PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – Pitt head coach Pat Narduzzi said before you start thinking Kedon Slovis transferred to Pitt because his girlfriend is on the Panthers soccer team. It wasn’t about that. It’s not a Lifetime movie script. He told reporters we will see when we talk to him.
When the USC transfer got up to the podium after Narduzzi left the room, he agreed it wasn’t just because she was here. However, there were some factors associated with their relationship that helped.
Slovis said he gets asked the question a lot about whether or not he came for her. While he didn’t say it, I’m sure that is at least a percentage of reason to come to the same school as his girlfriend. There is also a practical side to the decision.
“Being a kid from Scottsdale, there are a lot of schools east of the Mississippi that I’ve never been to visit,” Slovis said. “Pitt being the one school I had been. I’ve been to visit her quite a few times.”
While Auburn, Notre Dame and others were contacting him about joining their program. He had never been to Alabama and only spent a few hours in South Bend. It was a recruiting dark period, meaning no travel. But Slovis had been to Oakland. He’d been on Pitt’s campus. Knew some students and said he liked the City.
He also liked what Pitt did in 2021 winning the ACC Championship. He said he was initially surprised at that almost everyone is coming back, adding it was huge for him the entire offensive line returns. He said receiver Jordan Addison is actually better than advertised and was surprised by some of the other talent in the receivers’ room.
The major player who won’t be back, he used as a sounding board to try and replace him. Slovis met Kenny Pickett at the Manning Quarterbacks Camp and talked to him numerous times during this process with any questions he had about Pitt and one of the other places recruiting him hard, Nebraska. Slovis said Pickett shot it straight about the Panthers program and new Nebraska Offensive Coordinator Mark Whipple.
Slovis said Pickett wasn’t the only one that was transparent, but he believes head coach Pat Narduzzi was as well. It was Narduzzi alone recruiting Slovis via Zoom while the team was preparing for the Peach Bowl.
“That was my guy, recruiting him and keeping it tight,” Narduzzi said. “It was a week and a half focused on him. We thought he was a spectacular player in high school.”
Narduzzi said they had fallbacks, but wanted Slovis as their prime QB candidate. He said it was a lean year for high school quarterbacks, so they had their sights set on getting a transfer for months now. Narduzzi was able to convince Slovis to come without knowing who his offensive coordinator would be. He involved Slovis in the process, or at least kept him abreast of the situation, as they were hiring Frank Cignetti.
“It was a little different situation because we didn’t have the offensive coordinator at the time,” Slovis said. “Knowing that the head coach was recruiting you and wanted you was great and special. It felt like I was in the portal for a while, I was really only in there for five days before I committed. It allowed me to build a trust and get to know him a lot.”
“There are only so many real dudes, real people out here in college football. He’s definitely one of them. He’s a great guy and a great coach.”
“That time, having him as the guy that I talked to most really allowed me to get comfortable with him being my head coach. It pushed me to make the decision to come here.”
You could imagine it would have to be a little awkward, but Slovis said the other quarterbacks have been very welcoming. There’s a great energy with the Pitt program.
Cignetti has also started the process of finding out more about him. The new coordinator has asked him what he likes, what he’s comfortable with. What they ran in USC and even back in high school.
Slovis is confident in his abilities, he says now it’s about learning the system and trying to win a quarterback battle.
“A lot to live up to, I’m my own player,” Slovis said. “I play my own game. I’m not Kenny Pickett. At the end of the day, this is a different team than last year. Hopefully looking to build off what he accomplished last year and what the team accomplished.”