Everything You Should Take Away From Diego Pavia’s Season Debut

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia no longer has to prove anything to anybody. If nothing else, he’s earned that right.  

On Saturday against Charleston Southern, Pavia looked different than he has in the past. He looked more poised. More like a leader. And more like he has a bigger goal in mind this season than running up the score against Charleston Southern.  

The Albuquerque, New Mexico native finished the day 20-25 passing with 275 yards. It’s how he was expected to perform, but still, it’s a promising sign for an offense that has no shortage of tough defenses remaining on its schedule. 

"Your quarterback goes 20-25 and you're supposed to win that game," Sedrick Alexander said postgame. "I enjoyed every moment of [Diego's performance]."

The stats might not show it, but Pavia certainly wasn’t perfect on Saturday. He made a few questionable decisions early on, throwing a deep ball to Martel Hight into double coverage and nearly getting intercepted on a checkdown to Alexander.

Pavia was accurate in the short game, effectively using Richardson and Stowers to move the sticks against a weaker defense. But his deep ball was inconsistent, overthrowing the aforementioned Hight and backup running back M.K Young, who was wide open for what should have been a big play in the second quarter. Still, he came back with strong throws to Stowers and a 26-yard touchdown to Alexander, who went up and made a great catch in the end-zone. 

Pavia’s deep ball on Saturday might actually be a sign of how much he’s grown over the past season, though. Any coach will tell you it’s better to overthrow than underthrow the football, and Pavia appeared to be abiding by the “my guy gets it, or nobody gets it” motto against Charleston Southern. Could he have been more precise? Sure. But head coach Clark Lea isn’t worried about his signal caller.  

"Diego was efficient," Lea said. "We were moving him in the run game. We were completing passes. It looked exactly how we wanted it to look."

Pavia was near perfect in the red zone, throwing 3 touchdowns, including a perfect 12-yard pass to Junior Sherrill on third down that put the Commodores up two scores early. He excelled against the blitz, breaking out of the pocket several times to avoid a Buccaneer pass rusher. And he protected the ball, allowing Vanderbilt to remain in control for all 60 minutes of game time. 

The best Pavia looked all day was at the end of the first half, when a touchdown pass to Richie Hoskins and a cross-body throw to Junior Sherill were both called back on holding penalties. Still, his ability to command an offense filled with new faces in a two-minute drill was impressive.  

On the ground, Pavia did his usual thing, rushing for 44 yards on 8 carries. If there’s anything to be concerned about the quarterback’s performance, it would be the lack of sliding that still appears to exist in his game. The quarterback took a few more unnecessary hits in the first half than Vanderbilt’s coaches probably would’ve liked.  

"I'd like to see him not get hit," Lea said. "I want to see us do a better job of protecting him where we can because we understand that we need him healthy late in the season."

But taking hits might just be Pavia. He’s certainly matured a year, but it was the same fearless leader that Vanderbilt fans grew to love last season that was out there on the field on Saturday. It was that same leader who was the first guy on the field to celebrate with his walk-on teammate Jamezell Lassiter when he broke away for a touchdown in the fourth quarter. And, above all, the same leader that Vanderbilt wants leading them the rest of the way.