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.”
My QB! Can Thursday get here already pic.twitter.com/B4C9GTAISj
— Ryan Platt (@Ryan24_34) August 31, 2022
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.
Kedon Slovis is not a fan of West Virginia.
P.s. thank god The Backyard Brawl is back pic.twitter.com/H3t2KMFtOJ
— Barstool Sports (@barstoolsports) August 31, 2022
Kedon Slovis is fitting in well at Pitt pic.twitter.com/N59k3EbtBI
— Unnecessary Roughness (@UnnecRoughness) August 31, 2022
Backyard Brawl is just built different 😤pic.twitter.com/L1CVHw8LbU
— RedditCFB (@RedditCFB) August 31, 2022
Kedon Slovis seems to already know the rivalry runs deep @StoolPitt pic.twitter.com/YahKnmVMR6
— Barstool U (@BarstoolU) August 31, 2022
I NO LONGER REMEMBER A TIME BEFORE KEDON SLOVIS https://t.co/kLb1y9GCHH
— PITT BASKETBALL SHOUTING 🇺🇦 (@N_THEYSTAYTHERE) August 31, 2022
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.
Image from: https://pittsburghpanthers.com/sports/football/roster/kedon-slovis/12067