Diego Pavia, Alabama fan engage in heated back-and-forth following Vanderbilt loss

Diego Pavia walked off Saban Field at Bryant-Denny Stadium without the result he wanted. Vanderbilt fell short of beating Alabama in back-to-back seasons, getting overwhelmed in the second half. And after doing some pregame talking, some postgame extracurriculars took place as well.

An Alabama fan right near the Vanderbilt tunnel decided to come after Pavia as Vanderbilt left the field, beginning an expletive-laden shouting match. At one point, Pavia responded, “I’ll do whatever the **** I want.” This came after the fan voiced his displeasure with Pavia’s previous comments about the matchup.

A Vanderbilt staffer did tell the fan to “shut the **** up” after Pavia moved on from the situation. Thankfully, the moment did not escalate any further than words being exchanged. You can check out the full moment from Tuscaloosa here via AL.com’s X account.

As Diego Pavia left the field in Tuscaloosa following Vanderbilt’s loss to Alabama, he got into a heated argument with a Crimson Tide fan in the stands. pic.twitter.com/E9EEYQhl9y

— Alabama Crimson Tide | AL.com (@aldotcomTide) October 4, 2025

Turns out, Pavia is not the only person who dealt with the Alabama crowd. His mentor, Johnny Manziel — who turned up to support — received plenty of heckling from the stands. Manziel took his own measures, flipping people off and hitting the Heisman Trophy pose to remind them of his 2012 performance.

Pavia’s reaction did not reach the same level, only chirping back a little bit. Overall, a wild moment from the fan, possibly getting too animated.

Diego Pavia, Vanderbilt falls short in Tuscaloosa

Pavia came out of the locker room before kickoff fired up. Confidence oozed from the entire roster but mainly from QB1. When speaking with On3’s Chris Low, he believed Vanderbilt could come into Tuscaloosa and dominate Alabama.

“The crowd, I think, is going to be a big factor in the game,” Pavia said. “But we just gotta play within the white lines. If we do that, if we play our game, it won’t be close.”

Talk continued throughout the week, all leading to 2:30 p.m. CT. A few hours later, Vanderbilt found itself on the losing end. Not what Pavia expected by any stretch of the imagination. His personal performance did not help, throwing for 198 yards and a touchdown while completing 21 of 35 passes. Two turnovers were critical — an interception and a fumble. Alabama turned those into 10 points.

An extra week to think about this one comes for Pavia. Next up is another difficult opponent, welcoming LSU to Nashville. The FirstBank Stadium crowd should be a lot more friendly to Pavia, no matter what the result winds up being.