Jaxson Dart reacts to Diego Pavia upsetting Alabama: ‘That dude’s a beast’

Ole Miss quarterback Jaxson Dart kept glancing up at the TV in the postgame interview room at South Carolina while answering questions about a 27-3 road win.

Eventually, he was asked a question about what Dart was witnessing on screen, the biggest upset the sport’s seen this season, a 40-35 Vanderbilt win over then-No. 1 Alabama.

More specifically, Dart was asked if the Commodores beating the Crimson Tide, one week removed from Alabama taking down Georgia, is an example of how crazy the SEC, and the college game overall, is right now.

“Yeah, absolutely,” Dart said.

Then he pointed at Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia on the TV.

“That dude’s a beast, Pavia. He fires me up,” Dart added before continuing.

“The SEC is the closest thing to the NFL. You hear people say that all the time, but it really is. It’s unpredictable each and every week. If you’re not really on your shit, you can slip up and lose. And that goes for anybody, any team — that game says it all, too, just like us last week. So it’s definitely really fun to play in. It can get stressful at times, but you got to stay on your toes and be ready each and every week.”

Dart alluded to it, but now-No. 9 Ole Miss suffered a 20-17 home loss to Kentucky the week prior. While the Wildcats have rebounded since, it’s worth noting that they lost their SEC opener, 31-6, to South Carolina, which the Rebels just blew out.

Five teams ranked in the top 11 of last week’s AP Poll lost over the weekend. None of those defeats were more surprising than Alabama’s. Pavia was the heartbeat of that shocker, and Dart took note.

Diego Pavia: ‘We knew what we could do’ vs. Alabama

Vanderbilt had never defeated an AP-ranked top-five team, according to SportRadar. The Commodores were 0-60 in those games, the most losses without a win of that caliber in NCAA history.

“I feel like just the outside is shocked, but, internally, we knew what we could do,” Pavia said postgame. “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.

Pavia outdueled Alabama quarterback and Heisman Trophy candidate Jalen Milroe, throwing for 252 yards and two touchdowns while completing 16-of-20 passes, not to mention the New Mexico graduate transfer’s additional 56 yards on the ground.

The Commodores staked themselves to a 23-7 lead, in large part thanks to a pick-six from linebacker Randon Fontenette and two touchdowns from running back Sedrick Alexander. They held on the rest of the way, despite a Crimson Tide comeback bid that saw them pull within one score of Vanderbilt twice in the second half.

What transpired Saturday in Nashville was monumental for the program, and for head coach Clark Lea, who is in his fourth year at the helm after coming over from Notre Dame, where he was the defensive coordinator for three seasons.

“A lot of people don’t understand, but Coach Lea has been trying to flip it for so long, and you can tell that he’s hurt inside because no one has really went behind him,” Pavia said. “When he gets someone to push behind, and I feel like that’s the whole team — we’re all around him, we’re behind him — he leads the way, and we just attack it, what he has planned for us.”

Vanderbilt is now 3-2, including 1-1 in SEC play. The Commodores easily could be 5-0 and undefeated in conference competition. They dropped a double-overtime game to Missouri on Sept. 21 and stomached a dramatic, four-point defeat to Georgia State the week before that.

Lea’s squad caught the nation’s attention when it upset Virginia Tech in overtime, 34-27, to kick off the 2024 campaign. Vanderbilt already has more victories than it did during its two-win effort last season.