Kedon Slovis

Week 1 of the college football season kicks off in a big way on Thursday night, and potentially the most intriguing matchup comes in the Backyard Brawl game between the Pittsburgh Panthers against the West Virginia Mountaineers.

Pitt will look entirely different after the departure of star quarterback Kenny Pickett to the NFL. The Panthers announced last week that their starting quarterback will be USC transfer Kedon Slovis.

Earlier this week, the Mountaineers announced that Slovis’s former USC teammate JT Daniels had won their starting job. That makes for an interesting matchup between the two on Thursday.

Slovis appears pumped up and ready to go ahead of Thursday’s game, relaying a short and simple three-word message about the Panthers’ opponent for Week 1.

“I have one more thing to say,” said Slovis. “F*** West Virginia.”

Many around the college football world are excited to see some intensity return to the Backyard Brawl, a long-running series with a history of high emotions, but one that hasn’t been played since 2011.

Despite the departure of Pickett and 2021 Biletnikoff Award winner Jordan Addison, the Panthers come into this game against West Virginia as a -7.5 favorite to win.

That being said, Daniels provides West Virginia with an extremely talented quarterback on the other side of this game. So the Mountaineers certainly have an upset chance. In any case, it should be a very exciting rivalry game between the two former Big East foes.

[Ryan Platt]

Image from: https://pittsburghpanthers.com/sports/football/roster/kedon-slovis/12067

About Reice Shipley

Reice Shipley is a staff writer for Comeback Media that graduated from Ithaca College with a degree in Sports Media. He previously worked at Barrett Sports Media and is a fan of all things Syracuse sports.