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The Athletic
nytimes.com > athletic > 6848446 > 11/30/2025 > diego-pavia-vanderbilt-heisman-playoff

Diego Pavia talked boldly — and proved it in Knoxville: ‘People thought I was a fool’

4+ hour, 17+ min ago (1102+ words) Vanderbilt routed Tennessee in its first win against the Vols since 2017. Johnnie Izquierdo / Getty Images KNOXVILLE, Tenn. " Clark Lea didn't know where the cigars came from. He didn't know who brought them or even that they had been stowed away on the Vanderbilt team buses. But he liked what the cloud of smoke billowing from the raucous, cramped low ceilings of the visitor's locker room at Neyland Stadium meant for his team and program, which hadn't celebrated there since 2017. "It speaks to the confidence of our team," said Lea after the No. 14 Commodores took down No. 19 Tennessee 45-24. And this win? It was different. Vanderbilt's 2017 team won a slap fight against a Tennessee team with an interim coach to earn its only SEC victory of the season against a team that went 0-8 in SEC play. This game? It was the first…...

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