Film Room: Dissecting each of QB Kedon Slovis' 9 throws in his USC debut
After JT Daniels’ season-ending injury before halftime in USC's season opener, true freshman Kedon Slovis now holds the keys to Graham Harrell’s shiny new offense for the Trojans.
Despite the good impressions he’s made throughout the spring and preseason on media, coaches and teammates alike, Slovis largely remains an unknown. Game reps and practice reps are worlds apart, and of the former, we only have the nine throws Slovis attempted in the second half of the Fresno State game.
I took a look at each of those throws to try and better understand Slovis -- not as a 3-star freshman but as USC’s new starting quarterback.
Pass Attempt 1
Result: -1 yard completion to Michael Pittman
USC lines up in the shotgun with tight end-trips to the left. Slovis drops back and very quickly faces pressure, both from the interior up the A gap and from the right edge. After an initial hesitation, he makes a good decision to spin away to his left, escaping the pressure. The film makes it impossible to see his options beyond 5 yards of depth, but a wide-open Michael Pittman runs back towards his quarterback, who immediately fires it toward him on the near sideline. Pittman catches the ball at the line of scrimmage and lets his momentum carry him out of bounds for a 1-yard loss. Had he tried to spin back inside, the play would likely have been a gain of 1 or 2 yards, but the decision to avoid the hit is understandable. All things considered, not a terrible play. Slovis does a great job avoiding the pressure and getting the ball into the hands of a receiver in a position to possibly make something out of a broken play.
Grade: B-
Pass Attempt 2
Result: 2-yard completion to Tyler Vaughns, Vaughns fumbles
The Trojans are lined up in the shotgun with the receivers in trips to the right. It’s a levels concept -- two of the receivers on the trips side run in-routes at different depths, as does the lone receiver on the left. After the snap, Slovis immediately checks that receiver (Pittman) and after seeing that he’s covered quickly snaps his head to the trips side. After making the turn, Slovis sees Tyler Vaughns with a glimmer of space on a hitch route and fires a bullet into Vaughns’ hands. In his rush to get rid of the ball, Slovis misses Vavae Malepeai leaking out of the backfield on the same side with no defender in range.
Vaughns meets the two defenders draping him right after the catch, and the ball is torn from his hands for a turnover. Slovis did a good job making the first read correctly and switching to the trips side, throwing a very accurate ball to Vaughns. However, the throw was ill advised -- there was no way Vaughns could have gained more than 3 yards, and the hits he was exposed to aren’t worth that depth. A cleaner decision would have been to pop the ball into the hands of the waiting Malepeai and to let him make the most of the grass ahead.
Grade: C
You must be a member to read the full article. Subscribe now for instant access to all premium content.
-
Members-only forums
-
Predict prospect commits with FanFutureCast
-
Exclusive highlights and interviews
-
Exclusive coverage of Rivals Camp Series
-
Breaking recruiting news