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PROVO — Not only does BYU's presumptive starter at quarterback face skepticism about his ability, now his leadership skills have been called into question.
Intended or not, Pittsburgh coach Pat Narduzzi indirectly took a series of shots at Kedon Slovis during an interview on Sirius radio last week. Slovis played his first three years at USC and then started 11 games at Pittsburgh last season before transferring to BYU in December.
Apparently, Narduzzi favors incoming transfer Jack Jurkovec over Slovis, who was BYU's primary target to replace future NFL quarterback Jaren Hall. Narduzzi lavished praise on Jurkovec, comparing his leadership ability to former Panthers and current Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Kenny Pickett.
"We knew there was a chance we were going to lose our quarterback," Narduzzi said. "We knew there was a chance we maybe, we wanted to lose our quarterback. We had some hard conversations, and we had an opportunity to bring Phil in. I think he's going to be a great addition."
Like his predecessor, Jurkovec is on his third college team. He played sparingly for two seasons at Notre Dame and then made 24 starts over the last three years for Boston College.
On campus only for a few weeks, according to his new coach, Jurkovec has provided the direction Pittsburgh hasn't had since Pickett last played for the Panthers two years ago. Narduzzi didn't mention any names in his assessment, but obviously it doesn't reflect well on Slovis.
"The things you hear out of the weight room from strength coaches, this guy's a leader," Narduzzi said of his new quarterback. "He's going from rack-to-rack motivating people down there. We haven't had that since Kenny Pickett. That's the most impressive thing you hear is just what is he doing now, because we're not on the field; we're not running the offense. It's those things we have lacked for the last year and haven't had that guy that can bring everybody together."
For his part, after leading the Panthers to a 7-4 record, Slovis took the high road in announcing his transfer decision. He wrote on Twitter: "I will always be grateful for coach Narduzzi and the time I got to spend with all of my teammates at the University of Pittsburgh."
But the criticism adds another log on the motivational fire for Slovis, who is looking to silence plenty of critics going into his last season of college football. Safe to say, this is his last chance to salvage a checkered career to date.
Playing his high school football in the Phoenix area, Slovis was considered a relative under-the-radar recruit going into his first season at USC in 2019. He began the season as a backup but assumed the starting position after JT Daniels suffered a season-ending injury in the first game.
The following week he displayed impressive accuracy in completing 84.8% of his passes for 377 yards and three touchdowns in the win over No. 23 Stanford. The Pac-12 freshman of the year passed for 3,502 yards with 30 touchdowns and only nine interceptions.
After the shortened 2020 season, USC was a disaster the following year and the numbers for Slovis fell off substantially. Anticipation of a bounce-back season with Pittsburgh last year did not fully materialize.
In part aided by his relationship with quarterback guru and former Cougar John Beck, Slovis chose BYU for the chance to flourish in offensive coordinator Aaron Roderick's offense. He joins junior college transfer Jake Retzlaff as two new quarterbacks on the roster.
"The quarterback room (has) very accurate throwers and guys with tons of experience in different levels," said coach Kalani Sitake. "We're already seeing and hearing from our receivers that are running routes — they're doing their player-run practices right now and getting their timing down. There's a lot of excitement from what they're seeing from the quarterback room."
