Former Pitt QB Selected in 2024 UFL Draft

Slovis finished his career in Pittsburgh after one season, entering the transfer portal ahead of the Panthers’ Sun Bowl appearance against UCLA, and he committed to BYU on Christmas Day in 2022.

In 11 games, missing the second half of a loss to Tennessee, he completed 184-of-315 pass attempts (58.4%) for 2,397 yards with 10 touchdowns and nine interceptions. And despite a 9-4 record, capped by a win in the Sun Bowl, it was a largely disappointing season at the quarterback position.

Slovis was brought in to replace Pickett, who was selected by the Pittsburgh Steelers in the first round of the 2022 NFL Draft, and he anticipated walking into an offense — that hadn’t yet hired then-offensive coordinator Frank Cignetti Jr. — that featured largely the same supporting cast Pickett had.

“I think the main thing for me, and all these teams kind of asked me why’d you transfer to Pittsburgh, and I think the thing for me, looking at the situation there, you have Jordan Addison coming back doe his third year, you have Jared Wayne who was the No. 2 receiver coming back, starting running back coming back and all five starting linemen were seniors and coming back,” Slovis told Pittsburgh Sports Now at the Shrine Bowl. “To me, that was a dream opportunity. And they had a lot of success the previous season. And to me, the only person they lost was the quarterback.”

Obviously, it wasn’t so easy. There were talented players offensively, and the offense (while not at the high-flying heights of the 2021 season) showed potential. But nothing seemed to come easy — outside of Israel Abanikanda’s All-American campaign. And that strife was part of the reason Slovis chose to leave Pitt and hit the portal for a second time.

“So, I show up there and obviously, Jordan (Addison) transfers and our left tackle (Carter Warren) got hurt the first game of the year, so it didn’t necessarily work out exactly how I planned,” Slovis said. “Still had a lot of good players there. And that’s kind of really why I transferred after that season because looking a the situation, Jared (Wayne) declared, Izzy (Abanikanda) the running back declared, most of the O-linemen declared and it was like, ‘Hey I don’t think this is quite the same situation that I committed to unfortunately.’ That’s the frustrating, not the frustrating thing but the thing that’s unfortunate, you never know what’s going to happen.”

It didn’t work for Slovis and Pitt, and the short-lived partnership dissolved as Phil Jurkovec arrived and Slovis left. He didn’t have the strongest season at BYU last season, but he will have a chance to show his skill set can amount to success at the pro level.