2021 USC Football Roster
Roster
Kedon Slovis
- Height:
- 6-3
- Weight:
- 205
- Class:
- Junior
- Hometown:
- Scottsdale, AZ
- High School:
- Desert Mountain
CAREER: In his career, he has completed 459-of-656 passes (70.0%) for 5,423 yards with 47 TDs and 16 interceptions, plus he had 68 carries for -114 yards (-1.7 avg). He has appeared in 18 games and started 17 times. He is ninth on USC’s career passing list with 459 completions. His 70.0 career completion percentage is above Cody Kessler’s USC record of 67.5%. He has completed at least 70.0% of his passes in 8 of his 18 career games. He has 9 career 300-yard passing games (including in 7 of his past 10 outings). He has thrown 42 TDs in his past 13 games. In the fourth quarter in his career, he has thrown 14 TDs with just 1 interception. He is 12-5 as a starter, including 12-2 versus the Pac-12. He is 10th on USC’s career total offense list with 5,309 yards.
2021: Record-setting Slovis, a Heisman Trophy candidate known for his passing accuracy and production, once again will be among the nation’s leading quarterbacks as a junior in 2021.
2020: Slovis had another impressive showing starting for his second season at quarterback as a sophomore in 2020. Overall in 2020 while starting all 6 games, he hit 177-of-264 passes (67.0%) for 1,921 yards with 17 TDs and 7 interceptions, plus he had 23 carries for -57 yards (-2.5 avg). He ranked first nationally in completions (29.5, first in Pac-12), sixth in passing yards (320.2, first in Pac-12), 13th in total offense (310.7, first in Pac-12), 18th in completion percentage (.670, first in Pac-12) and 21st in points responsible for (17.0, first in Pac-12). In 2020, he led USC on drives for 3 comeback wins in the final 2 minutes. He was named to the 2020 All-Pac-12 first team, AP All-Pac-12 first team, Phil Steele All-Pac-12 first team and Pro Football Focus All-Pac-12 third team. He was a USC captain. He sprained his shoulder at the end of the Oregon game.
He hit 72.7 percent of his passes as he completed a USC game record 40 passes on 55 attempts (2 shy of the school mark) for 381 yards and 2 TDs with an interception and ran for 21 yards on 6 tries, against Arizona State, with both scoring tosses coming on fourth down in the final 3 minutes for a comeback victory to earn Davey O’Brien National Quarterback Award Great 8, Manning Award Star of the Week and CollegeSportsMadness.com Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Week honors. He started slowly at Arizona but finished on fire, as he completed 30-of-43 passes (69.8%) for 325 yards with a TD, but he was 13-of-15 in the fourth quarter for 143 yards and the TD, including hitting his last 12 aerials (with the TD) on USC’s final 2 scoring drives (his 70 pass completions versus Arizona State and Arizona was a USC record for most in 2 consecutive games). He was 24-of-35 for 264 yards with 2 short TDs with an interception at Utah (he was 14-of-17 for 125 yards in the second half, including hitting all 5 of his throws in the fourth quarter). He hit 78.1% of his passes (25-of-32, including a stretch of 18 straight completions after missing on his opening throw) for 287 yards with 5 TDs and no picks against Washington State, including going 17-of-18 for 209 yards in the first half with the 5 TDs (that tied a USC record for most touchdown passes in a half) and 4 of the TDs were in the opening quarter. He was 30-of-47 for 344 yards with 5 TDs (tying a USC season record for most consecutive games with 5 TD passes) and 2 interceptions at UCLA, including throwing a pair of fourth quarter scoring passes (the last was the game-winner with 16 seconds to play) to help USC come back from an 18-point third quarter deficit to earn Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Week and CollegeSportsMadness.com Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Week. He was 28-of-52 for 320 and 2 TDs against Oregon but threw 3 interceptions.
2019: Slovis, who enrolled at USC in the spring of 2019 after graduating a semester early from high school and emerged from 2019 fall camp as the No. 2 quarterback, took over the starting job late in the first half of the opener and had a spectacular season as a first-year freshman in 2019. Overall in 2019 while appearing in 12 games (all but Washington) and starting 11 times (all but Fresno State and Washington), he completed 282-of-392 passes (71.9%) for 3,502 yards with 30 TDs and 9 interceptions, plus he had 45 carries for -57 yards (-1.3 avg). He missed the Washington game with a concussion. He was third nationally in completion percentage (.719, second in Pac-12), seventh in passing efficiency (167.6, second in Pac-12), ninth in passing yards (291.8, second in Pac-12), 10th in completions (23.5, second in Pac-12), 14th in passing TDs (30, third in Pac-12), 18th in total offense (287.1, second in Pac-12) and 23rd in points responsible for (15.0, fourth in Pac-12). His 71.9% completion percentage is a Pac-12 season record (minimum 350 attempts), breaking the 71.3% mark set by Stanford’s Andrew Luck in 2011, an NCAA freshman season record (minimum 200 attempts) and a Pac-12 freshman season record (minimum 100 attempts), breaking the 68.5% mark set by Oregon’s Marcus Mariota in 2012, as well as a USC season record, breaking Cody Kessler’s mark of 69.7% in 2014. His 167.6 passing efficiency rating broke Cody Kessler’s USC season record of 167.1 set in 2014. His completions (282), attempts (392) and yardage (3,502) are USC freshman season records, while his TDs (30) trail only Sam Darnold’s frosh mark of 31 in 2016 (Slovis has the most of any USC true freshman). His 12.1% of uncatchable passes in 2019 was the lowest percentage in the nation. His 282 completions ranks him eighth on USC’s season passing list and 15th on the career ladder. His 3,445 yards of total offense is seventh on USC’s season list and 22nd on the career chart, and is also a USC freshman season record. He had 4 games in 2019 with 400 passing yards (a season record by a Trojan and tied with Matt Barkley for the most ever in a USC career) and 4 TD throws, all in the last 6 contests. He completed more than 67% of his passes in all but 1 game in 2019 and he was over 70% in 8 games (3 times over 80%). In the fourth quarter in 2019, he is 53-of-68 (77.9%) for 729 yards with 8 TDs and no interceptions. His 400-yard passing games against Arizona State, California and UCLA is a USC record for consecutive 400-yard games and ties the USC record for consecutive 300-yard games. His 66 passes completed against California and UCLA tied the USC record for most completions in 2 consecutive games.
