Diego Pavia's plan for Vanderbilt football in 2025: 'I want to win it all'

Diego Pavia’s plan for Vanderbilt football in 2025: ‘I want to win it all’

Posted by Admin December 28, 2024 Football

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BIRMINGHAM, Ala. − Diego Pavia will be back at Vanderbilt football in 2025, so long as there are no major changes to the coaching staff, he confirmed after the team’s Birmingham Bowl win Friday.

Pavia recently received a court ruling granting him an extra year of eligibility, arguing that time spent at a junior college shouldn’t count against NCAA eligibility. But Pavia, like all other Commodores, could enter the transfer portal until Jan. 1.

“As long as the food chain is how it is,” Pavia said. “Coach (Clark) Lea, Coach (Jerry) Kill, and everyone stays … and I’ll be here too. But I mean, other than that, I want to win it all.”

Kill, the chief consultant to the head coach, told The Tennessean after the game that he plans to return to Vanderbilt’s coaching staff in 2025.

Pavia was granted another year of eligibility after a court injunction when Pavia argued that years at junior college shouldn’t count against NCAA eligibility.

Pavia, who was named the Birmingham Bowl MVP, said that he told the coaches entering the lobby before the game that he wasn’t losing and would never have a losing season.

The Commodores (7-6) won, 35-27, over Georgia Tech to secure their first winning season since 2013. That season Vanderbilt also won the Birmingham Bowl (then called the BBVA Compass Bowl).

In the bowl game, Pavia completed 13-of-21 passes for 160 yards and three touchdowns. He ran for 84 yards on 17 attempts with two touchdowns. For the season, Pavia finished 177-for-298 for 2,293 yards and 20 touchdowns and just four interceptions. He was also Vanderbilt’s leading rusher with 800 yards and eight touchdowns.

“I talked to the team today about redemption stories and how the best parts of humanity are these stories where we are knocked down and we get back up and we fight for it,” Lea said. “And that’s what this team is, and that’s what Diego is. His background, all the things that make him the person, the competitor he is.

“He’s perfect for that position, and he inspired so much in our team and our program. And you hear it here too, in this belief. … With our first conversation, he said, I can’t wait to commit. He said that, and it was the first time that I was on the phone with someone where I wasn’t trying to convince them. And I do a lot of convincing in my in my job. And he saw it too. And he had a belief too.”

Gentry Estes contributed.

Aria Gerson covers Vanderbilt athletics for The Tennessean. Contact her at agerson@gannett.com or on X, formerly Twitter, @aria_gerson.