Inside Diego Pavia's Standout Performance Against Tennessee, Heisman Pitch
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KNOXVILLE, TENN—Diego Pavia glided through the end zone, bypassed the back pylon and delivered a moment that will live forever in Vanderbilt football history.
The 24-yard touchdown run that Pavia had just completed to put Vanderbilt in the driver’s seat of Vanderbilt’s Saturday matchup with Tennessee was a moment in itself, but the ones that followed it will be replayed for the remainder of this program’s history. Pavia stepped beyond the back end of the Neyland Stadium end zone, made it rain as if he had a wad of cash in his hand, subsequently gathered his teammates and hit the Heisman Trophy pose. The Vanderbilt star who loves the spotlight had directed it towards him.
“I thought that was the game sealer,” Pavia said postgame from the media room. “Up front they kept saying run the f***** ball. Then it was like ‘alright’ and I started making checks.”
Pavia has never been one to avoid popping up after a run and pulling something out of his rolodex of celebrations as if to indicate the significance of what he had just pulled off. The gestures are a microcosm of the spunky personality that’s gotten the Vanderbilt quarterback to this stage of the Heisman race. Earlier in the afternoon, Pavia ended a 15-yard run by popping up, pretending to put a basketball between his legs and shooting it.
This celebration wasn’t just a celebration, though. This was Pavia sticking it to everyone that didn’t believe he could do this. This was the Vanderbilt quarterback fulfilling what could be viewed as his Heisman moment if all goes according to plan when this is all said and done.
“He’s got that unique ability to take a game over,” Lea said. “As the best player in the country, he also strengthens the performance of everyone on this football team. Some of that is not statistical. I’m not sure where he’s gonna net out statistically with all the guys that are up for the award, but I can’t imagine that there are many of them that have as impressive of a resume as he has. He’s done it in the hardest conference in the country.”
The case for Pavia to make a trip to New York based on Lea’s criteria isn’t all that difficult to envision after his Saturday-night performance. Lea has made it plenty of times by laying out Pavia’s impact on each game and the way he’s changed this program in a way that other candidates haven’t changed theirs. Pavia has done enough over the final stretch of the regular season to make a simpler argument.
Vanderbilt’s quarterback took a second to glance at the box score prior to his engagements with the media and doesn’t appear to be worried about persuading anyone that he makes a bigger impact than the sheet of paper he glanced at shows.
“I just hope everyone looks at the stats,” Pavia said of his Heisman Trophy case. “I think the numbers speak for themselves and obviously the best player in the country goes off the numbers and tape. If you go look at that I feel the same way. That’s not me being cocky or arrogant, that’s just point blank.”
If Pavia were to argue that his impact is greater than what his season numbers would indicate after his best three-game statistical stretch of the season, he would have a night like Saturday–in which he continually pulled this Vanderbilt team ahead in a game that was reminiscent of a shootout in the first half–to point out.
Prior to Pavia’s arrival, this program didn’t have a chance at knocking off a ranked Tennessee team at its place. He always manifested a night like this, though. He delivered after declaring that he would, too.
“Vanderbilt is going to run Tennessee after this year,” Pavia said this summer on the Bussin’ With The Boys Podcast. “This is gonna be the new staple of college football. It’s going to happen here at Vanderbilt. “Everyone wants to come to Tennessee (the state) because of Nashville. So they want to come to Nashville, so Vanderbilt. And then when we have the most money in NIL, why not come here? We literally just have to win this year and throughout the rest of the year, it’ll take care of itself.”
The move thrust Pavia into the spotlight for the first time this summer and delivered him more backlash–some internally–than he’d faced at any point of his college career. Pavia has always believed that “pressure builds diamonds” and that talking himself up would motivate him to deliver, though.
Saturday he did.
The Vanderbilt quarterback finished Vanderbilt’s 45-24 win over Tennessee by completing 18 of his 28 throwing attempts for 268 passing yards, throwing for a touchdown, running for one and running for 165 yards on 8.3 yards per carry. It was the performance that Pavia has envisioned he would put together on this day for as long as he can remember. It was the type of performance that made him look like a visionary.
“A lot of people thought I was a fool, and just speaking about whatever,” Pavia said in regard to his summer comments. “Obviously, if the score was different and we were on the opposite side — I would be getting a lot of hate right now. So, it’s two-sided, it’s how you see it. I’m just glad that our team was able to win today.”
Pavia isn’t unfamiliar with the heat that comes with not fulfilling the declarations he makes publicly after his two-interception performance against Alabama in Tuscaloosa resulted in a Vanderbilt loss that undermined his comments about Vanderbilt’s ability to win the game if it had its best.
The Vanderbilt quarterback appeared to be heading towards a similar place as he threw an interception–and three points away–as Vanderbilt was just outside of the red zone in the first quarter of Saturday’s game. Pavia followed it up with an interception down the sideline that made it feel as if Saturday may not be Vanderbilt’s night. The Vanderbilt quarterback had been battling an illness that caused him to lose sleep the two nights prior to the game and didn’t look like himself.
Then, he got his wake up call as he was knocked down after an incomplete third-down throw and was eventually awarded a roughing the passer call. Pavia followed it up by finding Vanderbilt receiver Tre Richardson in the end zone for a touchdown. He finally looked like himself again.
“To talk about the momentum shift, I think that it was probably one of the biggest things,” Vanderbilt running back Sedrick Alexander said of the play. “Once we got that we were back on track. We were happy that he got that.”
Pavia responded by leading Vanderbilt to a score on its last five full drives of the night, looking the part of one of America’s elite quarterbacks and delivering on his promises. The Vanderbilt quarterback etched himself another piece of program history with his Saturday performance–although it wasn’t perfect.
His outing was good enough that those around this place think it should lead to the spotlight again.
“I don’t know what else to say,” Lea said. “It is my belief that he is the best football player in the country
_(1)-b3e453dfe426b2dd4b83a12540ebdb37.jpeg "Joey Dwyer")
Joey Dwyer is the lead writer on Vanderbilt Commodores On SI. He found his first love in college sports at nearby Lipscomb University and decided to make a career of telling its best stories. He got his start doing a Notre Dame basketball podcast from his basement as a 14-year-old during COVID and has since aimed to make that 14-year-old proud. Dwyer has covered Vanderbilt sports for three years and previously worked for 247 Sports and Rivals. He contributes to Seth Davis' Hoops HQ, Southeastern 16 and Mainstreet Nashville.
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