It’s fitting that Halloween falls during Vanderbilt-Auburn Week, because Tigers head coach Hugh Freeze is about to receive his third straight visit from the nightmare that is Diego Pavia.
Across a total of four schools and two time zones, Pavia, now the Commodores’ quarterback, has chased, bothered and harassed Freeze. This weekend, the two will meet for the third year in a row as Vanderbilt travels to the Plains. It’s not a matchup anyone would have imagined before the season, but it’s a game both teams desperately need, for very different reasons.
Vanderbilt and Auburn are, at this point, literal mirror images of each other. The Commodores are 5-3, the Tigers 3-5. Vanderbilt is a historic doormat experiencing unprecedented success in the modern era; Auburn is a former national champion who spent a decade searching for answers. Vanderbilt beat Alabama; Auburn is on a three-game losing streak in the Iron Bowl. Oh, and while Auburn is still searching for answers at quarterback. Vanderbilt has found a generation in Pavia.
“I’m sick of seeing that quarterback,” Freeze joked earlier this week. “I’ve had enough of him.”
You can understand why. In 2022, Pavia and New Mexico State defeated the Freeze’s Liberty team 49-14. All Pavia did was throw for three touchdowns and rush for three more, throwing for 214 yards and rushing for 125. As jarring as it was, the following year was even more impactful.
Freeze jumped from Liberty to Auburn ahead of the 2023 season. Late in the year, the Pavia Aggies stormed Auburn and proceeded to defeat the Tigers by a score of 31-10. Pavia threw “only” three touchdowns and ran “only” 35 yards.
“Last year when we played (Pavia), I think the first time we touched the ball in the first quarter was with 5:05 left,” Freeze said. “That’s uncomfortable. … He moves and makes plays and he’s sneaky and smart and tough and, again, he makes everyone do their homework on every play or you get burned. It’s three yards here, even on a broken play, and it’s four yards, and it’s third-and-three and they get three and a half.”
So, if you’re keeping track, Pavia has posted two wins, nine touchdowns and an overall score of 80-24 on teams led by Freeze. Yes, we would be sick of him too.
Pavia entered the transfer portal at the end of last season. When former New Mexico State head coach Jerry Kill joined Vanderbilt’s staff as a consultant, Pavia decided his future also lay in Nashville and jumped to the ‘Dores. The measure has borne enormous fruits; Pavia was completely untouchable in Vandy’s upset win over Alabama, and Texas had trouble eliminating him and the Commodores last week.
“What a competitor he is and the job that (head coach) Clark Lea and his staff have done there,” Freeze said. “Being in the games and having the opportunity to win every game they’re playing against the nation’s players.” the elite is so impressive.”
With two conference losses in a crowded SEC, Vanderbilt is likely out looking for a playoff spot. But the fact that the Commodores aren’t on the bottom looking up is a huge improvement, and Pavia’s improvisational genius and unpredictability have helped burnish Vanderbilt’s once-irrelevant reputation. After that win at Alabama, no one is taking the Commodores for granted this year.
I wish the same applied to Auburn? Under Freeze, the team has struggled immensely, unable to find any sort of identity on either side of the ball. Before last week’s win over Kentucky, Auburn had lost four straight SEC games and the grumbling had begun in the stands and suites of Jordan-Hare Stadium.
Frost can point to next year as a sign that better days are on the horizon; tigers have at the moment. (Warning: They are still behind three SEC teams, Alabama, LSU and Georgia, and Ohio State.) If Freeze can retain all of those recruits, he’ll have plenty of talent to start moving up.
But first he’ll have to get past Vanderbilt. And if Pavia manages to achieve a third consecutive victory against Freeze, their nightmare will last much longer than Saturday afternoon.