Alabama Defense Zeroed In on 'Exceptional Football Player' Diego Pavia

TUSCALOOSA, Ala.— When Vanderbilt shocked the college football world in Nashville last season and defeated Alabama for the first time since 1984, Commodores signal caller Diego Pavia was one of the players at the center of it all.

He threw for 252 yards and two scores in the 40-35 win, adding 56 rushing yards during a contest in which Vanderbilt severely challenged the then-No. 1 Crimson Tide on the perimeter. Slaying a prominent SEC program was nothing new for Pavia, who helped lead New Mexico State's takedown of Auburn inside Jordan-Hare Stadium in November of 2023.

"Diego Pavia is an exceptional football player. I think he has gone from being a really good playmaker to an elite quarterback," Crimson Tide defensive coordinator Kane Wommack said on Monday. "Until you turn on the tape, you don’t realize how much improvement you have seen from him from last year to this year."

This season, Vanderbilt is 5-0 (1-0 SEC), ranked No. 16 in the AP Poll and has a quarterback who's become a household name for his confident attitude as much as for his play on the field. Pavia has 1,211 passing yards and 294 rushing yards, with 15 all-purpose touchdowns.

"The work their coaching staff has put in, to make him an elite quarterback relevant to the SEC stage is impressive," Wommack said. "They've created 53 explosive plays on offense through five games, which is exceptional. He's also their leading rusher."

"They are a very different offense from what they were a year ago because of the things Diego is doing in the passing game in particular. It’s impressive how much he has improved as an overall quarterback."

The No. 10 Crimson Tide (3-1, 1-0 SEC) gets it chance for revenge in Tuscaloosa on Saturday (2:30 p.m. CT, ABC). Much hype and fanfare has followed Pavia in the near-full year since he and his team toppled No. 1. That will include a visit from "College GameDay" and a likely sellout crowd.

Alabama's defense, down multiple starters due to injury and suspension (defensive lineman James Smith will miss the first half due to his targeting ejection in the Georgia game), is tasked with doing what it couldn't last fall: solving the puzzle of Pavia.

"Pavia's definitely a playmaker," linebacker and team captain Deontae Lawson said Tuesday. "We gotta make sure we leverage across the field. We gotta create a fence across the field. [If] everyone's gap-sound, we can limit him and limit their explosive plays."

Lawson's assessment is accurate. However, it also would have been accurate on Oct. 5, 2024, when the unit did not do those things and Pavia and his friends ran wild. The Commodores finished two rushing yards shy of doubling up the Crimson Tide's total for the game (166 to 84).

"We know how capable Vanderbilt is," Bandit LT Overton said on Tuesday. "They're a good-ass SEC team. It's gonna be a good game regardless... Any smaller quarterbacks are able to be more agile, especially towards bigger guys."

Wommack, Lawson and Overton are no strangers to Pavia's skills. Alabama's defensive group has talented newcomers, but those two players are not among them. Both were on the field for one of the biggest college football upsets in recent memory.

It would be surprising if, after all of the build that will on Saturday culminate in one of the most anticipated meetings between Alabama and Vanderbilt ever, Pavia himself were short on his trademark confidence. Pavia was likely one of the only people in the vast football world not taken by surprise when the Commodores won last year, and he thinks history will repeat itself.

"I just focus on us, but I know we’ve got to bring it. That’s for sure,” the All-SEC quarterback told On3's Chris Low. "But we just gotta play within the white lines. If we do that... it won't be close."

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