How Did Diego Pavia Grade Out Against Missouri? Grades, Snap Count Observations

NASHVILLE—Diego Pavia stepped up to the podium with his silver chain and a hat advertising his Heisman Trophy campaign. As it stands, the Vanderbilt quarterback doesn’t appear to believe that he’s out of the race. He shouldn’t, either.

Pavia has the fifth-highest odds in the country of winning the Heisman. Those odds will likely lower if he does what he does on Saturday consistently, though. The Vanderbilt quarterback threw for just 129 yards and threw an interception deep in his own territory. Pro Football Focus appeared to believe that Pavia is capable of more.

The grading service says that Pavia had his third-worst outing of the season in Vanderbilt’s Saturday win over Missouri. The only ones in which he received a lower grade were the Alabama and South Carolina games.

Pavia received a 53.7 overall grade on Saturday, a 49.0 passing grade, 66.3 running grade and a 60.0 blocking grade–yes, really. The Vanderbilt quarterback still hasn’t backed down from the belief he has in himself, though.

“Do you believe you should win the Heisman?” Pavia was asked postgame.

“Hell yeah,” Pavia said, “I believe it.”

MK Young’s infrequent, but impactful performance

Young played just 11 snaps and received four carries on Saturday, but was Vanderbilt’s highest-graded offensive player on Saturday. Young’s 80-yard touchdown run that gave Vanderbilt a 10-3 lead was perhaps the most impactful offensive play of the game.

The Vanderbilt running back received a 78.0 grade.

“I’m so proud of him,” Vanderbilt coach Clark Lea said. “To see him have these moments and with the year he was out and him having to do the dirty work to get himself back, what a great story. It couldn’t happen to a better person.”

Offensive line struggles

Three of Vanderbilt’s five starting offensive linemen were among its three worst-graded offensive players on Saturday.

Bryce Henderson was Vanderbilt’s worst-graded offensive player with a 34.3, Isaia Glass received a 47.6 and Jordan White received a 53.4.

Junior Sherrill and Pavia were also within Vanderbilt’s bottom five.

Separation on cornerback reps

Vanderbilt is hardly a two-cornerback team these days, but it played Kolbey Taylor 60 snaps on Saturday as well as Martel Hight–who didn’t record an offensive snap–51.

Mark Davis played 31 snaps and was Vanderbilt’s third-highest graded defensive player. Jordan Matthews played 22 snaps while Jaylin Lackey played 20.

That appears to be the pecking order here.

A stark snap count difference

Vanderbilt’s offense ran 49 plays while Missouri’s offense forced Vanderbilt to be on the field for 83.

Overall performance

PFF grade Vanderbilt a 70.5 as a whole on Saturday afternoon. The grade accounted for the Commodores’ third-highest grade of the season. Its worst was its loss to Alabama.

The lowest-graded area for this Vanderbilt team was its pass blocking–where it graded out at a 33.3. It was the second-worst outing in that area this season, per PFF.

The idea that Vanderbilt played that poorly and still won says something.