRO 6’4” 215
595 Caleb Peart Hamilton (Chandler, AZ) 3 SDE 6’0” 240
771 Dare Odeyingbo Cistercian Prep (Irving, TX) 3 ILB 6’1” 243
786 Sam Dobbs Landmark Christian School (Fairburn, GA) 3 TE 6’4” 220
984 Justin Skule Centreville (Clifton, VA) 3 OT 6’6” 280
N/A Josh Crawford Edgewood Academy (Elmore, AL) 3 RB 5’11” 214
N/A Andrew Rector Father Ryan (Nashville, TN) 3 S 6’1” 190
N/A Ean Pfeifer Bentonville (Bentonville, AR) 3 OT 6’5” 285
N/A Kyle Anderton Station Camp (Gallatin, TN) 3 TE 6’4″ 260
N/A Darion DeBrossard Shiloh (Snellville, GA) 3 OG 6’5” 320
N/A T.J. Smith Colquitt County (Moultrie, GA) 3 SDE 6’3.5″ 250
JUCO 138 Nehemiah Mitchell City College of San Francisco (San Francisco, CA) 3 SDE 6’5” 265