Vanderbilt running back Chase Gillespie flipped it to wide receiver Quincy Skinner whose eyes opened up. Skinner had a lead blocker and room to run as he operated the end around. Wait... Is that lead blocker who it looks like? He won't actually throw a block, right?

POP... OH CRAP.

Vanderbilt's maniac quarterback Diego Pavia, who is just 6-feet tall and weighs just 200 pounds, charged at 6-foot-6, 265 pound defensive lineman Joshua Robinson and put Robinson on the ground.

Turns out the do it all quarterback did have one more trick up his sleeve. On Friday he showed all those tricks--and flair like only he has--off for the final time of the 2024 season.

Simply put; the magic was back for Pavia and Vanderbilt on Friday.

"I told coach [Jerry Kill] 'I'm not losing today,'" Pavia said.

Pavia threw for just 160 yards in Vanderbilt's 35-27 win over Georgia Tech, but his stardom was on full display. The veteran quarterback went for 244 all-purpose yards on Friday as well as five touchdowns, two of which came on the ground.

Perhaps Pavia's starpower is best expressed in a down moment, though.

The Vanderbilt quarterback ran four yards before going out of bounds and flipping the ball into the stands to a trash-talking Georgia Tech fan. Pavia was assessed an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty that cost Vanderbilt 15 yards.

That seemingly boneheaded play had a kicker, though. Pavia got all 15 yards back on the next play. As one does.

Vanderbilt got the full, healthy Pavia experience on Friday. That experience is pretty dang cool.

"I don't know that there was a more perfect person to quarterback this team and to quarterback this program moving forward," Vanderbilt coach Clark Lea said. "Diego did a great job orchestrating it from the quarterback position. When we needed him to create, he created."

It also results in production.

Pavia's cajones in the red zone resulted in three of his targets going home with touchdown catches, his elusiveness resulted in long runs and off-schedule throws. Most of all, what he showed on Friday resulted in a Vanderbilt win.

The Commodores moved to 7-6 on the back of a fully healthy Pavia and cemented themselves as a special team within Vanderbilt's history.

They did that with the help of an experience. The fullness of that experience was tangible on Friday.

"He deserved that game," Lea said of Pavia.