It’s been three years since Kedon Slovis and JT Daniels set foot on the same college football field in competition. Back then, they were competing against each other for the USC starting quarterback job.
On Thursday, they’ll be on the same field, except this time, they’ll be competing against each other on opposite teams. How did the road from Southern Cal bring the two west coast quarterbacks to the Backyard Brawl?
Kedon Slovis vs. JT Daniels: The Backyard Brawl battle made in Southern Cal
Do you remember the film “Sliding Doors,” where the story focused on parallel outcomes of the success (or not) of Gwyneth Paltrow catching a train? The premise is that our lives can be changed unrecognizably by the results of just one event.
For Slovis and Daniels, that defining moment — that event that changed the course of the entire future — came on Aug. 31, 2019, in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, home of the USC Trojans.
Daniels, a former five-star quarterback from Santa Ana, CA, had solidified himself as the long-term USC starting QB during a rocky 2018 season. While suffering some freshman bumps in a turgid offense, he’d completed just shy of 60% of his passes in his debut season. Throwing for 2,672 yards at 7.4 yards per attempt, he’d compiled a respectable if not show-stopping 14:10 touchdown-to-interception ratio that showed promise.
While Daniels was asserting himself on the college stage, a young Slovis was finishing his final year at Desert Mountain High School. The three-star QB was only viewed as the 26th pro-style quarterback in the 2019 class.
However, he’d received an offer from USC during his junior season and was committed to the Trojans. As part of Slovis’ recruiting profile, 247 Sports’ Greg Biggins said that the USC commit was a “smart quarterback with an advanced feel for the game who could surprise at the next level.”
It didn’t take long for Biggins’ analysis to become a prophecy. When Daniels suffered an ACL tear during the 2019 season opener with Fresno State, Slovis stepped in and helped the Trojans secure the win over the Bulldogs, completing 75% of his pass attempts for 57 yards but throwing an interception. USC head coach Clay Helton described Daniels’ injury as “gut-wrenching.” However, it ultimately set in motion two very different paths for both QBs.
Slovis’ elevation to USC star as Daniels struggles to secure his starting position
Although his debut was both unexpected and underwhelming, Slovis became a star for USC in the weeks that followed. While Daniels was undergoing a recuperation period, his replacement was asserting himself not only as the Trojans starting quarterback but a major player in the Pac-12.
Leading USC to a 7-2 in-conference record that was a significant improvement from 4-5 the previous season, Slovis impressed with his accuracy, arm talent, and football intelligence.
During the 2019 campaign, he completed 71.9% of his passes while throwing for 3,502 yards and 30 touchdowns. Meanwhile, his lowly nine interceptions spoke of a decision-making ability beyond his years, crafted by a mentorship from Super Bowl-winning QB Kurt Warner.
The true freshman set program and conference records while earning Pac-12 Offensive Freshman of the Year and Newcomer of the Year recognition. Despite the emergence of the young gun at QB, sources close to Daniels remained confident of a successful return.
“He’s a competitive kid and has never run from a challenge before,” Steve Daniels told 247 Sports at the time. “Kedon played well, and JT was happy for him, but at the same time, JT is a competitor, and he’s back to 100%. He wants to compete for that job.”
Yet that competition never really materialized, and Daniels never recovered his position at USC from that fateful day in August 2019. The son of California, who was meant to be the next big thing for USC at the quarterback position, entered the transfer portal in April 2020.
While the two quarterbacks would have their own individual battles over the next two seasons, their thousand-mile divide ensured they wouldn’t face head-to-head competition … until now.
Slovis and Daniels similarly blighted by injuries
The two years since Daniels’ departure from USC have been far from kind to both quarterbacks. While Slovis guided USC through the disrupted COVID 2020 season to a Pac-12 Championship Game appearance, his 67% completion percentage and 7.3 yards per attempt were a far cry from the expectations he’d set for himself in 2019. An injury suffered at the end of his freshman season appeared to impact his game substantially.
Meanwhile, the lingering impact of Daniels’ ACL injury meant he threw for just 1,231 yards and 10 touchdowns in limited action for Georgia in 2020. Further injury had a hand in both quarterbacks’ failure to secure the full-time starting jobs for their respective programs in 2021.
Although Slovis played significantly more football — attempting 297 passes while throwing for 2,153 yards — he shared the starting job with newcomer Jaxson Dart. And Daniels was a clear second-stringer as Stetson Bennett IV led Georgia to a national title.
With Lincoln Riley arriving in Southern California, and the inevitable specter of Caleb Williams following his former Oklahoma coach to USC, the writing was on the wall for Slovis.
Announcing his decision to enter the transfer portal in December last season, the third-year quarterback penned an emotional farewell to Trojans fans that encapsulated the highs and lows of his USC career.
“I won’t lie: I thought we would continue that success throughout my career. But football is kind of like life — you can’t control everything. Whether it’s injurie, or having to navigate a season with COVID and so many unknowns … some things you just don’t plan for. And everything didn’t go as I planned during the rest of my time at USC. USC will always be a special place to me. But now it’s time for me to start a new chapter.”
New chapters, new opportunities, and a new battle
“I was so excited when Coach Narduzzi called,” Slovis continued in his piece for the Players Tribune. “Because I knew that Pitt and this program were the right fit for me to keep developing into the best leader I can be. I’m ready to win now. I’m feeling incredibly grateful for the opportunity to be a Panther — and I can’t wait to prove myself again on this stage.”
The Pitt season opener will give Slovis, fully fit for the first time since 2019, the opportunity to prove that he is the QB many believed he could be during that debut season at USC.
Having won the starting job through summer camp, Slovis’ optimism that he can lead was shared by his new head coach ahead of Thursday’s Backyard Brawl rivalry game with West Virginia. Pat Narduzzi told the media during his weekly call that Slovis is “a really, really, good player. We think that he can lead us.”
Just as Slovis found Pittsburgh the perfect fit, Daniels found a new home from home via his second trip into the transfer portal. West Virginia will be wearing a “Country Roads” inspired uniform for the Backyard Brawl. They definitely led Daniels to a familiar face in Morgantown, in the shape of former USC offensive coordinator Graham Harrell.
“It definitely helped knowing Graham coming into it and having a really good relationship with him,” Daniels said at the time of his commitment to the Mountaineers. “Knowing that I trust that offense and that system, and I believe it.”
An old battle with new faces, with those new faces rekindling an old battle of their own
The events of August 2019 have somehow brought these two quarterbacks here. They have the chance to be reborn in new programs, with both equally confident in their ability to lead their team to victory.
Furthermore, both head coaches have full confidence in their quarterbacks to overcome their rocky roads to the Backyard Brawl and emerge victorious. WVU head coach Neal Brown perhaps best summed up his quarterback’s journey when announcing Daniels as the QB1 for the Mountaineers this fall.
“He’s had some high highs and some low lows. He arrived here as a really mature player and one that is really hungry. He’s prepared with a chip on his shoulder, and I like where he’s at heading into this opener.”
Pitt head coach Narduzzi was equally complimentary of the man that will lead the Mountaineers into battle against his Panthers team. “He can make every throw. He’s very cerebral. He makes the right decisions. He’s just very accurate. He’s smart. He can throw a really good deep ball.”
All the niceties and back-slapping will come to an end at 7:00 p.m. ET. The Backyard Brawl returns for the first time since 2011, a bitter rivalry torn away from the college football schedule by conference realignment.
It’s an old battle with new faces, with two of those new faces set to rekindle an old battle of their very own. Slovis emerged victorious from that battle back in 2019, and with a strong Pitt team around him, it’d be foolish to bet against him getting the upper hand over Daniels once more.
