Freshman Kedon Slovis was asked what the reaction has been from his friends and family to the news that he'll open this season as USC's backup quarterback.

His response tells everything anyone needs to know about him.

"I guess they're happy for me, but at the same time that was kind of a weird deal because people are saying congratulations and you want to be the guy," Slovis said Wednesday.

When USC signed the 3-star prospect out of Scottsdale, Ariz., nobody in the Trojans fan base expected Slovis to be where he is now, let alone be pushing to be the guy.

Slovis and his family heard it all and even had relatives questioning what opportunity there truly was for him on USC's seemingly crowded QB depth chart.

His father Max Slovis summed it up best back late December as the family gathered together in Scottsdale before Kedon's move to campus.

"Everyone brings it up, and it's the same answer -- let's go, let's see what happens," Max Slovis said then. "People are always like, 'Why would you go there? There's all these great quarterbacks.' We're a great quarterback -- let's go see what happens. ...

"My sister lives in San Diego and [tells us], 'Oh, my friend says they have this guy, this guy and this guy.' We are this guy. … You don't know until you go."

RELATED: Read more on Slovis' mindset and deflecting doubters on his way to USC

Now everybody knows.

Slovis made an immediate impression in the spring and reinforced it through fall camp.

"We were very surprised with Kedon coming out of the spring, very impressed. We went through this camp, another 15 practices just to see it wasn't just spring, and he did it again," head coach Clay Helton had said Tuesday in announcing the Slovis would backup starter JT Daniels, over veterans Matt Fink and Jack Sears.

Offensive coordinator Graham Harrell, meanwhile, took it quite a few steps further Wednesday.

"Kedon is a special talent. I think talent-wise, he's as good as I've ever seen," Harrell said.

Harrell has been consistently more effusive in his praise of Slovis than any of USC's quarterbacks this preseason. He also acknowledged that the freshman still looked like a freshman at times (he had two interceptions in the team's first scrimmage) and that sophomore JT Daniels was just steadier and more consistent in securing the starting job.

Nonetheless, it has not taken Slovis long at all to leave behind any preconceptions about his potential based on recruiting rankings. And to be fair, it's not that he was lacking believers before. One prominent Arizona high school football coach who played against Slovis' Desert Mountain High School team last fall told TrojanSports.com back in the winter that the QB was a very underrated talent.

Most important, though, is that Slovis never put any limits on what he thought was possible at USC.

"What he probably did the best was just came in, expected to play well, came out here and didn't hesitate and didn't act like a freshman," Harrell said. "Just came in and said, 'If this is an open competition, I'm going to compete' and he competed well. I think he had a really good summer in the weight room, but also he was up studying film like every day and really wanted to give himself the best chance to win the job and he did that."

Slovis' strong first impression has certainly changed the trajectory of his Trojans career from what most expected, but it doesn't change the fact that he's still behind Daniels, who is just one year older.

"Pleased, but also just a lot of room for improvement," Slovis said Wednesday, showing no contentment with the depth chart news. "Being No. 2 is great because you're one play away, but at the same time you're not No. 1 and you're not the guy. So there's always room for improvement."

What Harrell likes in the freshman QB is easy to see. He fits this offense, which puts a priority on quick and decisive play from its quarterbacks. He plays with a palpable calm, has assimilated well to the heightened pace Harrell demands and, as the OC highlighted, has the arm to make most any throw on the field -- whether it's spraying darts around the short and intermediate routes or dropping dimes deep.

"I've never run anything like it before, but I really like playing in it and it works really well with our personnel," Slovis said of Harrell's version of the Air Raid.

Harrell was asked if Daniels were injured at some point early in the season, would he really go with the untested freshman over veterans Fink or Sears? He didn't seem to understand the need for the question.

"We think Kedon's the backup, I feel very confident he can go in and play," Harrell replied. "We've put him in the Coliseum in front of a big crowd [last Saturday] and the moment wasn't too big at all for him. He went out there and just acted like it was another day. So I have confidence that if he gets thrown into a game, the moment won't be too big and he'll go out there and execute. That's what we expect out of him and that's what he's shown."

Slovis handled a delicate moment deftly, noting that Fink and Sears were classy in their handling of the depth chart news.

Daniels, meanwhile, added some of his own praise to his new chief challenger.

"He's a professional," he said of Slovis. "First and foremost, he's a really good person. Kedon and I are really good buds, as really everybody in the quarterback room is. … He's not scared, he's coming out here to play and compete."

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