NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Nobody is more tired of hearing how Vanderbilt should know its place than coach Clark Lea, and he has joined quarterback Diego Pavia talking about playing for a national championship.
Yes, in football. And yes, this season.
“I don’t think you can do something until you say it,” Lea said. “Changing a culture is hard, and this has been an environment that hasn’t given way to many winning seasons. ... There’s nothing about the history of this program to hold us back.”
Lea knows well the challenges. He played here himself, and t he Commodores going 7-6 record last season is the program’s first winning record since 2013 and just the fourth overall since 1983.
Lea believes he has his best team yet in his fifth season. He knows Vandy went 4-4 in games decided by eight points or less last season, including two overtime games. Pavia, who has made headlines all offseason talking about playing for a national title, said that means Vandy was as close to finishing 10-2 as 2-10.
Now Vanderbilt faces one of the SEC’s toughest road schedules featuring five games against Top 25 teams, three inside the Top 10.
The quarterback who made Vanderbilt history by leading an upset of then-No. 1 Alabama got an extra season thanks to a preliminary injunction granted by a federal judge. He threw for 2,293 yards and 20 touchdowns with four interceptions. Pavia also ran for 801 yards and eight more scores. He played with an injured hamstring over the final seven games, and Vanderbilt went 3-4 in that stretch.
The 6-foot-4, 235-pound tight end led Vanderbilt with 49 catches for 638 yards and five touchdowns. He had three games with at least 100 yards receiving. With Pavia back, so is Stowers who is a preseason AP All-American who could be the first tight end taken in the 2026 NFL draft.
Martel Hight is hoping to follow the path that took Travis Hunter to a Heisman Trophy last season. Hight had two interceptions and a forced fumble at cornerback last season, and Hight also returned a punt for a touchdown.
Now he's practicing at wide receiver, giving Pavia another target. Hight said he played against Hunter in high school when he played both offense and defense.
“Once I seen Travis do it, I was like, ‘Hey, Coach, let me do that,’” Hight said.
The Commodores open Aug. 30 hosting Charleston Southern followed by September visits from Georgia State and Utah State. The rest is a lot tougher, including a two-game road swing starting Sept. 6 at Virginia Tech and then No. 13 South Carolina. The true gauntlet starts Oct. 4 with a visit to No. 8 Alabama, back-to-back home games against No. 9 LSU on Oct. 18 and Missouri on Oct. 25 capped by a trip to No. 1 Texas on Nov. 1. The season finale is Nov. 29 at No. 24 Tennessee.
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FILE - Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia plays during the second half of an NCAA college football game against Tennessee, Nov. 30, 2024, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV, File)
FILE - Vanderbilt head coach Clark Lea yells from the sideline during the second half of an NCAA college football game against South Carolina, Nov. 9, 2024, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV, File)
FILE - Vanderbilt tight end Eli Stowers warms up before an NCAA college football game against Tennessee, Nov. 30, 2024, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado was at the White House on Thursday discussing her country's future with President Donald Trump even after he publicly dismissed her credibility to take over after an audacious U.S. military raid captured then-President Nicolás Maduro.
Trump has raised doubts about his stated commitment to backing democratic rule in Venezuela. His administration has signaled its willingness to work with acting President Delcy Rodríguez, who was Maduro’s vice president and, along with others in the deposed leader’s inner circle, remains in charge of day-to-day governmental operations.
In endorsing Rodríguez so far, Trump has sidelined Machado, who has long been a face of resistance in Venezuela and sought to cultivate relationships with Trump and key administration voices like Secretary of State Marco Rubio among the American right wing in a gamble to ally herself with the U.S. government.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump was expecting a positive discussion during the lunchtime meeting and called Machado “a remarkable and brave voice” for the people of Venezuela.
The White House said Machado sought the face-to-face meeting without setting expectations for what would occur. Her party is widely believed to have won 2024 elections rejected by Maduro. Machado previously offered to share with Trump the Nobel Peace Prize she won last year, an honor he has coveted.
Leavitt said Trump is committed to seeing Venezuela hold elections “one day,” but wouldn’t say when that might happen.
Machado plans to have a meeting at the Senate later Thursday. Trump has called her “a nice woman” while indicating they might not touch on major issues in their talks Thursday.
Her Washington swing began after U.S. forces in the Caribbean Sea seized another sanctioned oil tanker that the Trump administration says had ties to Venezuela. It is part of a broader U.S. effort to take control of the South American country’s oil after U.S. forces seized Maduro and his wife at a heavily guarded compound in the Venezuelan capital of Caracas and brought them to New York to stand trial on drug trafficking charges.
The White House says Venezuela has been fully cooperating with the Trump administration since Maduro’s ouster.
Rodríguez, the acting president, herself has adopted a less strident position toward Trump and his “America First” policies toward the Western Hemisphere, saying she plans to continue releasing prisoners detained under Maduro — a move thought to have been made at the behest of the Trump administration. Venezuela released several Americans this week.
Trump, a Republican, said Wednesday that he had a “great conversation” with Rodríguez, their first since Maduro was ousted.
“We had a call, a long call. We discussed a lot of things,” Trump said during an Oval Office bill signing. “And I think we’re getting along very well with Venezuela.”
Even before indicating the willingness to work with Venezuela's interim government, Trump was quick to snub Machado. Just hours after Maduro's capture, Trump said of Machado that “it would be very tough for her to be the leader. She doesn’t have the support within or the respect within the country.”
Machado has steered a careful course to avoid offending Trump, notably after winning last year’s Nobel Peace Prize, which Trump wanted to win himself. She has since thanked Trump. Her offer to share the peace prize with him was rejected by the Nobel Institute.
Machado’s whereabouts have been largely unknown since she went into hiding early last year after being briefly detained in Caracas. She briefly reappeared in Oslo, Norway, in December after her daughter received the Nobel Peace Prize on her behalf.
The industrial engineer and daughter of a steel magnate began challenging the ruling party in 2004, when the nongovernmental organization she co-founded, Súmate, promoted a referendum to recall then-President Hugo Chávez. The initiative failed, and Machado and other Súmate executives were charged with conspiracy.
A year later, she drew the anger of Chávez and his allies again for traveling to Washington to meet President George W. Bush. A photo showing her shaking hands with Bush in the Oval Office lives in the collective memory. Chávez considered Bush an adversary.
Almost two decades later, she marshaled millions of Venezuelans to reject Chávez’s successor, Maduro, for another term in the 2024 election. But ruling party-loyal electoral authorities declared him the winner despite ample credible evidence to the contrary. Ensuing anti-government protests ended in a brutal crackdown by state security forces.
Garcia Cano reported from Caracas, Venezuela, and Janetsky from Mexico City. AP Diplomatic Writer Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.
FILE - U.S. President George Bush, right, meets with Maria Corina Machado, executive director of Sumate, a non-governmental organization that defends Venezuelan citizens' political rights, in the Oval Office of the White House, Washington, May 31, 2005. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, File)
FILE - Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado gestures to supporters during a protest against President Nicolas Maduro the day before his inauguration for a third term, in Caracas, Venezuela, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos, file)
