Diego Pavia is in contention for the Heisman. Which other New Mexicans have come close?

Will a native New Mexican win the Heisman Trophy? That remains to be seen.

Now, does that native New Mexican believe he deserves to win the Heisman?

When asked, Diego Pavia didn’t mince his words.

“Hell yeah, I believe it,” the Vanderbilt quarterback and Albuquerque native said in October.

Pavia, a Volcano Vista High School graduate, has thrown for 2,063 yards, 18 touchdowns and five interceptions during the Commodores’ historic 7-2 start. Vanderbilt, No. 15 in the latest Associated Press Top 25 poll, plays host to Auburn on Saturday.

Pavia is currently eighth in the Heisman odds, per FanDuel;

“I think he’s the best player in college football,” Vanderbilt head coach Clark Lea said in October. “That’s what I think. So you can’t watch him play and not realize what a game-changer he is. And there are a lot of good players.

“There’s only a handful to me that can take a game over, and he’s one of those.”

After high school, Pavia led New Mexico Military Institute to the junior college national championship in 2021, then transferred to New Mexico State, where he helped the Aggies reach back-to-back bowl games. He’s now in his second season at Vanderbilt.

If he won the Heisman, Pavia would be the first New Mexican to do so. But he isn’t the only player with New Mexico ties to receive Heisman votes .

Here are some of the previous players with New Mexico ties who won or received votes for college football’s most coveted award:

QB Jim Everett

Before he was the third overall pick in the NFL Draft, Everett quarterbacked Eldorado High School to its only state championship in 1980, beating Clovis 14-11 in the title game.

He went on to start for two seasons at Purdue, completing 285 of 450 passes for 3,651 yards, 23 touchdowns and 11 interceptions as a redshirt senior in 1985.

Everett finished sixth in Heisman voting that season, receiving 12 first-place votes as Auburn’s Bo Jackson edged out Iowa’s Chuck Long to finish first.

QB Roger Staubach

The legendary Dallas Cowboys quarterback and Pro Football Hall of Famer won the Heisman with Navy in 1963, but actually started his college career at a different school: New Mexico Military Institute. Staubach played basketball, baseball and football for a year at NMMI, notably throwing for a then-school record 1,292 yards and nine touchdowns with nine rushing scores to boot; he later was inducted into the school’s hall of fame in 1985.

RB Tommy McDonald

A Roy native, McDonald was a three-sport star at Highland High School before putting together a sensational three-year career at Oklahoma, where he won two national championships and finished third in Heisman voting in 1956. The 5-foot-9, 178-pound running back tied with Wyoming’s Jim Crawford for the second-most rushing touchdowns nationally (12) with 853 yards on the ground and three touchdown passes for the wire-to-wire national champs.

McDonald went on to a 12-year NFL career, making six Pro Bowls and winning a league title with the Philadelphia Eagles in 1960.

RB Doc Blanchard

The “Mr. Inside” to Glenn Davis’ “Mr. Outside,” Blanchard rushed for 722 yards and 16 touchdowns as Army romped to a 9-0 record and won its second straight national title in 1945. A key player on college football’s most dominant team, Blanchard was an easy choice for the Heisman — even if there wasn’t a whole lot of fanfare to his selection.

“I got a telegram,” he remembered. “It said, ‘You’ve been selected to win the Heisman Trophy. Please wire collect.’”

But unlike Everett and McDonald, Blanchard didn’t go to high school in New Mexico; the 6-0, 205-pound running back was born and raised in South Carolina. Nor did he prep for West Point at a military institution like NMMI as Staubach did.

Blanchard’s New Mexico ties are actually a product of his military service: In 1943, he was stationed at a chemical warfare unit based in the state before returning to serve as NMMI’s commandant of cadets in 1971.

“My football background gave me the ability to get along and work with people,” he said then. “This background will now, I feel sure, assist me here in my new career at the New Mexico Military Institute since it will provide me with the ability to teach youngsters to progress from imposed discipline to complete self-discipline.

S Brian Urlacher

The only New Mexico Lobo on this list, Urlacher finished 12th in Heisman voting after making 154 tackles during his senior season in 1999. The Lovington High School graduate represents the most recent player from UNM to receive votes for the award.

RB Pervis Atkins

Atkins led the nation in rushing yards (971) and touchdowns (13) as a junior for NMSU in 1959, but had to wait a year to receive some Heisman buzz, finishing ninth in voting after leading the nation in all-purpose yards for the second season in a row.

QB Don Meredith

A former Dallas Cowboys quarterback who carved out a second legacy as a broadcaster, the native Texan finished third in voting for the 1959 Heisman as a senior at SMU. After retiring from broadcasting, he lived in Santa Fe full-time from 1982 until his death in 2010.

Despite a mostly secluded lifestyle, Meredith played in local golf tournaments and even performed in a rendition of “The Odd Couple” alongside former New York Giants running back Frank Gifford at a Santa Fe theater.