Can Diego Pavia Win The Heisman? Why Vanderbilt Says Yes

NASHVILLE—Diego Pavia crossed the white line, hop stepped over to his right and made a mad dash towards the ABC cameraman wearing red. The Vanderbilt quarterback had a message for everyone paying attention and knew he had found the man to platform him to share it.

Pavia eventually found himself in front of the camera and stuck a heisman pose as if to declare that he was officially in the mix for college football’s most prestigious award.

The Vanderbilt quarterback’s numbers would indicate that the possibility is a long shot at this stage, but Pavia wants his name in the mix. The Vanderbilt quarterback is up to 1,569 passing yards with 15 touchdowns and four interceptions. He’s got 438 yards on the ground as well as four rushing touchdowns.

Vanderbilt says don’t count him out, though.

“I didn’t see the pose, but I think he’s the best player in college football,” Vanderbilt coach Clark Lea said. “You can’t watch him play and not realize what a game changer he is. There are a lot of good players, there’s only a handful to me that can take a game over and he’s one of those. He deserves all the attention.”

Pavia’s Saturday statline of 160 passing yards on 14-for-22 passing as well as his 86 rushing yards on 5.1 yards per attempt isn’t all that stunning, but it doesn’t indicate the fashion in which he propelled Vanderbilt to a 31-24 win over No. 10 LSU.

Vanderbilt scored on five of its nine drives on Saturday with one of them–which was likely to be a scoring drive–coming to an end as a result of the conclusion of the game. Pavia didn’t turn it over, made all the easy plays and stood out on a few of them.

The best of which came on a fourth and one in which he appeared to be all but sacked by LSU linebacker Jack Pyburn, weasled his way out of trouble and found running back MK Young for a long gain down the sideline. Through the valley of the shadow of death and a potential momentum swing, Pavia escaped on a play that Lea says only his quarterback can make. It was magic.

Who knows if Pavia has enough magic in him to become the first player in Vanderbilt program history to win the Heisman Trophy, but he wants to be evaluated in that lens. He’s never backed down from that.

“I like putting that pressure on myself, It builds diamonds,” Pavia told Vandy on SI over the summer. “I feel that way, that sometimes I talk the talk, but I also will walk the walk.”

Pavia’s odds to win the award have gone up to +2000 from the +4000 mark they sat at prior to the season. The Vanderbilt quarterback still sits behind Alabama quarterback Ty Simpson, Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza, Ohio State quarterback and receiver Julian Sayin and Jeremiah Smith, Texas A&M quarterback Marcel Reed and Notre Dame quarterback CJ Carr, but his teammates warn not to count him out of the race yet.

They’ve been around him every day and–while they’re biased–they’re all in on their stances.

“Most definitely,” Vanderbilt defensive end Khordae Sydnor said when asked whether he believes Pavia should have a shot at the award. “He’s a dog. He’s the heartbeat of this team. We all listen to him, follow him and he loves us. We all just feed off him, we take his energy. He’s a great player, he’s a good dude. I think he deserves it all.”

Pavia wasn’t available to the media after Saturday’s game to make his case for the award, but his answer to the Heisman question–while not quotable yet–is nearly as predictable as Vanderbilt’s uniform colors each week. The Vanderbilt quarterback believes in himself relentlessly, nearly to a fault. He’s not backing down from any conversation involving his name.

Say what you will about his divisive confidence, say what you will about his size and armstrength. Don’t tell Vanderbilt he doesn’t have a chance, though. Don’t tell them his pose was inaccurate.

“His confidence is our confidence,” Lea said. “He believes in manifesting so he gets sound bites, but at the end of the day he doesn’t say anything that we don’t all believe and we don’t all act on every single day. We celebrate him.”