The Panini Senior Bowl, featuring some of the nation’s top college football seniors, will be played on Jan. 31 in Mobile, Alabama.
The game, which is a showcase for players entering the NFL Draft, will feature Vanderbilt quarterback and Heisman finalist Diego Pavia.
Here are things to know about Pavia entering the Senior Bowl:
Pavia is officially listed on the Senior Bowl roster as 5-foot-9 ⅞ and weighing 198 pounds.
Vanderbilt listed Pavia as 6-foot and 207 pounds on its 2025 roster, which had many questioning those numbers entering the Heisman Trophy presentation in December. He was also listed at 6-foot on the New Mexico State football roster before he transferred to Vanderbilt.
Some have questioned whether Pavia’s height would hinder his ability to thrive as an NFL quarterback.
There are six quarterbacks on the Senior Bowl roster, including three fron the SEC.
Pavia will be joined by Illinois’ Luke Altmyer, Arkansas’ Taylen Green, LSU’s Garrett Nussmeier, North Dakota State’s Cole Payton and Baylor’s Sawyer Robertson.
While the aforementioned size and personality have been considered detriments to Pavia’s NFL Draft stock, could the Senior Bowl help him?
He is currently projected to be a late-round pick entering the all-star game. ESPN’s Mel Kiper lists Pavia as the No. 7 quarterback on his board, up from ninth on his list just a couple of weeks ago.
Only Nussmeier (sixth), among Senior Bowl QBs, is projected higher than Pavia on that board. Robertson is ninth and Green 10th.
Pavia had a prolific two seasons at Vanderbilt, starting all 26 games in which the team played. He completed 444-of-676 passes for 5,832 yards and 49 touchdowns with just 12 interceptions. What separated him from many was his mobility, rushing for 1,663 yards and 18 touchdowns over two seasons.
During his senior Heisman campaign, Pavia was 267-of-378 for 3,539 yards and 29 touchdowns while rushing for 862 yards and 10 TDs.
During his four-year NCAA career (which included two seasons at New Mexico), Pavia was 766-of-1,232 for 10,255 yards, 88 TDs and 27 interceptions. He rushed 628 times for 3,094 yards and 31 touchdowns.
While Pavia earned national acclaim for his work on the field at Vanderbilt, his personality and comments off the field also garnered a lot of attention.
He created a stir in the news with his reaction to not winning the 2025 Heisman Trophy.
He blasted Heisman voters in a post on X that read “(Expletive)-ALL THE VOTERS, BUT…..FAMILY FOR LIFE” after finishing runner-up to Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza.
He later apologized for the statement, posting “I didn’t handle those emotions well at all and did not represent myself the way I wanted to.”
Cecil Joyce covers high school sports and MTSU athletics for The Daily News Journal. Contact him at cjoyce@dnj.com and follow him on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, @Cecil_Joyce.
