Diego Pavia speaks on Vanderbilt’s mindset facing No. 1 Alabama
By Andrew Olson
Published:
Diego Pavia is aware that facing Alabama has not gone well for Vanderbilt teams in recent years.
Alabama has won its last 2 meetings against Vanderbilt by a combined score of 114-3. Those Commodore squads expressed excitement for the matchup and projected confidence – as most teams do, no matter the opponent. Pavia was recently asked if there’s a different message for this Vandy team in light of the past blowouts.
“This is a whole new team,” Pavia said, via Robbie Weinstein of 247Sports. “In the NIL era, every team will be different every single year. We got a team full of dogs who prepare every week like they want to play on Sundays.
“And so with that, the only person that knows who’s going to win on Saturday is God. So we’ll be prepared. We’re going to do everything we can to win a football game. We fell just short to the No. 7 team in the nation. So we gotta get over that little edge, and then start punching some wins here.”
Vanderbilt has generated some notable buzz in the early weeks of the 2024 campaign. The Commodores opened the season by taking down Virginia Tech, a team that some had considered a sleeper for the ACC title and spot in the College Football Playoff. In the big upset, Pavia was 12-of-16 passing for 190 yards and 2 touchdowns, adding 26 rushes for 104 yards and a score on the ground.
The Commodores almost shook up the CFP race again in Week 4. Vanderbilt took a top-10 Mizzou squad to overtime but fell 30-27 in Columbia. Pavia was 14-of-23 passing for 178 yards and 2 touchdowns, and rushed 17 times for 84 yards.
Pavia, a New Mexico State transfer, has completed 63.5% of his passes this season at 8.5 yards per attempt with 6 TDs and no interceptions. He is also Vanderbilt’s leading rusher with 71 carries for 279 yards and 2 TDs.
Pavia will get his shot at the Crimson Tide on Saturday at 4:15 p.m. ET in Nashville.
Andrew writes about sports to fund his love of live music and collection of concert posters. He strongly endorses the Hall of Fame campaigns of Fred Taylor and Andruw Jones.
