It’s not just coach speak when Josh Heupel props up the Vanderbilt Commodores this year. When he talks about the challenges his team will face against that offense, he’s talking about a team that beat the Alabama Crimson Tide.
Although averaging just 27 points per game, Vandy is putting up 30.6 points per game at home, which is where this game will be. They dropped 40 on Alabama and even 24 on the Texas Longhorns in Nashville. At the heart of their success is quarterback Diego Pavia. Heupel referred to him as “dynamic.”
“It”s quarterback run game,” Heupsl said. “He has unique ability to extend and make plays outside of the scope of of the play call, too.”
For the year, Pavia has completed 156 of 260 passes for 2,029 yards, 16 touchdowns and just three interceptions. That’s a 60 percent completion rate and an average of 7.8 yards per attempt.
On the ground, Pavia actually leads the team in rushing, as he has 165 carries for 671 yards and six more touchdowns. He transferred to Vandy from the New Mexico State Aggies, and his head coach there, former Minnesota Golden Gophers head coach Jerry Kill, followed to be Vandy’s offensive coordinator.
“He just, in the read game, first-level players, running triple option off of it, all type of read schemes, drop-back situations, extending and scrambling and making plays, he’s done a really good job for them, and he’s one of the keys to the game for us,” Heupel said of Pavia. “Certainly, defensively, he’s the key to the game.”
There was a bit of a similarity between Pavia and who the Vols just faced in UTEP Miners quarterback Skyler Locklear.
“Their guy extended plays and made plays outside of the pocket,” Heupel said of Locklear. “Diego is a special player.”
Key for the Vols will obviously be to contain Pavia. They did that with Jalen Milroe back in October when facing Alabama. However, against UTEP, middle linebacker Jeremiah Telander, who is primarily responsible for containment, just had a PFF grade of 47.8.
Before that, against the Georgia Bulldogs, Telander had a PFF grade of 58.2, and that’s against a drop-back passer in Carson Beck. He’s had just one tackle in each of the past two games. UT will need him to dramatically improve against Vandy.
“You can’t just let him sit back there, but when you’re applying pressure, you got to do a great job of having lane integrity and not letting him get out the backside of the pocket, and that happened to us a couple times the other (day against UTEP),” Heupel said. “Within your twist games, you got to continue to keep your lane integrity as well, and that happens off of your pressures too.”
Pressure was what Heupel kept coming back to. Vandy has only allowed 14 sacks on the year, which is tied for 26th best in the nation. The Vols are 42nd in the nation in sacks with 26.
Last week, UT sacked UTEP four times. However, in their last SEC game against the Georgia Bulldogs, they had no sacks and registered just two tackles for a loss. The key will be staying in position = contain Pavia while being able to take advantage of the big-play opportunities.
“Your pressure’s got to maintain that, so it’s a dynamic player with his feet at the quarterback spot,” Heupel said. “You can’t just let him sit back in the pocket all day long, so you got to apply pressure, but while you’re doing that, you got to be able to to come off and make plays, so that’s the balance that you got to be on the right side of on game day.”
With James Pearce Jr., Joshua Josephs and a host of other elite edge rushers, the opportunities for big plays will certainly be there. Key is how the linebackers respond.
