Diego Pavia sent epic message to Clark Lea before their first conversation

After upsetting the Alabama Crimson Tide, Vanderbilt Commodores quarterback Diego Pavia has gained a ton of recognition for just how talented a player he is.

One thing that Pavia has never lacked, however, is confidence. He’s had that in spades and that showed up during his recruitment to Vanderbilt when he delivered an epic message to head coach Clark Lea through Barton Simmons ahead of their first conversation.

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“He had yet to talk to Clark and we were working through a lot at that time,” Simmons said. “So, I talked to Diego on the phone, and at the end of the call, we were sort of just, you know, this is the first call, we’re talking through some things. Talking about him coming and at the end of the call, it was almost like there was a moment where Diego was like, ‘I know these guys believe in me.’ [Tim] Beck and [Jerry] Kill believe in me but I need the place I’m coming to believe in me too. So, he kind of stopped before we hung up and he said, ‘Hey, Coach, just do me a favor. When you talk to Coach Lea, tell him this. Tell him,’ and he sort of thought about it, like measured his words, said, ‘Tell him if he brings me to Vanderbilt, we’re going to win every f*cking game we play.'”

As Simmons had explained, Diego Pavia was recruited to Vanderbilt at a difficult time for the program. Coming off a two-win season, the team was in a transitional period at offensive coordinator and had lost several key players to the Transfer Portal. So, landing a talented quarterback was never going to be easy.

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A major reason why Diego Pavia ended up at Vanderbilt is Jerry Kill. Now a consultant with the Commodores, Kill was Pavia’s head coach at New Mexico State where the two helped lead that program to back-to-back bowl games for the first time since 1959 and 1960.

“That’s who he is,” Simmons said. “It didn’t feel like, ‘Oh, God, Diego, relax.’ That’s just who he is. That’s who Diego is to his core and he believes that.”

To this point, Vanderbilt hasn’t won every game with Pavia under center. Instead, they’re a respectable 3-2. However, with one of those wins being the biggest upset the program has seen, taking down top-ranked Vanderbilt, Lea will likely be able to forgive the two losses.

A massive part of that came from Pavia’s confidence going into the game. As he explained, Vanderbilt knew it was capable of knocking off the Crimson Tide before the game.

“I feel like just the outside is shocked, but, internally, we knew what we could do,” Pavia said. “We feel like any week that we focus on ourselves, Vanderbilt football can only beat Vanderbilt football, and that’s the reality of it. But Alabama’s a great team, and we just played better tonight.”

Now, Vanderbilt will look to continue its success this season, traveling to play the Kentucky Wildcats.