The Best Player in Vanderbilt Football History, Diego Pavia, Went Undrafted. And That Wasn't A Shock. – Sports Illustrated

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NASHVILLE—-Diego Pavia’s camp set out 32 hats on a table this morning at his draft party with the intention that he would pick one of them up after being selected on Saturday.
Pavia and his camp appeared to have some belief that what they envisioned could happen on Saturday would become reality. Instead, though, the room became more restless as the morning became afternoon and the afternoon became evening. 
By the time draft coverage ended on Saturday evening, all 32 hats—including a Carolina Panthers one, which was a different make than the others and sparked speculation in regard to the organization being a possible destination for the Vanderbilt quarterback—were still on the table. 
The greatest player in Vanderbilt’s program history had gone undrafted. 
Without any additional context, that sentence appears entirely unbelievable. It’s not as if Vanderbilt has a gaudy football history by any means, but players far less accomplished than Pavia heard their name called early in the draft. Over 100 players from other programs that were far less accomplished than Pavia were selected this weekend alone. 
That, though, isn’t all that hard to believe. In some ways, Pavia dug his own grave in regard to the draft. He was perhaps the most polarizing prospect in the draft outside of its top names, and he desperately needed not to be. He needed to lay low enough to give himself a chance at being selected. 
LSU quarterback Garrett Nussmeier, Texas Tech quarterback Behren Morton, Rutgers quarterback Athan Kaliakmanis, Arkansas quarterback Taylen Green and North Dakota State quarterback Cole Payton–who all had worse years than Pavia–all did that and were drafted as a result.
Pavia can’t control his size or the way people perceived him for it, but at some point he had to know that his margin for error was small. Who knows if Pavia would’ve been drafted if he kept a low profile and was universally beloved, but he certainly didn’t help his case. 
Those who know Pavia swear by him and his ability to galvanize a locker room, but their word has to carry a lot of weight in comparison to the number of incidents that led teams to believe Pavia’s abilities aren’t worth what they’ll have to deal with alongside them. 
Pavia clearly won’t be an NFL starting quarterback out of the gate. He likely won’t be the second stringer, either. He’ll always have eyes on him, though. Perhaps a team is fine with that in an undrafted free agent role with little guarantees, but that was too much to take on with a draft pick–even with the word of his head coach factored in. 
“We may look up in 12 years and he’s still playing football in the NFL,” Lea told Vandy on SI prior to the draft. “That's the level of belief I have in Diego and I'm excited for him.” 
Pavia was college football’s ultimate underdog story. He proved to be a turnaround artist of sorts, though. Pavia often says that he’s never had a losing season, and he has some ground to stand on when he proclaims that. That’s not being considered all that much, though. 
The Heisman Ceremony incident was too much for that to be the case. So were the number of controversial quotes he threw out there in his two seasons at Vanderbilt. The spectacle that surrounded him and his family had an effect, too. All of that is okay if you’re a first round pick that’s in the mix to start NFL games as a rookie, but not in this case. 
Pavia led Vanderbilt to a program-best 10-3 record in his final season at Vanderbilt while throwing for 3,529 yards, 29 touchdowns and eight interceptions two years following its 2-10 season that caused it to entirely retool its coaching staff.   The season was good enough to put Pavia in the Heisman Trophy race, but not good enough for him to avoid being the rare Heisman finalist to avoid hearing his name called. Not good enough for him to overcome what NFL evaluators perceive as baggage. 
Perhaps Lea is right and Pavia will find a way to stick it out on an NFL roster for a long time, but it’s going to be an uphill climb from here on out. He’ll have to grind his way onto an NFL roster. He’ll have to stick around as a backup awaiting the opportunity to start. 
He’ll have to prove some people right, and a lot of people wrong.
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Joey Dwyer is the lead writer on Vanderbilt Commodores On SI. He found his first love in college sports at nearby Lipscomb University and decided to make a career of telling its best stories. He got his start doing a Notre Dame basketball podcast from his basement as a 14-year-old during COVID and has since aimed to make that 14-year-old proud. Dwyer has covered Vanderbilt sports for three years and previously worked for 247 Sports and Rivals. He contributes to Seth Davis' Hoops HQ, Basket Under Review and Mainstreet Nashville.
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