Diego Pavia wins Herbie Award for Offensive Player of the Year
By Sydney Hunte
Published:
Diego Pavia’s tremendous season led Vanderbilt to its most wins in program history. The Commodores went 10-2 and were ranked No. 14 in the College Football Playoff rankings.
Pavia was a handful for defenders. He threw for 3,192 yards, third in the SEC. He led the conference in passing touchdowns with 27. He also ran for 826 yards and nine touchdowns, including two 100-plus-yard rushing games.
That earned him the Herbie Award for Offensive Player of the Year, beating out Notre Dame’s Jeremiyah Love and Indiana’s Fernando Mendoza.
“This is a guy that … took Vanderbilt to a whole different level, running, throwing, doing so many things, not to mention bringing an attitude and just a determination to kind of go to that next level as a player and as a team,” Herbstreit said.
Pavia will be in New York for the Heisman Trophy ceremony. He’s the first Heisman finalist in program history, a testament to the stellar season he had in 2025.
“Every single time it just seems like he would step up, make plays,” Herbstreit said. “He had some swag, of course, which I think was new for all of us to see that Vandy uniform having a guy doing things like that. …
“I look at any of these individual awards and how they impacted the team, and in my opinion, I don’t know if anybody in the country impacted their team the way Diego Pavia did.”
Sydney is an Atlanta-based journalist who has covered everything from SEC and ACC football to MLS, the U.S. men's national soccer team and professional tennis. His work has appeared on such platforms as SB Nation, Cox Media Group and FanSided.
