Kedon Slovis - USC Football
After an impressive true Freshman campaign, Kedon Slovis enters his Sophomore season holding 24 records. He sat down with Untold Athletes to share his story.
These quotes were adapted from an interview with Kedon Slovis and Untold Athletes. Photos complimentary of USC Athletics
As a high school kid, I wasn’t very highly recruited. In my first varsity game, we were down 20-0 at halftime. Throughout my time in high school, I heard a lot of talk that I’d never play at the next level. That always just excited me to prove people wrong.
I'm not a chip on the shoulder type of guy - that's not how I live my life - but I told myself that if I ever got an opportunity, it was going to work out. The last thing I would have expected was to be playing in week one. I remember there was a lot of noise around campus after the Fresno State game. A lot of my buddies were telling me that they heard stuff from kids in their classes. People were predicting if I was going to play well or not. It was all just noise. I knew that I just had to do my best and remember that at the end of the day, I was the only one in the building.
I never thought about breaking records or anything like that. I still really don't. People tell me that I had a historic season, but in the back of my mind, I think about how we won eight games last year. We should’ve been better. This year we’ve got high goals and we want to be playing in a better bowl game than the Holiday Bowl. My mindset, and our mindset, is that we’ve got to be better.
The spotlight of being a quarterback at a big school is whatever you make of it. If you want to have the spotlight on you, you can, but for me, not a whole lot has changed. My day to day life really isn't that much different than it was before. I’m a pretty normal guy, I do pretty normal things. The only difference is that there's a bit of heightened responsibility. That and people recognize me on campus a bit more now. Other than that I can’t say that much is different.
At the beginning of the Fall, it was hard watching college football and not being able to play. I remember sitting on the couch during week two, watching college football on TV and talking to my teammates. We were like ‘This sucks.’ It was so weird seeing college football being played and not being a part of it. We were watching teams play and we weren't even allowed to use our own indoor weight room. We had to wash the balls down every time we touched them. It was a surreal experience to see these schools playing full-fledged tackle football, and we weren’t even allowed in our lockers. I think that was the tipping point when we started to think, ‘Hey, what can we do to change this.’
I credit my teammates, coaches, and the athletic administration in helping to make the letter to Governor Newsom a possibility. The goal of the letter was to apply some public pressure to get something going. We knew that the Big Ten was going to be making a decision on whether or not they’d return to play. We timed the letter perfectly so when the Big 10 announced they’d start playing, we knew we had a lot of momentum and that it would be hard for them to say it wasn’t safe for us to play when everyone else in the country was.
After we sent the letter my phone started blowing up. I think a lot of people were excited to see that at the very least, we were trying to do something and take on a leadership role at USC. That being said, there were a lot of negative responses. Usually negative criticism doesn't bother me as much, but this was tough. I felt like we were proposing returning to play in a very safe way, but a few people were saying that we weren’t caring for others or being responsible.
When we heard that we’d be resuming play, we were pretty juiced. Right now, my job is to go to school, and play football. Regardless of the negative attention we may have received, I’m grateful to be able to do my job again, and to do it safely. As a team, we’re ready to do what we came here to do.
From the moment practices were cancelled in March, guys have come to work every day. Regardless of who I am as a leader, if you have guys that are willing to buy in, you have something special. I’m proud of my team and how they have handled this entire process. There are a lot of people outside of football who have worked really hard for us to be able to go out there and compete and to represent our school. To be able to do that, I think, is just really exciting.
The advice I’d give to young athletes is to get rid of self-doubt. Too often athletes think ‘If I throw this bad pass, or have an off day, I’ll never make it to college or the pros.’ Now that I’ve been through it, I can see that that’s one of the worst mindsets. You have to enjoy what you’re doing and have fun. Don’t worry about the immediate results. I can tell you firsthand that I didn't go to many camps. I didn't have any awareness during the recruiting process, but I loved playing football. Don’t worry about the next step, just enjoy what you’re doing. If you play well, they’ll always find you.
This year we’ve got big goals. We’ve got a lot of mouths to feed, and that's a great problem to have. I look around at the talent and think ‘Man, I wish I could have these guys forever.’ Everyone has bought into the system and I’m excited to see what we can do. We’ve got big things coming for this group and I’m excited to be a part of it.
