The College GameDay set in Nashville erupted Saturday morning when Pat McAfee delivered what might be the most memorable Heisman endorsement of the 2025 season.
Whilst answering the Heisman favorite question via the College Gameday Dashboard, McAfee went through a list of potential candidates:
“So, what this man (Fernando Mendoza) has done for Bloomington, Indiana. Absolutely outrageous”, McAfee began (0:13)
“This guy (Ty Simpson), starting out real rocky, has now flipped Alabama into maybe the best resume in all of sports. This dude( Julian Sayin) unbelievable”, he explained (0:18)
.@PatMcAfeeShow has the crowd fired up after picking Diego Pavia to win the Heisman 🔥 pic.twitter.com/FwNerImF5w
— College GameDay (@CollegeGameDay) October 25, 2025
However, in front of the Vanderbilt crowd, McAfee pointed his stick at Diego Pavia’s name on the College GameDay dashboard.
“But how could you not say? The man (while pointing to Pavia’s name) that turned the heart of the South into a football team”, Pat exclaimed (0:26).
“Diego Pavia. I mean, we talked about this transforming an entire city, a program, an organization. He’s got to be the guy”, he further elaborated (0:36).
Pavia, through seven games this season, has a total of 1,569 yards, 15 touchdown passes and 438 rushing yards.
Vanderbilt Commodores and Diego Pavia Off to Impressive 6-1 Start to the Season
Vanderbilt has a record of 6-1 this season, while ranking 10th in the AP poll, its best ranking since 1947.
“It got overwhelming the last few weeks… I wasn’t really chasing God, so He was there to humble me… I just wanna chase Him and encourage everyone to chase Him.”
– Vanderbilt QB Diego Pavia after defeating #10 LSU pic.twitter.com/G1SXuUJngU— Jon Root (@JonnyRoot_) October 19, 2025
Meanwhile, Vanderbilt has officially launched its full-scale Heisman push for Diego Pavia recently, with complete dedicated web pages and social media content highlighting his leadership and on-field production.
In late 2024, Pavia won a landmark injunction when he argued that junior college seasons should not count against NCAA eligibility limits.
The NCAA had already granted him a waiver to play through the remainder of the season and his lawyers want to move this case to a class action that could change the rules of eligibility permanently for incoming JUCO transfers.
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