Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia is popping to a controversial football figure for advice ahead of the upcoming NFL Draft.
The polarizing quarterback revealed that he’s connecting with former Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Johnny Manziel — who’s had his own run-ins with controversy — for advice and mentorship because the draft inches closer.
“He’s giving me what to look out for, what it’s like, learn how to stay in the method,” Pavia told reporters on the NFL Mix in Indianapolis on Friday, February 28. “And, you recognize, he’s given me some good advice, obviously.”
He continued, “And he all the time reaches out, too, checks up on me, makes sure I’m good, and he just, like, he’s only a friend to me, you recognize? And so he’s giving me some mentorship. He’s been around me, he’s been around my family. He’s just an ideal person for those that actually don’t know him.”
Pavia finished second on this yr’s Heisman Trophy voting — behind Indiana quarterback and national champion Fernando Mendoza — after putting up impressive numbers in his final yr at Vanderbilt. Pavia led the Commodores to a 10-2 season with 3,192 passing yards, 27 touchdowns and only eight interceptions. He added 826 yards and nine touchdowns on the bottom.
Just like Manziel’s story, Pavia’s profession has been rife with controversy, boiling over on the Heisman Trophy ceremony when Pavia posted disparaging messages to Heisman voters and the Indiana football team on his social media. He later apologized for the posts.
Pavia said on Friday that NFL teams haven’t asked him about those eye-opening social media posts.
“Nope, they haven’t,” Pavia told reporters. “I just think, not that they don’t care or whatever, but they form of know the situation already.”
Diego Pavia speaks to the media in the course of the 2026 NFL Draft Mix Michael Hickey/Getty Images
He continued, “One thing about me is I don’t care what people take into consideration me. God has a plan for me regardless. But the best way the media is, they’re imagined to put out clickbait and things like that. That’s how people get views, and that’s how people generate income. I understand that. And so people will twist a story and check out to place out bad media to get clicks, good media to get clicks. That’s just today’s world that we live in. So I’m just adjusting to the brand new world.”
Manziel had his own string of trouble throughout his college profession and into his transient NFL profession.
His time at Texas A&M was marred with controversy leading as much as the 2014 NFL Draft, where he fell all of the approach to the No. 22 pick by the Cleveland Browns after he was projected to be chosen in the highest five.
He played just 14 games within the NFL — all with the Browns — and was cut by the team after two seasons as a result of personal issues, including substance abuse.
Manziel has been open about his struggles with mental health and substance abuse, speaking on the subject within the 2023 Netflix documentary, Untold: Johnny Football.
“Once I had gotten the whole lot I’d ever wanted, I believe I used to be essentially the most empty that I ever felt inside,” he said. “I believe I used to be attempting to suppress how I felt and get out of being Johnny Football. [I] had bought a gun that I knew I used to be going to make use of. I had planned to do the whole lot that I desired to do at that time in my life, spend as much money as I possibly could, after which my plan was to take my very own life.”
For those who or someone you recognize is in emotional distress or considering suicide, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).