Former Pitt quarterback Kedon Slovis entered the transfer portal in December and announced that he would be going to BYU on Christmas Eve. This came after former Boston College quarterback Phil Jurkovec transferred into the Panthers program on Dec. 4.

Slovis had a bit of a rough year in 2022, to put it kindly. The 4th-year quarterback out of USC threw for 10 touchdowns and 9 interceptions in 11 games this past season. He entered the transfer portal before Pitt’s Sun Bowl victory over UCLA on Dec. 30.

On Friday, head coach Pat Narduzzi was asked about what excites him about bringing Jurkovec into the program to replace Slovis. Let’s just say Narduzzi said the quiet part out loud in his interview.

“We knew there was a chance we were going to lose our quarterback, we knew there was a chance we wanted to lose our quarterback,” Narduzzi said. “…The things you hear out of the weight room from strength coaches, (Jurkovec is) a leader, he’s going from rack to rack, he just got here. He’s going rack to rack just motivating people; we haven’t had that since Kenny Pickett.”

You can find Narduzzi’s full statement on Jurkovec below.

Of course, Pickett was the quarterback for the Panthers before Slovis transferred into the program form USC. He was also one of the better quarterbacks in recent program history, leading the Panthers to an 11-win season in 2021.