A twinge of sympathy struck in the moment, sitting in Vanderbilt’s McGugin Center last month, listening to Diego Pavia talk about turning down significant money at Nevada to play his final collegiate season at Vanderbilt instead.
“That’s gonna come when I go to the NFL,” Pavia said then of the money. “That’s my dream goal. This was my best opportunity for that, the best way for me to get there.”
That seemed such a misunderstanding of his own limitations. Now it sounds like an understatement. Tell me this folk hero who just put 40 on No. 1 Alabama won’t be a Pro Football Hall of Fame lock by 30 and NFL commissioner by 50.
“Every time he touches the ball, we have a chance!” Lea told SEC Network’s Alyssa Lang in the chaotic moments after Vanderbilt 40, No. 1 Alabama 35 went final, the biggest Vanderbilt football win in like a century, followed up by goal posts paraded through the heart of a city that often forgets Vanderbilt football exists.
Give Pavia all the NIL – if you’re a Nashville restaurant who isn’t at least comping his appetizers at this point, you should be embarrassed. Don’t put limits on what he can do (the official assessment of his NFL hopes, per The Athletic draft expert Dane Brugler late Saturday, is that he’s not considered draftable right now but is “certainly doing what he needs to be doing to get noticed”).
And don’t miss the college football lessons he’s helping impart. He’s a great player and story in this sport, and after he’s gone Lea and Vanderbilt are still going to have a chance because they’ve embraced the need to be different. This is what programs that face consistent talent deficits must do.
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How many coaches wish they had landed Pavia in the offseason instead of the less impressive quarterback they did get out of the transfer portal? A few, I’d imagine, but Pavia’s toughness and playmaking and sleight of hand are multiplied in the scheme that traveled from New Mexico State to Vanderbilt with him.
That offense, the baby of Jerry Kill, coordinated by Tim Beck, shares starring credits with Pavia in this upset and season, which stands at 3-2 with much possibility ahead. This team could easily be 5-0, ranked in the top 10 and the No. 1 story in college football, but for late defensive failings to drop heartbreakers to Georgia State and Missouri.
Pavia made some things happen that were all on him, none bigger than faking a handoff on fourth-and-1, holding off on a quick pass to his first, covered read, scrambling around and lofting a 36-yard touchdown pass to Junior Sherrill. That made it 30-21 Vanderbilt with 2:53 left in the third quarter, and that’s when you knew Alabama was really in one.
WHAT. A. PLAY pic.twitter.com/1OURMUFi9o
— Vanderbilt Football (@VandyFootball) October 5, 2024
He also did some things that were purely a function of an offense that pushes the bounds of creativity. The speed option into a shovel pass — a couple of big ones to tight end Eli Stowers, who will absolutely be drafted — the variety of play-action shots, the counters and powers and pulls.
The NFL is more fun to watch in the past decade and change because it has borrowed a lot of concepts from some of college football’s best minds. But Pavia and Vanderbilt’s offense exemplify the superiority of the college product.
There’s still a whole bunch of stuff in the college game that folks in the NFL wouldn’t touch, and some of it helps create a level of parity that otherwise would have no chance of existing. Check out some of the things teams such as Navy and UNLV are doing this season. And those teams don’t have to deal with teams such as Texas and Alabama.
“If we want to win in this league,” Kill said, “we need to be different.”
PAVIA TO JOHNSON FOR THE TOUCHDOWN pic.twitter.com/UcS9lN4ndf
— Vanderbilt Football (@VandyFootball) October 5, 2024
For Vanderbilt fans who have been screaming for years that their team can’t hope to compete without schematic uniqueness, congratulations. You were right about that, just as you were wrong all Saturday afternoon that your team was going to blow it, the only question being the excruciating details.
As the fever dream of actually finishing the job against Alabama was just taking hold for the fans, Pavia ripped through one of the wildest postgame interviews on record with Lang, highlighted by: “Vandy we’re (freaking) turnt!”
Then Lea got emotional in a more traditional way, talking about his program, his players who have pushed through years of losing and his athletic director, Candice Lee.
Back in September, after an upset of Virginia Tech to start the season that now looks quite mild, Pavia and Vanderbilt were a story. An eyebrow raised as Pavia started to talk about his new head coach.
“Coach Lea? He’s a psycho like me,” Pavia said. “Yeah, for sure. Not a lot of people would know that but deep down he’s got that mentality of win at all costs, do whatever it takes. He has to carry himself a certain way, but man, me and coach Lea have had deep, deep conversations about things.”
Years from now they may talk about the role of Pavia, and the offense he runs, in saving a coaching tenure that was going nowhere through three seasons.
Required reading
• Vanderbilt knocks off No. 1 Bama. Is this the biggest upset in SEC history?
• When was the last time Vanderbilt beat Alabama? More than 40 years ago
• How does Vanderbilt’s upset over Alabama impact the College Football Playoff?
(Photo: Carly Mackler / Getty Images)
