Carson Lawrence has shut his recruitment down.

The four-star safety from Chattanooga (Tenn.) McCallie School put a pin in his recruitment officially on Wednesday. Lawrence had been leaning in that direction for weeks and after returning to Vanderbilt again over the weekend, the No. 29-ranked SAF in the country elected now was the time to make it official.

"It was a football decision at the end of the day," Lawrence told Rivals. "Vanderbilt is close to home. It's the opportunity to play in the SEC, and that's major for me. There were a lot of schools that wanted to flip me -- outside the SEC or in the SEC -- but they weren't close enough to home and didn't have the academic strength that Vanderbilt does."

"Vandy was the perfect spot for me," he added.

Ole Miss, Virginia Tech, West Virginia and Florida were all attempting to move the 6-foot-2, 185-pound SAF off his commitment to the Commodores.

The strength of Lawrence's pledge was at a high point in the week leading up to Vanderbilt's win over Alabama. He was on campus in Nashville for that game and again last weekend for the Ball State game.

"That was it," the four-star safety affirmed.

"It's big time because last year I was committed when they didn't have a great season," Lawrence explained. "To see all of the work that they put in this off-season, to see it pay off and to be having this position season -- that's big time."