Diego Pavia sets national championship as the goal for Vanderbilt: 'People want to see us win more'

The Vanderbilt Commodores took a major step forward in 2024 with Diego Pavia at quarterback, making their first bowl since 2018. Now, Pavia wants to find a way to take another major leap forward for his Commodores.

Pavia knows that expectations are going to be a bit higher in 2025 than they were the year before. Addressing those expectations, he raised them, setting the goal for Vanderbilt at a national championship this upcoming season. After all, that’s what the fans want to see.

“I think people want to see us win more,” Pavia said. “You know, what I can do is just distribute the ball better. Timing routes, I worked on a lot. My feet, I worked on a lot. My job is to fill the seats. The way we fill the seats is with winning. So, our goal is the national championship.”

Vanderbilt is coming off a 7-6 season where the Commodores went 3-5 in SEC play. That was tied for 11th in the conference. It was also good enough to go to and win the Birmingham Bowl. All of that was a major step forward for Clark Lea, who had not put together a winning record to that point in his Vanderbilt tenure.

Perhaps the biggest moment of the season, and in recent Vanderbilt history, came against Alabama in early October. The Commodores pulled off one of the biggest upsets of the season. With fans pouring onto the field, Diego Pavia had seemingly proven that with him at quarterback, the team was capable of doing anything.

Pavia would finish the 2024 season completing 59.4 percent of his passes for 2,293 yards and 20 touchdowns. He would also rush for 801 yards and another eight touchdowns.

Clark Lea calls out fake competitive players as immature ones while praising Diego Pavia

While Diego Pavia is sometimes criticized for his approach, his head coach, Clark Lea, sees it as competitive. In fact, he even pushed back that traditionally competitive antics might actually be signs of immaturity.

“I love the fact that you never know quite what he’s gonna say. But we want him to be himself. We want him to bring it, and his teammates expect that of him. That is complemented with this guy who is totally process-driven, who is totally focused on what he wants,” Lea said.

“You know, we celebrate competitors when they want to win more than they want to lose. Fill in any cliché you want. We excuse them when they’re throwing a tantrum because they don’t get their way. They have a tough outing or a bad snap, and they’re throwing a fit. We say, ‘Oh, he’s just competitive.’ Well, that’s not being competitive to me. That’s being immature. Diego Pavia is a competitor. He knows he’s not entitled to winning. So, his best moments are our worst moments, where he is steady on the sideline and able to look people in the eye and say, ‘Count on me. Here we go.’ When we had adversity last season, it wasn’t like he was pointing the finger anywhere else. He was focused on the work. That’s a coach’s dream.”

Vanderbilt opens the season on August 30th against Charleston Southern. SEC play kicks off on September 13th on the road against South Carolina.