He was the 2019 Pac-12 Offensive Freshman of the Year (USC’s fourth such honoree, joining Robert Woods in 2010, Marqise Lee in 2011 and Sam Darnold in 2016) and AP Pac-12 Newcomer of the Year and made All-Pac-12 honorable mention. He was a 2019 FWAA National Freshman of the Year semifinalist and made the FWAA Freshman All-American first team (the first ever USC true freshman quarterback to be a Freshman All-American first teamer) and Pro Football Focus Freshman All-American third team.
When starter JT Daniels suffered a season-ending knee injury late in the first half of the Fresno State opener, Slovis replaced him and went 6-of-8 for 57 yards with 1 pick. In his first career start (just the fifth USC true freshman quarterback to start a game, along with JT Daniels, Matt Barkley, Carson Palmer and Rob Johnson), Slovis hit 84.8% of his passes (28-of-33) for 377 yards with 3 TDs against Stanford, the most yards, TDs, completions and completion percentage by a USC true frosh in a debut (also the second most yards by a USC true freshman in any game, behind Barkley’s 380 at Notre Dame in 2009, and the most yards by any USC quarterback since Sam Darnold’s 297 against Texas in 2017) to earn Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Week, Pac-12 Freshman Player of the Week, Rose Bowl Game Pac-12 Player of the Week, Manning Award Star of the Week, College Football Performance Awards National Performer of the Week and CollegeSportsMadness.com Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Week honors. He was 24-of-34 for 281 yards with 2 TDs but threw 3 interceptions at BYU. Against Utah, he completed passes on the first 2 plays of the game (for 17 yards) before being sidelined with a concussion and missing the next game at Washington. He returned to the starting lineup at Notre Dame and hit 24-of-35 passes for 255 yards with 2 TDs (38 and 5 yards), including 14-of-18 for 181 yards and both scores in the second half. He was 19-of-28 for 232 yards and short 2 TDs against Arizona. He was 30-of-44 for 406 yards and 4 TDs (all career highs) with an interception at Colorado, including going 9-of-13 for 148 yards with 2 long TDs in the fourth quarter (with the game winner coming with 2:15 to go to cap a 12-play, 89-yard drive), to earn Pac-12 Freshman Player of the Week and Davey O’Brien Award Great 8 honors. He completed a career-high 32 passes on a USC game record 57 attempts for 264 yards with 3 TDs (8, 13, 20 yards) but threw 3 picks and lost a fumble against Oregon (in the first quarter, he was 24-of-42 for 179 yards with 2 TDs). At Arizona State, he was 29-of-39 for a career-best 432 yards with 4 TDs (8, 8, 58, 95 yards, all in the first quarter when he completed 15-of-17 passes, including his first 11, for 297 yards, with the 95-yarder the longest at USC since a school record 97-yarder in 1996) to earn Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Week, Manning Award Star of the Week, Rose Bowl Game Pac-12 Player of the Week and CollegeSportsMadness.com Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Week honors. He completed 82.9% of his passes (29-of-35) for 406 yards and 4 TDs (18, 33, 8, 15 yards) at California against a defense that was allowing only 234.4 passing yards and had given up just 9 TDs passes all year to earn Maxwell Award National Player of the Week, Manning Award Star of the Week, Pro Football Focus National Quarterback of the Week and College Football Performance Awards National Performer of the Week honors. He threw for a USC game record 515 yards against UCLA (the most ever by a player on either team in the series) while completing 78.7% of his passes, hitting a USC game record-tying 37 completions on 47 attempts with 4 TDs (1, 4, 32, 49 yards) to earn the USC Player of the Game Versus UCLA Award, Manning Award Star of the Week, Rose Bowl Game Pac-12 Player of the Week and College Football Performance Awards National Performer of the Week honorable mention honors (his 502 yards of total offense also was a USC game record). He completed 22-of-30 passes (73.3%) for 260 yards and 2 TDs against Iowa before leaving early in the second half with a strained right elbow.
HIGH SCHOOL: He made 2018 PrepStar All-Western Region, USA Today All-Arizona honorable mention and Sports360AZ All-Academic honorable mention as a senior quarterback at Desert Mountain High in Scottsdale (Ariz.). He completed 183-of-294 passes (62.2%) for 2,542 yards with 18 TDs and 6 interceptions in 2018.
As a junior in 2017, he made USA Today All-Arizona honorable mention as he completed 251-of-392 passes (64.0%) for 2,987 yards and 32 TDs with 5 interceptions. His quarterbacks coach at Desert Mountain was NFL Hall of Famer Kurt Warner.
PERSONAL: He is majoring in communication at USC with a 3.32 GPA. He made the 2020-21 CoSIDA Academic All-District 8 team and 2020 Pac-12 Academic Honor Roll.
