On Saturday, Texas football will return to Royal-Memorial Stadium for the first time in 42 days. And guess who’s coming to dinner?
Well, not dinner. Saturday will be more like a brunch since kickoff is set for 11 a.m. But when No. 20 Texas plays its first home game since Sept. 20, No. 9 Vanderbilt and star quarterback Diego Pavia will be on the opposing sideline.
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NO. 20 TEXAS VS. NO. 9 VANDERBILT
When/where: 11 a.m. Saturday at Royal-Memorial Stadium.
TV/radio: ABC; 1300 AM, 98.1 FM, 105.3 FM
More: Steve Sarkisian on Texas QB Arch Manning’s outlook for Vanderbilt
This season, Pavia has emerged as one of college football’s top quarterbacks. The sixth-year senior has thrown for 1,698 yards, rushed for a team-leading 458 and tallied 20 total touchdowns. He ranks third in the SEC in both completion percentage and passing efficiency. As Texas coach Steve Sarkisian put it Monday, “Obviously, the quarterback is the tip of the spear.”
“All the praise that he’s getting is well-deserved,” Sarkisian said. “He’s a very good football player. One thing about playing quarterback, it’s not always about the passes you throw. It’s not always about the runs you make. It’s about instilling belief in your teammates and instilling belief in your organization and instilling belief in your fan base. I think Diego Pavia has done that for that program.”
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Vanderbilt Commodores quarterback Diego Pavia (2) heads to the end zone against Texas during the first half of their game at FirstBank Stadium in Nashville, Tenn., Saturday, Oct. 26, 2024. He scored on the play.
Denny Simmons, The Tennessean
Could Texas prevent Diego Pavia from having a Heisman moment?
Pavia is considered a Heisman Trophy contender. According to both DraftKings and the FanDuel Sportsbook, he has the fifth-best odds to win the Heisman. Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza is currently considered to be the front-runner.
Excluding the handful of Heisman Trophy winners who crossed paths with Texas at bowl games, the Longhorns have faced 15 players during the season they won college football’s biggest prize. The future Heisman Trophy winners went 12-4 against UT, and certainly some of their performances resonated with voters:
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Baylor’s Robert Griffin III secured his Heisman in 2011 when he closed out the regular season against Texas with 320 passing yards and four touchdowns, and LSU’s Joe Burrow (471 passing yards and four touchdowns in 2019), Oklahoma’s Sam Bradford (387 passing yards and five touchdowns in 2008) and Houston’s Andre Ware (411 passing yards and four touchdowns in 1989) all stacked their stat sheets against the UT secondary.
In two games against Texas in 2018, Oklahoma’s Kyler Murray accounted for 814 yards of offense and eight touchdowns. Colorado running back Rashaan Salaam piled up 362 all-purpose yards against the Longhorns in 1994, and Doak Walker scored twice, threw a touchdown pass and kicked three extra points during SMU’s 1948 takedown of Texas.
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Texas first faced a Heisman Trophy winner in 1938 (TCU’s Davey O’Brien). Its last such showdown happened in 2019. In the five seasons since Burrow was crowned, Texas has also played just one Heisman finalist and the Longhorns weren’t statistically slaughtered by TCU’s Max Duggan in 2022.
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On Monday, Texas defenders were looking forward to playing Pavia. The Longhorns, though, said there weren’t any fears about ending up on a Heisman Trophy candidate’s highlight reel.
“I wouldn’t say anybody is really scared,” defensive lineman Hero Kanu said. “We all play the sport that we love, so we definitely have fun doing it, and we obviously want to go against the best competition.”
Said edge rusher Ethan Burke: “Obviously we respect him, but we also believe in ourselves and I think we’re a talented group.”
Texas edge rusher Trey Moore applies pressure on Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia during the Longhorns’ win on Oct. 27 in Nashville. Moore broke UTSA’s school record for sacks in 2023 prior to transferring to Texas this year.
Denny Simmons/The Tennessean
It isn’t easy to prepare for Diego Pavia, who hasn’t forgotten last year
Last year, Texas mostly kept Pavia in check during a 27-24 win in Nashville. Pavia gave the Commodores an early lead with an 18-yard touchdown run, but he was held to 143 passing yards. Pavia threw two touchdown passes in a game that wasn’t decided until the final seconds, but he was also intercepted twice.
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“As a quarterback, I feel like I put the blame on myself for every loss that we have,” Pavia said at this summer’s SEC media days. “Texas, that’s where two of my interceptions came by tip balls and so I need to get better. I need to find those throwing lanes. We score on one of those, then it flips. I’ve just got to be better in my craft and what I do. We’re going to Austin this year so it’ll be a super exciting environment.”
More: Five things to know about upcoming SEC foe Vanderbilt
Sarkisian said preparing for Pavia presents a unique challenge for the Longhorns’ defensive coaches and players. Texas must be ready for Pavia and the rapport he’s developed with tight end Eli Stowers (31 receptions for 397 yards) and receivers Junior Sherrill (26-312) and Tre Richardson (24-304), and the Longhorns can’t get caught slipping when Vanderbilt uses the triple-option plays in its playbook or calls a run designed specifically for its quarterback.
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Pavia can also ad-lib, and Sarkisian pointed out that last year’s touchdown run against the Longhorns was an improvised play.
“He’s versatile,” Kanu analyzed. “Oftentimes you see quarterbacks that can run and struggle with passing the ball. For him, I feel like he’s got a balanced game. He can run the ball, but he can also pass it while also being very confident in his game.”