Last week, Vanderbilt football launched its campaign to get quarterback Diego Pavia the Heisman Trophy. After the Commodores’ 17-10 win over Missouri this past Saturday, Pavia was directly asked if he thought he should win the award and why.
“First of all, hell yeah, I believe it,” Pavia said. “We just got to keep winning football games. I feel like the schedule that we got, obviously it’s a difficult schedule playing in the SEC. You play a lot of ranked teams.”
In the win over the Tigers on Saturday, Pavia completed just 10-of-19 passes for 129 yards. He did not throw a touchdown and turned it over with an interception. On the ground, he rushed eight times for 20 yards and a touchdown.
Vanderbilt’s opening three drives all ended in punts before the Commodores managed to connect on a field goal. To open the second half, it was the interception, then a punt, before an 80-yard touchdown rush from Makhilyn Young. Vanderbilt punted again before getting the ball back, thanks to a fumble in a tie game with little time remaining. The Commodores went 44 yards in nine plays, leading to Pavia’s one-yard rush.
More From RTI: Joey Aguilar Throws His Way Into The Top 15 of Tennessee’s All-Time Single-Game Record Book
According to FanDuel, Pavia has +850 odds to win the Heisman Trophy. This is the fifth-best mark in the country. Ahead of him are Indiana’s Fernando Mendoza, Alabama’s Ty Simpson, Ohio State’s Julian Sayin and Texas A&M’s Marcel Reed.
Vanderbilt is 7-1 (3-1 SEC) on the year with four conference games remaining. Next, the Commodores head at to Austin to play Texas at noon p.m. ET on ESPN. Then, Vanderbilt hosts Auburn and Kentucky, two of the weaker teams in the conference.
The final game of the season is at Tennessee. The Vols won in Nashville a year ago despite an early hole to punch their ticket to the playoffs.
