Diego Pavia's Heisman Quest: Vanderbilt's Breakout Star

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00:00But I mentioned Heisman Trophy. I mentioned Diego Pavia, coach, loves what the Vanderbilt

00:06quarterback has done this year, finishes the regular season at 10-2 overall. He's plus 170,

00:13coach, to steal the hardware potentially after this weekend. He's not even going to play. Could

00:20Diego Pavia be our Heisman winner this season? You know, somebody's going to have to go out

00:26there and pump him. I mean, they had been a big poster up in Times Square, the whole big deal.

00:31You know, back when I was at ABC and you were there when I was there, John Saunders got all over

00:36Charles Woodson. You remember it was the quarterback, Peyton Manning, was the number one guy, and then

00:40John started pumping him. If you could get a couple of top guys, the Nick Sabans, to start

00:45pumping, Pavia is the most deserving quarterback in the country. I believe nobody could have done

00:51at Vanderbilt what he did. He's a generational quarterback that had the first 10-win season

00:57in school history. I thought they probably could plug several quarterbacks in at Ohio State

01:02or Indiana and probably have results very similar. Those are good quarterbacks. They're part of a

01:07great machine. I think Diego Pavia has made the biggest impact on a program. Even you look at Clark

01:15Lee, he was what, 2-10, 5-7, 2-10. All of a sudden, he gets Diego Pavia, and he's 7-6,

01:2310-2. We're not even sure if it's the head coach or the quarterback in that regard, but

01:27that's the kind of impact he's had on that program. I just wish, and nobody's going to

01:31see him anymore unless somehow he got in the playoffs, which I don't think he's going to

01:37get in. He's not going to get any kind of push unless a couple of top promoters, because

01:41it is a publicity type of deal unless some people publicly get on him, start promoting him, because

01:47that thing will be voted on right after the conference championship, the week after the

01:51conference championships, and he's not interested. It will. Now, his last two games against Kentucky

01:56and Tennessee, he played incredible. I mean, he dominates Kentucky 45-17, 484 yards, five touchdown

02:04passes. Last week against Tennessee, he puts up over 260 yards. He snaps a six-game losing streak

02:13to the Volunteers. I mean, Coach, if you just think about it, Vanderbilt had lost six times, six straight

02:20times to Tennessee by an average margin of defeat of 26.6 points per game. They were completely

02:27dominated by the Volunteers in recent years, and he went out there and beat them by 21 points on their

02:33field, and it was basically an even game at halftime, and they pull away in the second

02:39half. That's how important Diego Pavia is to the Commodores. He sure is, and I mean, that's a hard

02:46game to swallow for those Tennessee fans now, for them to look at Vanderbilt, and Vanderbilt just

02:51dominated the second half. It made them look bad, and Pavia was the one doing it, and so again,

02:57if you don't pay a close enough attention, and I'm afraid being at Vanderbilt, he doesn't quite get

03:03the attention he deserves that Mendoza gets or Sayan gets at Ohio State, but if anybody has been

03:11watching, like I say, there has been no more impactful quarterback, no quarterback, and it's

03:16a great story where he comes from and where he is and what he's done. All those things that tie into

03:22that award, he checks all the boxes there, so anyway, I've said my piece. I really feel that

03:29he is the most deserving, and I'm not just a Southern guy that's saying, okay, he's from the

03:34SEC. I just, I watch them all, and the other two quarterbacks are very, very good, but they're part of

03:40a big-time great program and a great winning team, and I'm not sure that Kurt Cignetti probably could

03:46find one or two quarterbacks that could do for him what his quarterback did for him last year

03:50is very similar to what this quarterback doing for him. Same thing for Ohio State.