PITTSBURGH — The race to replace Kenny Pickett is more intriguing now than it already was.
Southern California quarterback Kedon Slovis is transferring to Pitt, he announced on social media on Tuesday. Slovis, a former freshman All-American and 26-game starter for the Trojans, will have two years of eligibility remaining.
Slovis is expected to enroll in January and contend immediately to fill Pitt’s starting quarterback vacancy.
“I was so excited when Coach Narduzzi called, because I knew that Pitt and this program were the right fit for me to keep developing into the best leader I can be,” Slovis wrote in The Players’ Tribune. “I’m ready to win now — and talking to the players who are returning, and seeing how hungry they are for next season, that got me pumped. ... The culture and identity that Coach Narduzzi has created is everything I want to be a part of.”
Slovis was a productive passer at USC, breaking out with a sensational true freshman campaign. The former three-star prospect earned the starting job halfway through USC’s 2019 season opener. He threw for 3,502 yards, 30 touchdowns and nine interceptions that year, earning Pac-12 Offensive Freshman of the Year honors.
Slovis utilized talented receivers Michael Pittman Jr., Amon-Ra St. Brown and Drake London in the Trojans’ air raid offense with great effect. He completed 71.9% of his passes in 2019, setting a Pac-12 season record previously held by Stanford’s Andrew Luck (71.3%, 2011). Slovis’ completion rate ranked third nationally that season behind only LSU’s Joe Burrow and Utah’s Tyler Huntley.
Slovis played well in 2020, too. In six games, the Arizona native threw for 1,921 yards, 17 touchdowns and seven interceptions, completing 67% of his passes. Slovis entered the 2021 campaign as a Heisman Trophy candidate. According to Caesars Sportsbook, Slovis had the eighth-best odds to win in August.
Those external expectations weren’t fulfilled, but it wasn’t necessarily Slovis’ fault. USC head coach Clay Helton was fired two weeks into the season, and Slovis’ September injury led to the emergence of blue-chip freshman Jaxson Dart. Slovis finished the year with 2,153 yards, 11 touchdowns and eight interceptions in nine starts.
Slovis entered the transfer portal last Monday, two weeks after Lincoln Riley was named USC’s new head coach. Now, Slovis joins a position room with four other scholarship quarterbacks: Nick Patti, Davis Beville, Joey Yellen and Nate Yarnell.
Patti is Pitt’s projected starter in the Peach Bowl after Pickett opted out of the New Year’s Six game last week. Pickett, a Heisman Trophy finalist and projected first-round pick, thrived in Mark Whipple’s pass-heavy offense — breaking longstanding program records and leading the Panthers to an 11-2 record and ACC championship.
This year, Patti was Pickett’s backup and performed well when needed. Over his Pitt career, the fourth-year signal-caller has completed 40 of 62 passes for 458 yards, three touchdowns and one interception, gaining the trust of Whipple along the way.
Whipple is no longer Pitt’s offensive coordinator, though, resigning three days after the ACC championship win over Wake Forest to accept the same role at Nebraska.
Without a permanent coordinator in place, that leaves Pitt’s offense — and the quarterbacks who operate within it — in a state of limbo. But the addition of Slovis is a significant one for the Panthers’ 2022 outlook. And he’s eager to work with Biletnikoff Award winner Jordan Addison, Jared Wayne, Gavin Bartholomew and others.
“They have a lot of talented players coming back,” Slovis wrote. “And, man … getting to throw the ball to the guy who just won the Biletnikoff? That’s something you don’t pass up.”
