Kedon Slovis is transferring out, and Phil Jurkovec is coming home.
After spending one season as the Panthers' quarterback, the Pitt quarterback Slovis will look for a new home to play his final season of eligibility. The move was first reported by ESPN's Pete Thamel on Monday morning, and was later confirmed by multiple other outlets. Chris Peak of Panther-Lair on Rivals reported late Monday morning that Slovis had filed his papers to transfer:
Sources: Pitt quarterback Kedon Slovis intends to enter the NCAA transfer portal. pic.twitter.com/KD56xWsA1w
— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) December 5, 2022
And as one quarterback exits, another enters. As Thamel first reported Monday afternoon, three hours after Slovis' intent to transfer was made public, the Pittsburgh native, Pine-Richland graduate, and former Boston College QB Jurkovec has made his commitment to transfer to Pitt.
Transfer quarterback Phil Jurkovec tells ESPN that he’s committed to transfer to Pitt. He informed the Pitt coaching staff today. Jurkovec both returns home and reunites with his former OC from BC, Frank Cignetti Jr. pic.twitter.com/2rtZDh02kx
— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) December 5, 2022
On Monday, Jurkovec told ESPN: "I’m thankful to Coach (Pat) Narduzzi and Coach (Frank Cignetti Jr.) and the University of Pittsburgh for allowing me the opportunity to come home and compete.”
Jurkovec had been widely rumored as a transfer target for Pitt, given his previous relationship playing under current Panthers offensive coordinator Cignetti at Boston College in 2020 and 2021, when Cignetti was in the same role with the Eagles.
In his two seasons (16 games) while playing for Cignetti, Jurkovec completed 59.5% of his passes for 3,472 yards with 24 touchdowns, nine interceptions, and a 141.2 rating. He missed half of the 2021 season with a hand injury, and was limited to eight games in 2022 after sustaining a knee injury on Oct. 29. Jurkovec was originally offered by Pitt out of high school, before declaring and playing his freshman season at Notre Dame.
Jurkovec has one season of eligibility remaining.
Slovis completed 58.4% of his passes for 2,397 yards, 10 touchdowns, and nine interceptions for a 127.1 rating in 11 games of his lone season as a Panther, after transferring in from Southern California.
In an interview with Pittsburgh Sports Now on Monday, Slovis noted he wanted a different type of opportunity that he could not find at Pitt.
"At the end of the day, I think certain opportunities that I look forward to more, which were outside of the program, unfortunately," Slovis said. "That’s not to say that there aren’t a lot of good things currently being done at Pitt. But with just one year left, I wanted to take a chance on myself and see what other opportunities I could find.”
Slovis' exit leaves Nick Patti, Nate Yarnell, Derek Kyler, Jake Frantl, and Eli Kosanovich as the Panthers' rostered quarterbacks for the Sun Bowl on Dec. 30 in El Paso, Texas. Only Kyler is in his final season of eligibility among current Pitt QBs.
As for the pipeline of the position, Narduzzi and Cignetti lost the commitment of 2023 four-star QB Kenny Minchey in mid-November, but turned around to land three-star Ty Dieffenbach, a native of Agoura Hills, Calif., who tweeted Monday afternoon his commitment to the Panthers, shortly after he de-committed from UNLV:
I'm home. @Pitt_FB @CoachDuzzPittFB @FrankCignetti @Coach_JDiBiaso @CoachTimSalem pic.twitter.com/JM9Z9eBh7c
— Ty Dieffenbach (@tydieffenbach14) December 6, 2022
As for Slovis, he also told Pittsburgh Sports Now that he did not feel bad blood with Narduzzi or Cignetti about the split.
"I had a great conversation with Coach Cig today," Slovis said. "We talked about where I could improve, as a coach, he also wanted to know from me, where he could improve as a coach. It was relatively understood, but I don’t know that they were ecstatic to hear about it, but I think they understand, especially Coach Cig, who spent a lot of time with me. He understands from a quarterback perspective where I’m at, and I really respect him for that.”
But, Slovis did note that there were developments within Cignetti's offense which he didn't expect to experience.
"I think, for the most part, not even the system, the stuff that happened this year kind of led to the system that I wasn’t really anticipating it being," he said. "Obviously being a run-dominant team, we ran the ball super effectively. As a quarterback, you want to be given the chance to lead your team to win. That’s obviously something that most quarterbacks want to be a part of. I know we moved towards that and became more balanced towards the end of the year. But again, in terms of the offense and offense scheme, it’s a solid offense, I learned a lot and I’m glad I had the experience to play here.”
Slovis joins an already loaded list of quarterbacks who have entered the transfer portal or announced they will. Don't believe so? Just check out this ever-growing list from The Portal Report.
A handful to note, though, include fellow ACC quarterbacks Devin Leary (NC State), DJ Uiagalelei (Clemson), Brennan Armstrong (Virginia), and Jeff Sims (Georgia Tech).
Slovis' exit ends the rocky one-season experiment and perhaps a grand misstep by Narduzzi and Cignetti on the one-time Heisman Trophy hopeful at Pitt. Slovis began the season by leading the Panthers to a 38-31 victory in the Backyard Brawl over West Virginia, before sustaining a concussion at the end of the first half the following week against Tennessee. He missed the next game at Western Michigan, but returned to face Rhode Island in Week 4 and was the Panthers' starter from that point forward.
Slovis, though, had a forgettable October, in which the Panthers went 1-3 and played their way out of contention to repeat their ACC Championship from 2021. In October, he completed just 53.4% of his passes for 869 yards with three touchdowns and four interceptions for a 109.7 rating. He had a slightly better November, though, by leading Pitt to a 4-0 mark. He completed 58.9% of his passes for 836 yards with five touchdowns to four interceptions and a 132.45 rating.
This story was first published at 10:55 a.m. on Dec. 5, and was last updated at 8:24 p.m. on Dec. 5.
