INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Quarterback Diego Pavia, runner-up in the Heisman Trophy voting, said Friday he will throw passes at the NFL scouting combine.
The quarterbacks are scheduled to go through drills on Saturday. Heisman winner and expected No. 1 pick Fernando Mendoza of Indiana said he would wait until his pro day on April 1 to throw passes.
Pavia said he will not go through additional on-field drills and will instead wait for Vanderbilt's pro day on March 18.
He is viewed as a later-round pick largely because of his size. Pavia measured at just less than 5-foot-10. Mendoza, by comparison, is 6-5.
But Pavia's confidence is not in short supply, something that has gotten him in trouble. He lashed out at Heisman voters in a social media post last year before later apologizing.
While saying Friday he didn't “care what people think about me,” Pavia emphasized he takes a cerebral approach to the game.
“I think my mind is just underrated, just the way I process," Pavia said. "I feel like I’m a fast processor.
“I’m humble, and I get my confidence from my process. And if you saw what, how much I put into this, you would see where I get my confidence from.”
Whether it's confidence or brashness, Pavia helped drive a Vanderbilt team — often a bottom-dweller in the Southeastern Conference — to a No. 9 ranking in The Associated Press poll at one point last season.
Now he hopes to transfer that play over to the NFL, and Pavia perhaps poked fun at himself regarding his on- and off-field reputation.
“(Vanderbilt) Coach (Clark) Lea always stressed that your frontal lobe isn’t fully developed until you’re 25, and I just turned 24,” Pavia said. “So I’ve got like 360 days to go.”
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Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia (14) speaks during a news conference at the NFL football scouting combine in Indianapolis, Friday, Feb. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
Attorney General Pam Bondi announced Friday that 30 more people have been indicted for allegedly taking part in an anti-immigration enforcement protest at a Minnesota church.
In a social media post, Bondi said 25 people had been arrested with more arrests to come later in the day.
“YOU CANNOT ATTACK A HOUSE OF WORSHIP. If you do so, you cannot hide from us — we will find you, arrest you, and prosecute you,” she wrote in the post. “This Department of Justice STANDS for Christians and all Americans of faith.”
Those arrested will have an initial court appearance and a magistrate judge will set conditions for their release.
Others arrested include independent journalists Don Lemon and Georgia Fort, and prominent local activist Nekima Levy Armstrong, who was the subject of a doctored photo posted by the White House showing her crying during her arrest. They have pleaded not guilty to civil rights charges.
In total, 39 people have been charged over the church protest and all are charged with conspiracy against religious freedom and interfering with the right of religious freedom.
Protesters descended on Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota, on Jan. 18 after learning that one of the church’s pastors also serves as an Immigration and Customs Enforcement official. The protest drew swift condemnation from Trump administration officials and conservative leaders for disrupting a Sunday service.
The indictment says the “agitators” entered the church in a “coordinated takeover-style attack” and engaged in acts of intimidation and obstruction.
“Young children were left to wonder, as one child put it, if their parents were going to die,” the indictment says.
A lawyer for the church praised the Justice Department for charging more people.
“The First Amendment does not give anyone — regardless of profession, prominence, or politics — license to storm a church and intimidate, threaten, and terrorize families and children worshipping inside,” Doug Wardlow said in a statement.
The church protest came amid a tense couple months for Minnesota, where the Trump administration sent thousands of federal officers for Operation Metro Surge after a series of government fraud cases where the majority of defendants had Somali roots. Federal officers frequently deployed tear gas for crowd control in neighborhood clashes with activists, often detaining them along with immigrants.
On Jan. 7, a federal officer shot and killed 37-year-old mother Renee Good in south Minneapolis. In another fatal shooting one week after the church protest, a federal officer killed 37-year-old nurse Alex Pretti.
Nationwide demonstrations erupted in response, followed by a change in Operation Metro Surge’s leadership and the eventual wind-down of the immigration enforcement operation in mid-February.
Since then, the Twin Cities have grappled with the impact to communities and the local economy. The city of Minneapolis said it suffered an impact of $203.1 million due to the operation, with tens of thousands of residents in need of urgent relief assistance.
FILE - Cities Church is seen in St. Paul, Minn. where activists shut down a service claiming the pastor was also working as an ICE agent, Monday, Jan. 19, 2026 in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/Angelina Katsanis, File)
