My favorite football scout says hemming up Diego Pavia is not exactly Mission Impossible but it is the opposite of easy.
What the Vols need to do is assign a spy and pour on the pressure. Do not, under any circumstances, let him outside. Secondary coverage almost always breaks down when he is allowed to run around.
Great ideas all but tough to accomplish.
My source wishes the outcome of the Vanderbilt game wouldn’t be the determining factor in the evaluation of this Tennessee season. It will. This is high stakes. There is a wonderful, awful difference in winning and losing the last game on the schedule, 9-3 or 8-4, months to reflect.
Vols over Vandy is a birthright for thousands and thousands of Tennessee fans. Long ago, when engineering professor Nathan W. Dougherty, chair of the athletics committee, promoted young Robert R. Neyland from assistant to head coach, his one suggestion was “Do something about Vanderbilt.”
Neyland did. It took only a few minutes. His first team lost to the powerful Commodores. His second tied. Thereafter, he won 16 and lost two and had one more tie. Vandy has never been the same.
Bowden Wyatt and Doug Dickey went 5-1. Bill Battle won five, lost one and tied one. John Majors and Phillip Fulmer had 15-1 records. Butch Jones managed to go 2-3 and out the gate. Josh Heupel hung 56 points on the Commodores in 2022.
The proverbial worm has turned, well, somewhat. Vanderbilt will come to Neyland Stadium Saturday with a 9-2 record, a higher ranking and an outside chance of making the playoffs. Two days ago, the Commodores were up 48-3 on Kentucky when coach Clark Lea turned off the gas.
Pavia was ticked. He had a school record 484 yards passing, five touchdowns against air and one on land. He wanted more of each. The Wildcats were overmatched. With a telescope, he could see the Heisman.
Of course, Lea knew best. He is the new genius in the coaching community. The qualifying change he made, the move from loser to winner, was the pre-2024 purchase of a new offensive philosophy and men to make it work.
Clark Lea was 1-23 against Southeastern Conference competition before he brought in the delegation from New Mexico State, key coaches and players.
Lea hired the Aggies’ former head coach, Jerry Kill, as chief consultant and senior offensive adviser. Before NMS, Kill was coach at Minnesota and several other places.
Kill’s offensive coordinator, Tim Beck, was a big part of the migration. Pavia and other valuable players were in the transfer package. Pavia had been Conference USA player of the year with 3,901 yards and 33 touchdowns.
Four other NMS coaches moved to Nashville. On that flight was run game coordinator Ghaali Muhammad-Lankford.
Money mattered. Bright lights of the big city helped. New Mexico State lives in Las Cruces. The budget is tight. There was talk of taking the free coffee machine from the coaches’ lounge.
First highlight of the Vanderbilt resurrection was the shocking upset of Alabama last season. Surprise this season was 21 points in the fourth quarter at Texas, enough to turn the Longhorns into nervous wrecks.
ESPN’s “College Game Day” show was at Vanderbilt for the end-of-October main event against Missouri. The Commodores won 17-10.
Lea is a good salesman.
“There’s limitless potential here,” he said. “Before we had anything else, we had a heartbeat. Now we’ve got proof of concept.”
Pavia is for real. He can play. Coach Lea says he’s the best player in the country. He’s also brash and polarizing. He regularly blows the pop-off valve.
If he beats big, bad Tennessee in Neyland Stadium, he’ll go on the forever list of Vanderbilt greats. Maybe he is already there. Expect a statue.
A Vandy victory over the Vols would mean a lot to Lea, affirm progress, add optimism, perhaps alter in-state recruiting here and there. Coach would get a raise.
A Tennessee triumph would restore order and cover over some of the disappointments – the now and then defense, inconsistent offensive line play, Boo disaster, missed field goal, the dropped fourth-down pass and some of Joey Aguilar’s 10 interceptions.
I suppose Vandy has a little more to lose. We’ll see how Pavia handles the noise and the heat. He says he can’t wait.
Marvin West welcomes comments or questions from readers. His address is marvinwest75@gmail.com
I’ll just add this: many years ago, while commuting to work in Nashville, I occasionally found myself driving along behind a car sporting UT decals AND a personalized state license plate bearing only four letters. The car belonged to one of two Nashville sisters who were such huge Tennessee fans that they were once featured in the alumni magazine. I was always amused when driving along behind that license plate, which said simply, “VU PU”. I’m sure Coach Cafego would have approved.
Amen, and amen.
I think your advice is sound. I’d assign a man to follow Diego and keep him on his rear end. I know it’s easier said than done, but I’m old enough to remember Bo Jackson being knocked out of the UT-Auburn game in ’85 and Vinny Testaverde running for his life in the ’86 Sugar Bowl. Alas, that UT defense was markedly better than this one.
I want this win badly. We’ll see what UT is made of on Saturday.
Losing to Vandy is not pleasant. I was at 7 of the last 8 UT losses to Vanderbilt, starting with the 1975 loss when I was a UT student and including the last 3 wins in Nashville. Vandy fans taunt with the best of them.
“Pavia is for real. He can play.” This is true. I have attended 4 Vandy home games this season, including Saturday’s win over UK. Pavia is one of the gutsiest, talented QBs I’ve ever seen. His teammates seem to love him.
Coming off the Florida high, would it help our players to hear a Coach Cafego recording this week? I refer you to Mr. West’s column from a year ago: https://www.knoxtntoday.com/tennessee-routed-vanderbilt-without-mention-of-cafego/
GBO!
Thanks for this. I reread the referenced Coach Cafego column. Marvin West is good. The column should be slipped under the pillow of every Vol who will battle Vandy on Saturday.