Diego Pavia shined the brightest in the biggest upset of last weekend’s madness in college football, throwing for 252 yards and two touchdowns as Vanderbilt defeated Alabama for the first time since 1984.
And he could’ve been an HBCU quarterback.
According to a story by Joe Rexrode of The Athletic, Pavia was recruited by Jackson State before ultimately signing with New Mexico State. Pavia followed offensive assistants Tim Beck and Jerry Kill to Vanderbilt and eventually won the Commodores’ starting quarterback role.
“The loyalty to Kill goes back to Pavia’s second season at New Mexico Military Institute. He was starting, and starring, and leading the school into the National Junior College Athletic Association championship game against No. 1 Iowa Western,” Rexrode writes. “Kill and Beck, a few weeks into their NMSU tenure, had offered him a ‘blue shirt’ to see if he would be willing to start his career as a walk-on.”
“He had an offer from Deion Sanders, then the coach at Jackson State, but also knew Sanders’ son Shedeur was a highly regarded quarterback,” the story continues. “After Kill watched Pavia dominate the championship game in a 31-13 win, he called to change his offer to a full scholarship.”
