Vanderbilt's Diego Pavia Has No Business Being in Heisman Talks

This weekend, another writer on our team published an article: “Why Vanderbilt QB Diego Pavia Might Be the Real Heisman Favorite." 

Maybe I’m a little too cynical, and not falling for the Cinderella story taking place in Nashville this season, but in what universe is Diego Pavia in contention for a Heisman?

I understand that Pavia is wildly important for his team, and he’s running the 5th-best odds to win the Heisman, but I don’t even think Pavia deserves to be recognized at all in New York. Taking Vanderbilt to a 7-1 record is impressive, but the Heisman should be awarded to the best player in college football, not the best E60 episode in 10 years.

Currently, Pavia isn’t in the top 50 in passing yards; he’s only 24th in passing touchdowns; he’s 88th in rushing yards; and 81st in rushing touchdowns. He’s at least in the top 25 in completion percentage, but that’s the only stat of his that is even competitive compared to other guys trying to win the award. Honestly, if you were looking for a dual-threat quarterback with a great story, Haynes King should be your guy because of what he has done on the ground to make up for his lackluster passing stats.

Not only are Diego Pavia's stats not that impressive, but they're especially unimpressive in the biggest games of the season. He hasn’t thrown for 200 yards once in conference play, and in his biggest game of the season against Ty Simpson and Alabama, he was simply outperformed by Simpson. At no point during that game did I think Simpson and Pavia were even mildly comparable in terms of Heisman portfolios.

Also, Pavia’s signature win this season came at home against LSU, where he had three touchdowns and 246 yards of total offense. That win has already begun to age poorly, as just last week we watched Marcel Reed of Texas A&M go into Baton Rouge and put 310 yards of offense and 4 touchdowns on what we now know is a bad LSU defense.

This LSU team has fallen apart so badly that Brian Kelly couldn’t even last the entire season.

If anything, I have been far more impressed with Vandy’s defensive improvements this year, as they’ve shown that they can hang with anyone in the SEC, and have been the main reason they’re 7-1.

What Clark Lea has done down in Vanderbilt might be the story of the season, and he should win SEC coach of the year; however, that doesn’t mean Diego Pavia should be mentioned in the same breath as Fernando Mendoza, Ty Simpson, or Julian Sayin when it comes to talk of winning the Heisman.