Diego Pavia posted "F the voters" on Instagram after finishing second in the Heisman Trophy voting, despite receiving 189 first-place votes. Credit: © Mark Zaleski / The Tennessean / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images; Diego Pavia on Instagram.
By Sam Neumann on

Diego Pavia finished second in the Heisman Trophy voting Saturday night and posted “F the voters” on Instagram afterward. The weird part is that 189 voters put him first, which makes trashing everyone who voted seem shortsighted when nearly 200 of them thought he was the best player in college football.

Fernando Mendoza won in a landslide. The Indiana quarterback collected 2,362 points with 643 first-place votes and appeared on 95.16% of all ballots. That’s tied with Marcus Mariota in 2014 for the second-highest percentage in Heisman history. Pavia finished with 1,435 points and 189 first-place votes. Third place wasn’t even close to him. Jeremiyah Love had 566 points.

The camera caught Pavia when they announced Mendoza’s name. He looked genuinely shocked, which is strange considering the voting wasn’t competitive. He recovered quickly, congratulated Mendoza on stage, and handled the moment fine.

Then, he went to Instagram and posted “F the voters,” which undercut everything he just did on national TV.

Some voters left Pavia off their ballots entirely, which probably felt personal. But plenty of voters thought he deserved to win. Saying “F the voters” when you got 189 first-place votes doesn’t make much sense. Those voters went to bat for you. You just didn’t get enough of them.

Pavia’s been polarizing all season. He’s been a magnet for attention, good and bad, and he’s clearly embraced being the heel. But there’s a difference between being cocky during the season and being bitter after you lose.

Pavia’s probably not going to care what anyone thinks about his Instagram post. He’s made it pretty clear all year that he doesn’t care about outside noise. But finishing second in the Heisman Trophy voting is still a massive accomplishment for a former New Mexico State quarterback, regardless of how you slice it.

About Sam Neumann

Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.

View all posts by Sam Neumann