Pitt’s first training camp quarterback competition in five years is officially over.

After maintaining an open battle since spring camp and through the first three and a half weeks of training camp this month, head coach Pat Narduzzi announced that USC transfer Kedon Slovis had won the job.

“Kedon is the guy, and we have a lot of trust and faith that he’s going to be the guy,” Narduzzi said during a press conference Wednesday morning.

Slovis got the nod as the Panthers’ starter over redshirt senior Nick Patti, who served as Kenny Pickett’s backup in recent seasons, making two starts and attempting 67 passes since 2019. Patti’s most recent appearance came in the loss to Michigan State in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl in December. He started that game and completed 2-of-5 passes for 21 yards in addition to rushing three times for 27 yards and a touchdown before leaving the game with a shoulder injury.

“The first thing I’d say about both of those guys is, they’ve got high IQ at that position, both of them can lead our football team into an ACC schedule, so we’ve got confidence in both of them,” Narduzzi said.

Ultimately, though Slovis won the job after showing several traits that Narduzzi valued.

“I would say the separator was probably just accuracy,” Narduzzi said. “Just accuracy. And again, Kedon’s really, really good in the pocket. And Nick is, too; I don’t want to slam him, because he’s good in the pocket and he’s going to scramble. But I’d say just putting the ball where our receiver is going to catch it and be able to get yards after the catch.”

Slovis joined Pitt’s roster in January as a transfer from USC. During his three seasons with the Trojans, the Arizona native made 26 starts and completed 68% of his passes for 7,576 yards, 58 touchdowns and 24 interceptions.

That include his debut, when he played in 12 games and threw for 3,502 yards, 30 touchdowns and nine picks. Slovis was second in the Pac-12 in passing yards per game, passing efficiency and total offense and third in passing touchdowns, and he was named the conference’s offensive freshman of the year.

The next season, on the Covid-shortened six-game schedule of 2020, he led the Pac-12 in passing yards per game and passing touchdowns and third in pass efficiency, which earned him first-team All-Pac 12 honors.

Slovis’ junior season was limited to nine games due to injuries, as he split work with Jaxson Dart. But with USC’s offseason hire of Lincoln Riley as head coach and Riley’s subsequent addition of transfer quarterback, both Slovis and Dart left the Trojans.

Dart went to Ole Miss and Slovis opted for Pitt.

The last time Narduzzi had to choose a quarterback in a training camp battle was the summer of 2017. That year, the Panthers had another USC transfer in Max Browne and redshirt sophomore Ben DiNucci competing for the job. Narduzzi announced Browne as the starter midway through camp.