2 weeks Ago By Adam D. Busack
For the second consecutive week, Missouri's defense will be tested by a dual-threat quarterback with game-breaking, big-play ability. Vanderbilt (2-1) landed a major target in the offseason via the transfer portal in graduate quarterback Diego Pavia, who joined the Commodores with a bevy of career accolades. On the field, Pavia presents an unpredictable yet widely successful play style that could give the Tigers' defense as much as they can handle when they host Vanderbilt on Saturday afternoon.
"(The Commodores) utilize their quarterback — Diego — in a lot of different ways, and he gives them a chance on every single play to be explosive," Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz said. A two-year starter for New Mexico State, Pavia transferred to the Commodores following a dominant 2023 season, in which he was named Conference USA Offensive Player of the Year for his efforts piloting the Aggies to just their second 10-win season in program history. The Albuquerque, New Mexico, native, who held zero FBS offers out of high school, arrived at New Mexico State as a junior after leading the New Mexico Military Institute to a junior college national championship in 2021.
In just two seasons leading the offense in Las Cruces, New Mexico, Pavia left quite the legacy, finishing ninth all-time in passing yards (4,260) and sixth all-time in passing touchdowns (39) in Aggies' program history. Among New Mexico State quarterbacks, Pavia's 1,431 rushing yards also rank second in team history. " Pavia is the definition of 'college scrappy,'" Channel 6 and the Shutdown Fullcast's Spencer Hall said.
" Just that process of starting at New Mexico State, historically one of the bottom feeder programs in college football, (and transitioning) to Vanderbilt, it's impressive. "I would describe his style of play as what would happen if you put a high school state champion wrestler in at quarterback," Hall added of Pavia, who was a decorated wrestler at Volcano Vista High School in Albuquerque. "I say that knowing full well that he body slammed that guy on Auburn last year," referencing Auburn cornerback Nehemia Pritchett, who was on the receiving end of a hit delivered by Pavia following a first-quarter interception on Nov.
18, 2023. Pavia, who was flagged for unnecessary roughness on the play, would go on to lead the Aggies to a 31-10 upset win over Auburn. The senior signal caller has brought that intensity to Vanderbilt, where he has already passed for 543 yards and four touchdowns this season while rushing for 195 yards and two touchdowns on top of that.
Pavia's dual-threat ability is reminiscent of Boston College quarterback Thomas Castellanos, who the Missouri defense had to neutralize in its 27-21 victory over Boston College last Saturday. Unlike Castellanos' escapability, however, Pavia profiles as a power-run style quarterback. "Diego is a different style runner than Castellanos.
He's more physical downhill ," Drinkwitz said. "Being a trench mob affiliate, you gotta love stuff like that," Missouri defensive lineman Kristian Williams said. .
.."You never shy away from contact.
" Despite profiling as an elite runner, Pavia, who will also likely eclipse 5,000 career passing yards on Saturday in what will be just his 31st game over three seasons at the FBS level, has already shown an ability to attack the field in multiple ways this season. In Week 1, Pavia earned SEC Offensive Player of the Week honors after leading the underdog Commodores upset Virginia Tech 34-27 in overtime in Nashville, Tennessee. Pavia tallied 294 all-purpose yards, three total touchdowns and 4 yards per rush in the victory.
He completed 12-of-16 passes for 190 yards in the performance while adding 104 via the rush. A similar performance from Pavia will be key for the Commodores in order to capture their second upset win of the season. For Missouri, containing the dual-threat quarterback will be paramount to handling business as it looks to remain undefeated.
The Tigers' focus will center on preventing Pavia from escaping the pocket, extending plays, and opening up the field with his feet. The Tigers had success in those three aspects in last weekend's contest against Castellanos and Boston College. Castellanos only managed to scramble for 16 total yards across 13 attempts on the afternoon and was sacked twice.
The quarterback did manage to uncork 16 completions for 249 yards and three touchdowns, but his numbers were inflated by a fluky 67-yard touchdown to receiver Reed Harris on a broken play which saw Missouri's secondary abandon their post completely in pursuit of a botched snap. Castellanos was also intercepted twice. "All three games have actually been good preparation for this opener in the SEC.
.. There's some schematic things that are similar," Drinkwitz said about facing the dual-threat quarterbacks back-to-back weeks.
"I think it's there's some of that stuff that will carry." Statistically, Pavia and Castellanos feature similar passer profiles, albeit for Castellanos' nine touchdown passes to Pavia's four . Both quarterbacks possess completion percentages of 65% on the season, and Castellanos' 589 passing yards on the season are only marginally better than Pavia's 543.
On the run, however, the quarterbacks differ. Pavia scrambles more than twice as often as Castellanos — 54 times this year as compared to the Boston College quarterback's 28 — and has scored twice as many touchdowns as Castellanos. The statistical differences mean that while the quarterbacks boast similarities in play style, Missouri will have a different plan of attack against Pavia.
From a scheme perspective, the Tigers rushed just three men on the vast majority of plays in Week 3. The crux of Missouri defensive coordinator Corey Batoon's game plan, it seemed, was to limit the dual-threat quarterback to just a single threat. But, one can't necessarily assume that Missouri will attack Pavia in the same way.
"I don't think that our approach to pass rush will have to be the same," Drinkwitz said. "We do have to contain him, but ultimately, we look back at the plan and maybe there's some more opportunities for us to create pressure." Aiming to utilize a new blueprint for defensive success against Pavia, the Tigers will attempt to steer clear of an upset when they host Vanderbilt at 3:15 p.
m. Saturday at Memorial Stadium..
