Until Diego Pavia answered a phone call that December morning in Tim Beck’s office, the Vanderbilt offensive coordinator had no idea who his starting quarterback would be for the 2025 season.
That’s when Pavia found out that person would be him.
A judge had just issued a ruling granting Pavia an extra year of eligibility, the result of a lawsuit he filed in November against the NCAA claiming its rule that counts junior college playing time against NCAA eligibility violates antitrust law and limits earning ability from name, image and likeness.
“He was pretty pumped,” Beck said Thursday, just after the Commodores wrapped up their second spring practice at FirstBank Stadium. “It was kind of cool.
“When you’ve got your starting quarterback that’s got experience coming back, along with your starting center, it gives you a little bit of relief knowing you’ve got that kind of guy in charge. It was great news for us.”
Diego Pavia stats show his impact on Vanderbilt football
With Pavia in charge last season, his first at Vanderbilt after two seasons at New Mexico State and two at junior college New Mexico Military Institute, Vanderbilt defeated then-No. 1 Alabama, then Kentucky, then Auburn, then Georgia Tech in the Birmingham Bowl.
All the while, all signs began pointing toward dollars.
Pavia made no bones about it, either.
“There’s a lot of money to be made in college football, just because of how much revenue is coming in,” Pavia told The Tennessean on Dec. 16, two days before the ruling on his case was announced. “There’s a lot of people here who work overtime too.”
Pavia’s work resulted in numbers that by the finish line read: 177-for-298 passing, 2,293 yards, 20 touchdowns and four interceptions. Not to mention he ran for 800 more yards and on 193 carries that resulted in eight more TDs.
Oh, and a 7-6 record, Vanderbilt’s…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/article/phone-call-changed-everything-diego-224239394.html
Author : The Tennessean
Publish date : 2025-03-06 22:42:00
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