NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Vanderbilt football’s historic season has resulted in the Commodores collecting SEC Coach of the Year and SEC Newcomer of the Year.
Head coach Clark Lea was selected Coach of the Year by a vote of the league’s coaches, while quarterback Diego Pavia became the league’s first-ever SEC Newcomer of the Year. It is the first time since Warren Norman was selected SEC Freshman of the Year in 2009 that Vanderbilt has collected an SEC individual postseason award from the league’s coaches.
Lea is the first SEC Coach of the Year on West End since Bobby Johnson, Lea’s own coach as a player at Vandy, in 2008. Johnson led the Commodores to a 7-6 mark and Music City Bowl win, Vandy’s first bowl win since 1955. He shared the award with Alabama’s Nick Saban and Houston Nutt from Ole Miss, meaning the last time a Vanderbilt coach won the award outright was in 1982 when George MacIntyre led Vandy to an 8-4 mark and berth in the Hall of Fame Bowl.
Pavia collects the SEC’s first-ever Newcomer of the Year award. Separate from the Freshman of the Year, Newcomer of the Year recognizes the top transfer student-athlete who has not previously competed in the SEC and is not a freshman in eligibility status.
Lea has the Commodores in the postseason for the first time since 2018 as they will head to the Birmingham Bowl (Dec. 27 vs. Georgia Tech) in search of the program’s first winning season since 2013. Along the way, Lea was named Associated Press Mid-Season Coach of the Year after accomplishing a series historic marks.
Vanderbilt won six of its first nine games for the first time since 1982, won at Auburn’s Jordan-Hare Stadium for the first time ever, defeated Alabama and Auburn in the same season for the first time since 1955, was ranked in the Associated Press poll for the first time since the conclusion of the 2013 season, played a game as a ranked team for the first time since the 2012 Music City Bowl and played a regular season game while ranked for the first time since 2008.
The Commodores finished the season with their most points per game since 2018 and fewest points allowed per game since 2015. The plus-3.6 scoring margin for the season was the first positive mark since 2018 and just the fifth time the Commodores outscored their opponents on the season since 1983.
On special teams, Vanderbilt finished the season ranked third in FBS in ESPN’s Football Power Index Special Teams Efficiency. The Commodores boast three All-SEC specialists in punter Jesse Mirco, kicker Brock Taylor and return specialist Martel Hight. Taylor has set the Vanderbilt record for career 50-yard field goals during his freshman season of eligibility and Hight had the first punt return for a touchdown by a Commodore since 2012. Mirco led the SEC with 48.0 yards per punt. Vandy also boasted Patrick Mannelly Award semifinalist Julian Ashby at long snapper.
With a strength of schedule that ranked eighth nationally according to ESPN’s Football Power Index and included four games against AP-ranked teams, Vanderbilt also improved when playing the best the SEC has to offer. Over Lea’s first two seasons, Vanderbilt was outscored by ranked opponents by an average of 40.6 points in eight games. In four games this season, the margin was down to 3.5 points per contest.
The highlight came on Oct. 5 when Vanderbilt defeated then-No. 1 Alabama, 40-35, at FirstBank Stadium. It marked the first time in program history Vandy defeated the nation’s top-ranked team in the AP poll, as well as its first-ever win over an AP top-five team. Vanderbilt had previously been 0-10 against the No. 1 team and 0-60 versus teams in the top five.
Vanderbilt was twice named the Football Writers Association Cheez-It Team of the Week. The first was for a season-opening overtime win over Virginia Tech. The second came for the victory over the Crimson Tide. Vandy was the first team to win Cheez-It Team of the Week twice in the same season since 2005 and just the third since the inception of the award.
Leading the way on the field for Lea’s Commodores was newly minted SEC Newcomer of the Year Diego Pavia. Arriving on campus this summer following stints at New Mexico State and New Mexico Military Institute, Pavia quickly became a leader and was voted a captain by his teammates.
The results showed immediately when he engineered the win over the Hokies in the opener. He was the only FBS quarterback to eclipse 100 passing and 100 receiving yards in Week 1 and remained one of the top dual-threat quarterbacks in the country all season.
Named a semifinalist for the Maxwell Award and Davey O’Brien Award, Pavia threw the fewest interceptions by a Vanderbilt quarterback since at least 1996 (minimum 200 attempts) and had the second-fewest interceptions among SEC quarterbacks this season with at least 250 attempts.
On the ground, no Power 4 quarterback had more rushing yards at the conclusion of the regular season as he went for a Vanderbilt quarterback-record 716 yards on the ground. He was fourth among Power 4 signal-callers with 28 rushes of at least 10 yards on the season.
For his career, Pavia leads active Power 4 quarterbacks with 2,147 rushing yards, while his 6,556 career passing yards are eighth among active FBS quarterbacks.
Pavia was a two-time Davey O’Brien Great 8 selection, two-time SEC Offensive Player of the Week and collected Manning Award Star of the Week, Davey O’Brien National Quarterback of the Week and Maxwell Award Player of the Week along the way.
He became the 13th quarterback since 2004 to defeat Alabama and Auburn in the same season and just the fourth do to so without playing in the SEC West (Stetson Bennett, Deshaun Watson, Matthew Stafford). He is the seventh quarterback in that same time frame to have at least three career wins over the Tigers and Tide, joining Jayden Daniels, Bennett, Joe Burrow, Jarrett Lee, Jordan Jefferson, Stafford and JaMarcus Russell.
In the Alabama win, Pavia recorded the highest completion percentage against the Tide since 2010. When he followed the Alabama win with a victory at Kentucky, he became the first SEC quarterback ever to record an 80 percent completion rate, at least two touchdown passes and 50 yards rushing in back-to-back wins. It was also the first time since at least 2002 that Vandy played consecutive SEC games without a three-and-out offensively.
Vanderbilt SEC Individual Postseason Honors
1935 · Most Valuable Player – Willie Geny
1937 · Most Valuable Player – Carl Hinkle
1937 · Coach of the Year – Ray Morrison
1941 · Most Valuable Player – Jack Jenkins
1941 · Jacobs Blocking Trophy – Jack Jenkins
1941 · Coach of the Year – Red Sanders
1942 · Jacobs Blocking Trophy – Jack Jenkins
1951 · Most Valuable Player – Bill Wade
1955 · Coach of the Year – Art Guepe
1967 · Most Valuable Player – Bob Goodridge
1982 · Coach of the Year – George MacIntyre
2002 · Freshman of the Year – Kwane Doster
2005 · Offensive Player of the Year – Jay Cutler
2008 · Coach of the Year – Bobby Johnson
2009 · Freshman of the Year – Warren Norman
2024 · Newcomer of the Year – Diego Pavia
2024 · Coach of the Year – Clark Lea
Lea, Pavia and the Commodores are preparing to face Georgia Tech in the Birmingham Bowl on Dec. 27. Kickoff is set for 2:30 p.m. on ESPN. Ticket and travel information is now available.
