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Kedon Slovis didn’t come to Pitt for the weather, although he has gotten glimpses of all four seasons since he arrived as as transfer from USC in January.

He also didn’t come to Pitt just because his girlfriend is a soccer player for the Panthers, although that certainly didn’t hurt Pitt’s chances of landing him out of the transfer portal.

Kedon Slovis came to Pitt to win the starting quarterback job and lead the Panthers in their efforts to follow up the 2021 ACC championship with even more success. And after 15 spring practices - 14 practices and Saturday’s Blue-Gold Game - the former Trojan is more convinced than ever about Pitt.

“I think the sky’s the limit for this team,” Slovis said Saturday. “We have a lot of aspirations. We talk about winning the ACC, but you can go further than that. You can talk about a lot of great things. We have to get the details right. We have to get a lot better this offseason. If we do that, I think the sky’s the limit.”

Slovis got a taste of Pitt’s success Saturday morning when, during a team breakfast at Heinz Field, the players and coaches received their ACC championship rings.

Not all the players and coaches, of course. Slovis is one of three transfers who, along with seven freshmen, enrolled at Pitt in January. So he, his fellow newcomers, offensive coordinator Frank Cignetti and receivers coach Tiquan Underwood had to watch while the rings were presented.

“Me and Coach Underwood kind of sitting next to each other thinking, ‘Man, we need to get one for ourselves and everyone else, too,’” Slovis said. “It’s great and the energy’s great. Guys are excited, but the thing is, we’re not complacent with that; we want to get even better and we want to strive for bigger and better things. That’s a championship mindset and that’s what we have here, and I’m really fortunate to be a part of it.”

The race for another conference title - and more - is not all Slovis is a part of. He’s also in the race to be Pitt’s starting quarterback, with Nick Patti as his main competition. Patti spent the last four years playing behind Kenny Pickett, who was a Heisman Trophy finalist after leading the Panthers to an 11-3 record last season.

Patti took over for Pickett in the Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl but left after two drives with 21 passing yards, 27 rushing yards, one rushing touchdown and a broken shoulder.

So Patti entered spring camp with career totals of 67 passes attempted, 42 passes completed, 479 yards, three passing touchdowns and one interception.

By comparison, Slovis threw for 7,576 yards, 58 touchdowns and 24 interceptions in 27 games over the last three seasons at USC. But he came to Pitt knowing not just that he wanted to lead Pitt to national prominence, but also that he would have to fight for the job.

So he has embraced that part of his first three months at Pitt, too.

“I think, for me at least, my mindset is to be the best player you can be,” Slovis said. “You can’t control how well other people in competition do, so my mindset has always been, compete with yourself and be the best player you can be and control what you can.

“In terms of the relationship, I think that’s the most impressive thing: all the guys out here have been so great. Nick’s been awesome. It feels like we’re a bunch of friends out there playing football; there are some rooms where that’s definitely not the case. But it’s a really good room and Nick’s great, Joey (Yellen) is great, they’re all a really good group of guys.”

Now that spring camp is over, Slovis, Patti and the rest of the quarterbacks will finish the spring semester and then head into the summer, which is not a time for relaxing. Coaches and players can’t work together on the field during the summer, but the players can - and will - organize workouts on a near-daily basis. Those workouts will lay the foundation for when the whole team comes together for training camp in August to begin preparation for the season opener against West Virginia on Sept. 1.

“Really, leading up to the spring, we did a lot of throwing going into the spring and that lent us a hand in terms of getting the timing down,” Slovis said. “But now that we know the offense, a lot of it is in; you might not have seen it all today, but a lot of it is in. So during the summer, I think that’s huge for us: getting more and more comfortable with our receivers, all of our quick calls, getting lined up, getting set, knowing the details, a lot of small details in this offense, but in the summer we have all the time in the world to refine it and get better and get timing down, and that’s going to be huge for us. But it’s a lot easier now that we know the offense.”