Hugh Freeze on Diego Pavia: “I'm sick of seeing that quarterback"

“I”m sick of seeing that quarterback, I’ve had enough of him," Freeze joked when referring to Pavia on Monday. "He moves and makes plays and is savvy and is smart and tough and again makes everybody do their assignment on every single play or you get burned."

Pavia will look to move to 3-0 against Freeze on Saturday and to lead Vanderbilt to its first bowl game since 2018.

The Vanderbilt quarterback won't be able to do that alone, though. Offensive coordinator Tim Beck's scheme will have to complement Pavia, too.

Freeze made a comparison to contextualize Beck's scheme and Vanderbilt's identity.

"You’re basically playing Navy," Freeze said of Vanderbilt. "It doesn’t look just like Navy, but Alabama had 44 real snaps of offensive football against them."

Freeze has also taken note of Vanderbilt head coach Clark Lea, who he feels is a coach to be noted among the SEC's landscape.

The Auburn coach also feels as if Lea should be noted in the national landscape.

"Clark’s I think is one of the best head coaches in the game," Freeze said. "The job Clark Lea and his staff have done there, to be in the games and to have a chance to win all the games they’re playing against the nation’s elite is just so impressive."

The climb has taken time for Lea's program, which finished last season 2-10, but Freeze sees it coming to fruition after four seasons.

"You get time to really establish your culture and your locker room and people that believe in your system you should be better when that fourth year rolls around and I think that’s definitely there [at Vanderbilt]."

Vanderbilt's culture has also transformed into an identity. Lea's team wants to be different and play keep away against teams like Auburn.

In Freeze's mind that gives Vanderbilt some backbone.

"They’re just playing with so much confidence and they know who they are," Freeze said.