Diego Pavia reveals Vanderbilt offense bonds over love of Raising Cane's sauce

Vanderbilt football picked up a surprise season-opening win at home at Virginia Tech to open the season. And leading the way was transfer quarterback Diego Pavia, both through the air and, often, on the ground.

The Commodores offensive machine looked well-oiled on Saturday in the win, with Pavia working seamless alongside running back Sedrick Alexander and behind the offensive line. And when asked about the early success this week, Pavia shared the secret sauce to how Vanderbilt build such chemistry on the offense: Raising Cane’s.

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“We’re big Cane’s guys. We go to Cane’s,” Pavia said of him and Alexander. “Me, him, Gunnar [Hansen], Duncan [MacDonald], a lot of O linemen. We all go to Cane’s. We love Cane’s. A lot of people would die over Cane’s on this team.”

For Pavia, a New Mexico native who transferred to Nashville from out west, the exposure to Canes has been relatively a new thing, although he did note his native Albuquerque did get one in the last year or so.

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Pressed further for the root of their love of Cane’s, Pavia shared that he and his teammates are not too dissimilar from the rest of us.

“The sauce. BOBS toast,” Pavia said, alluding to Cane’s highly-popular dipping sauce and the side of bread — with BOBS standing for butter on both sides.

“I might come back around 225,” he said.

Vanderbilt’s head coach has a vision for where the program can go

It’s not always easy to get traction at a place like Vanderbilt. Coach Clark Lea knows it after experiencing some up-and-down swings through the first three years of his tenure.

You have to strike while the iron is hot and take advantage of every opportunity, inching forward a little at a time.

Saturday’s season-opening win over Virginia Tech is one such moment. In part because it did happen in front of a bunch of fans, including a packed-out student section.

“What we’re going to do is continue to work hard here internally to put something on the field that inspires people to show up,” Lea said. “But the vision for this program is not playing in front of a stadium that 50% of the fans are for the other team.”

Vanderbilt’s not quite there yet. Again, inch by inch you have to reclaim that ground.

And it can be done. Former coach James Franklin had it rolling when he won nine games in back-to-back seasons in 2012 and 2013. The program hasn’t quite reached that level since.

Want to flip the fan breakdown in the stands it starts with winning more games.

“The vision for the program is that this is a sellout with Vanderbilt fans and we have a sea of black and gold,” Lea said. “I think the construction projects that are ongoing are going to give way to a really neat environment that will be special for us here at Vanderbilt.”