Takeaways From Vanderbilt's 34-27 Loss To Iowa in the ReliaQuest Bowl

TAMPA---It's over for the 2025 Vanderbilt football team.

Despite setting a program record for wins in a season, having a Heisman Trophy contender on the roster and being favored heading into Wednesday's game, Vanderbilt still had its season ended in heartbreak.

Here's a few takeaways from its final outing.

A bitter ending for a group that appeared to be above one

This Vanderbilt team just had the feel of a team that would end a record-setting season with a special win. It felt like destiny that something like that would be the case.

Sometimes college football is bitter and cold, though. On Saturday it was to this Vanderbilt team.

Instead of the season-ending celebration that this group appeared to deserve, this thing ended with Pavia fading into the tunnel for the final time in a Vanderbilt uniform, Richie Hoskins bear hugging Vanderbilt offensive consultant Jerry Kill prior to each of them entering the tunnel. Vanderbilt defensive lineman Josh Singh was perhaps the most demonstrative as anyone in the vicinity and shed tears that seemingly nobody in sight could miss.

That’s the last impression that will remain of this group.

Diego Pavia’s performance

The cream team-issued sweatsuit made its best effort to blend Diego Pavia into the scenery of Raymond James Stadium as he walked out while matching with every other Vanderbilt player, but his easily-recognizable strut gave away any chance he had at anonymity.

If the strut didn’t give it away, Pavia’s dance moves did as he crossed the 40-yard line. Perhaps the moves themselves weren’t exclusive to Pavia in nature, but what they indicated was as meaningful as anything that happened prior to Wednesday’s game. It indicated that Pavia–who has seemingly become college football’s public enemy No. 1 since his array of post-Heisman antics went viral–hasn’t strayed from the temperament that’s made him successful thus far.

For the first two quarters of Wednesday’s game, though, the skillset that precedes Pavia appeared to be gone. Pavia put it together late, but was a contributor in Vanderbilt finding itself down too early in Wednesday’s game. The Vanderbilt quarterback missed too many throws and made a few poor decisions to go along with the underthrows.

The line of scrimmage

A look at the first drive of this one indicated that there may be a hiccup for Vanderbilt in its effort to finish with an 11-win season.

The drive was Iowa’s first one, in which it went for 72 yards and didn’t record a single yard through the air. It was a gashing and was entirely on brand for this Iowa offense, which has yet to have quarterback Mark Gronowski throw for over 200 yards in a game. Gronowski delivered with a 212-yard passing performance while Iowa’s offense took over the game with an outing in which it finished with 167 rushing yards and 4.5 yards per carry.

Although it wasn’t as drastic, Vanderbilt’s offense felt the same effects on the line of scrimmage as Iowa’s defensive front sacked Pavia four times and held Vanderbilt to 2.3 yards per carry on the afternoon.

Perhaps the argument could be made that Vanderbilt is a more talented team on the perimeter than Iowa is, but that didn’t do it all that much good on Wednesday. Instead, this was much more about Iowa gashing Vanderbilt up front.

Third and seven

The chance was right out ahead of Vanderbilt, it had Iowa behind the sticks and was forcing it to beat it with a throw. Against a team that hadn’t seen its starting quarterback eclipse 200 yards on the season, that appeared to be a good bet.

Then, Iowa tight end DJ Vonnahme beat Vanderbilt safety Marlen Sewell in one-on-one coverage and Gronowski delivered the pass to convert. That appeared to seal the deal. Vanderbilt trusted its secondary and sent a blitz, yet it didn’t pay off. Iowa’s drive eventually ended in a field goal that made this a 10-point game.

Vanderbilt’s defense didn’t do enough on that play or on the afternoon as a whole. Lea said that Vanderbilt was one stop away from a victory, that appears to be true.

Iowa’s late third quarter scoring drive was a backbreaker

Vanderbilt had just found itself again. Pavia made all the throws and ran for a few crucial yards. An unlikely hero emerged as Joseph McVay caught a touchdown pass. It had all the momentum.

Then, Iowa put its foot down as if to remind Vanderbilt that it still hadn’t solved the main problem that hampered it on Wednesday afternoon. No matter what its offense did, its defense didn’t have an answer for Iowa’s Joe Moore Award-winning offensive line and what it could lead the Hawkeyes to offensively.

Vanderbilt’s brutal reminder came at the end of a six-play, 70-yard drive in which it appeared to coast down the field down the stretch.