Diego Pavia Takes a Day Off to the Side on a Sloppy Wednesday; Fall Camp Takeaways

Nashville--It hasn't often been quiet around the McGugin Center for Vanderbilt football this summer, but it appears as if the Commodores are grinding through the dog days of fall camp these days with 17 days to go until their season opener against Charleston Southern.

Vanderbilt's day was defined by the group sitting off on the side staying loose while a solid number of backups ran the day ahead of the Commodores' Thursday off day.

Here's some takeaways from Vanderbilt's third practice of the week.

Diego Pavia headlines sidelined players

Instead of running around jawing with Vanderbilt’s defensive players and setting the tone of Vanderbilt’s practice, Pavia was off to the side looking as if he was itching to get out of the corner with Vanderbilt’s other sidelined players.

The Vanderbilt quarterback didn’t take any reps on Wednesday and was subjected to Vanderbilt’s resistance bands, chatting on the side and stretching activities, instead.

It appears as if nothing is significantly wrong with Pavia and that his absence isn’t related to a major injury. The indication is that Pavia’s light Tuesday practice and day off to the side on Wednesday were designed maintenance days.

Pavia would probably like to turn his black Nike Metcon 9’s in for a pair of cleats sooner rather than later, though.

Also sidelined

Jordan Matthews, Eli Stowers, Miles Capers, Glenn Seabrooks, Brycen Coleman, Chase Gillespie, Nikhil Jefferson, Sterling Porcher, Terry Nwabuisi Ezela, Cole Spence, Mark Davis, Yilanan Ouattara, Trent Hudson, AJ Newberry and Devin Lee were all also working on the side.

Nobody previously listed appears to have a serious injury. Their light days appear to be more of a result of the wear and tear that comes with being at this stage of camp.

Martel Hight was absent again on Wednesday while he dealt with a concussion.

Joseph McVay returns to the practice field

McVay has been in that off to the side group throughout nearly the entirety of the fall, but he was back out there in team periods on Wednesday.

The Vanderbilt sophomore flashed with a long touchdown reception against Missouri last fall, but he has some real ground to make up if he’s going to get himself into the lineup consistently in a room that’s been better than expected since the addition of a few transfers.

McVay didn’t help himself on Wednesday as he struggled with ball security in his first rep of the day. The Vanderbilt sophomore did some nice work in team periods otherwise, though.

Linus Zunk is ramping up

Zunk was off to the side every day early in Vanderbilt’s camp, but he appears to be getting closer and closer to being full go from a health perspective.

The Vanderbilt pass rusher had a few nice reps on Wednesday and appears to be on track to have a significant amount of practice reps before Vanderbilt’s opener against Charleston Southern.

It appears as if Drew Dickey is Vanderbilt’s third string quarterback

Dickey hasn’t had his best camp, but he appears to be pretty clearly above Vanderbilt freshman Jack Elliott and sophomores Jeremy St. Hilaire as well as Whit Muschamp.

Perhaps those three aforementioned quarterbacks have more physical tools than Dickey, but Dickey’s experience appears to make the Vanderbilt staff more comfortable as it evaluates the backup battle.

This is Dickey’s fourth fall camp as a member of Vanderbilt’s program while Elliott is still learning the offense and the two sophomores are in their second career camps.

A non-banner practice

It’s to be expected with the number of players sidelined and the stage of camp Vanderbilt is in, but it wasn’t an entirely sharp day of work.

Without Vanderbilt’s starters out there the number of dropped balls, balls left up in dangerous places and the amount of times Vanderbilt’s defense failed to capitalize on them added up.

It’s not as if it was Vanderbilt’s worst day of practice, but it was noticeable when a good portion of its starters weren’t out there.