– by Adesina O. Koiki
A Lot of Sports Talk editor-in-chief
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NEW YORK — When Diego Pavia, college football quarterback and 2025 Heisman Trophy finalist, was looking for his next university to test his immense football talent that he already put on full display in the Land of Enchantment a few years prior, he decided to, in turn, spurn the mocking words made famous about his future home by a former Southeastern Conference star three decades prior.
Vanderbilt University, a charter member of the Southeastern Conference — the league widely considered college football’s best for at least a generation — is also the school that long has been derided as the institution keeping the conference’s cumulative grade point average afloat. Its constant presence as one of the top 50 academic schools in America in various rankings highlights that very fact, so much so that, reportedly, during a college football game just before the turn of the century, then Commodores’ tight end Todd Yoder — future NFL player and graduate of the school with a degree in chemistry — was on the receiving end of some trash talk dished out by then Mississippi State cornerback (and future Minnesota Viking) Fred Smoot, who yelled at him before a play, “I’ll let you make a catch on me if you do my homework.”
Pavia, now a Commodore (and nerd by osmosis?), was told about this alleged quote during Friday’s Heisman Trophy media availability, and though he wasn’t aware of its existence prior to today, he uttered this headline-topping riposte.
“I think we’ll do your homework and whoop your ass now, you know?,” a jovial-sounding Pavia said.
While the Commodores have had brief blips of football relevance amidst the powers they’re surrounded by in the football-mad South, Vanderbilt is undoubtedly experiencing the halcyon days of its gridiron program, mainly because of Pavia and his arrival in Nashville since his time as a junior college quarterback and, afterward, at New Mexico State. Last season, Pavia won SEC Newcomer of the Year while producing 28 total touchdowns (20 passing, eight on the ground) and throwing just four interceptions, adding 801 yards rushing to his impressive haul. In 2025, Pavia led Vanderbilt to its first-ever 10-win season as the Commodores finished on the cusp of inclusion into the College Football Playoff.
Talk about a smart move, huh? The avowed Johnny Manziel fan, Pavia, who also wears No. 2 like the former Heisman Trophy winner, did his best “Johnny Football” impersonation in the Southeastern Conference, even if running around in the black-and-gold of Vanderbilt is still a shock to the system to the old guard who almost always remembers the football program as an automatic “W” for its opponents.
“The SEC is the greatest division in sports,” Pavia said to A Lot of Sports Talk. “I think just the passionate fans, the coaches, the drama that goes on, the hype to leading up to it. I’ve always wanted to play in the SEC. And so to do it at a school where it wasn’t really known for playing the SEC, I think that’s what makes even the story better.”
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