NASHVILLE, Tenn. — For the first time in over a decade Vanderbilt football has multiple first-team All-SEC selections with the announcement Tuesday that both Diego Pavia and Eli Stowers have been honored on the team selected by the league’s 16 head coaches.
The last time Commodores had two first-team honorees in a season was 2013, when both Kenny Ladler and Jordan Matthews were recognized, while it’s the first occasion since the 2005 campaign—when Earl Bennett and Jay Cutler accomplished the feat—that multiple Dores from the offensive side of the ball have earned the honor.
This also marks the second year in a row that Stowers has been voted first-team all-league, making him the first Commodore to achieve the feat since Zach Cunningham in 2015 and ’16.
Pavia was announced as a Heisman Trophy finalist Monday night, and he has already been named the 2025 Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award® winner this season. The graduate quarterback—who hails from Albuquerque, New Mexico—was selected the SEC Offensive Player of the Week on three occasions this fall and earned multiple national player of the week honors from both Walter Camp and the Associated Press.
On the season, Pavia has recorded 4,018 yards of total offense and accounted for 36 touchdowns, including throwing for 3,192 yards and running for an additional 826. He leads the SEC with a 171.5 pass efficiency rating, 27 touchdown passes and a 71.2 completion percentage as well as in total offense.
Stowers is a finalist for both the William V. Campbell Trophy® and John Mackey Award this season as well as a semifinalist for the Jason Witten Collegiate Man of the Year Award and the Earl Campbell Tyler Rose Award. The Denton, Texas, resident was also the only tight end among the 13 semifinalists for the Lombardi Award™ this fall.
He has posted 62 receptions for 769 yards and four touchdowns in 2025, not only pacing the Commodores in the first two categories but leading all tight ends nationally in catches as well. Stowers was selected the John Mackey Award Tight End of the Week after catching seven passes for a career-best 146 yards and two scores in Vandy’s matchup with nationally-ranked Texas, and he was named to the Earl Campbell Tyler Rose Award Honorable Mention List after that contest as well as following a 12-reception, 122-yard performance in a victory over Auburn.
Stowers and Pavia have helped lead the Dores to a 10-2 record, a place among the top 15 in the College Football Playoff, Associated Press and ACFA coaches’ rankings, and a berth in the ReliaQuest Bowl this season. Vanderbilt will face Iowa in Tampa, Florida, with the matchup set to air on ESPN at 11 a.m. CT on Dec. 31.
