Every Senior Bowl has a couple of players who feel bigger than their logo, and this year that spotlight is aimed straight at quarterback Diego Pavia and cornerback Charles Demmings. They come from places that don’t usually dictate the national conversation — Vanderbilt and Stephen F. Austin —, yet they arrive in Mobile as two of the most intriguing evaluations in the building.
Diego Pavia
Pavia’s road to the Commodores and tho this week has been equal parts winding and relentless. A transfer who built a reputation as a gamer long before he set foot in the SEC, he now shows up at the Panini Senior Bowl as the headline name of this quarterback group, slotted with the National Team and carrying the label of “the guy who could shake up this class.” His statistical résumé backs that up — efficient passing production, plus‑value rushing, and a knack for making the play that matters in the fourth quarter.
What separates Pavia isn’t just numbers, though; it’s temperament. Talk to people who’ve been around him, and you hear the same words: toughness, edge, competitive. He plays with a chip that fits perfectly in a week where every throw is watched, every rep is graded, and every mistake feels magnified. In Mobile, his task is clear: show that his arm strength can attack NFL windows outside the hash marks, that his processing holds up when he’s working with unfamiliar receivers, and that the improvisation that made him dangerous in college doesn’t turn into chaos against pro‑style defenses.
Charles Demmings
On the other side of the ball, Demmings is the kind of corner you notice only after you realize quarterbacks keep looking elsewhere. At 6‑1, 190, with a reported 4.40 speed, he checks the measurable boxes that scouts covet on the perimeter. The production at Stephen F. Austin is impossible to wave away: first‑team All‑Southland, the program’s all‑time leader in passes defended with 35, and one of just five FCS players to crack the Senior Bowl Top 300 heading into 2025. In conference play this past season, he defended eight passes, picked off three, and finished with one of the best coverage grades in the league, anchoring a defense that lived near the top of FCS in both total and scoring defense.
His game is built on route recognition, patience, and finish. Demmings doesn’t panic when the ball goes in the air; he turns, locates, and plays through the hands, which is how you end up with that many breakups and interceptions without a huge tackling stat line. At the same time, his willingness to trigger downhill and tackle has kept him on the field in run‑support situations, which matters when NFL teams start projecting him to early‑down packages.
For both Pavia and Demmings, the logos on the helmet this week are less important than the logo that might be there next. The Senior Bowl exists for exactly this type of prospect — the quarterback who had to climb through traffic to get an SEC shot, the FCS corner who put up video‑game coverage numbers and needed a neutral field to prove they weren’t a mirage. If Pavia strings together a week of clean pockets, layered throws, and the occasional off‑schedule dagger, and Demmings walks away having survived (or even won) a high volume of one‑on‑ones against Power Five receivers, the “national eyes” label won’t just be a talking point for 4 Star Sports Media — it’ll be their reality in every NFL draft room that hits play on the Mobile tape this spring.
4 Star Sports Media is proud to partner with the Chris Hope Foundation for all written coverage of the 2026 Panini Senior Bowl.
This collaboration supports CHF’s ongoing mission to provide hope and assistance to families facing serious illness, while spotlighting the nation’s top college football talent in Mobile, Alabama. Together, we’re uniting purpose and passion—celebrating excellence both on and off the field throughout Senior Bowl week.
