When you think of some of the greatest and most electric players to come out of the SEC, you think of guys like Cam Newton, Joe Burrow, Tim Tebow, and many more. You think of the highlight reel plays they put up, the video game like numbers they would put on the stat sheet, plays that little kids try to imitate in the backyard.
The next generation of electrifying athletes are here. But there’s one player in particular that can follow in the footsteps of some of the greatest athletes the SEC has ever seen. His name? Diego Pavia.
Now, many people may be wondering: how in the world can a quarterback from VANDERBILT of all schools be as electrifying as guys like I mentioned, when Vanderbilt hasn’t had a good quarterback since Jay Cutler!? Hear me out…Pavia reminds me a lot of Jordan Lynch whenever he was at Northern Illinois.
While Pavia’s only about 6’0” and 210 pounds, he's a HARD runner. When you see him carry the football on read options it is like watching magic work, no matter what a defensive end does whenever they are taught to squeeze down and take quarterback every time, no matter what. Pavia is still too powerful and too fast for defenders to get a good angle on him and bring him down.
The biggest thing that he worked on from his freshman season to his sophomore season is his passing accuracy, he went from just a 53% completion percentage to a 60% percentage. He was allowed to throw the ball a lot more than usual because of how much he improved with his vision and pocket awareness.
He’s not afraid to deliver a hit, either. Just because he throws an interception that doesn’t mean he’s going to give up on the play. He will light someone up. Just ask Auburn’s Nehemiah Pritchett, whom Pavia body slammed following his interception during the upset win vs the Tigers.
What’s even better for Pavia is that his offensive coordinator at New Mexico State, Tim Beck, is joining him in Nashville as Vanderbilt’s new offensive coordinator. I do like Jalen Milore, I do like Carson Beck, but I like Pavia a lot more. I understand that those two have experience in the SEC.
But Diego Pavia is just a different breed. He isn’t going to be someone that people will talk about in the Heisman conversation, he may not even be recognized at all this year, and may not even be the reason that Clark Lea keeps his job in Nashville. But Pavia is one of those once in a generation type of players, ones that get lost among the great quarterbacks of the modern era of the SEC.
He may not be as flashy as the Milroe’s and the Beck’s and the Jaxson Dart’s. That being said, the next time you see Vanderbilt taking the field, watch Diego Pavia. You’re going to see magic happen the moment he steps out onto the field.