Kedon Slovis would have liked to have thrown a touchdown pass for BYU before an interception,
but that’s about the only thing that went wrong Saturday for the graduate transfer quarterback from USC and Pittsburgh.
Slovis bounced back in a big way after Week 1’s mediocre outing against Sam Houston, and threw for 348 yards
and four touchdowns in the 41-16 win over gritty Southern Utah on Saturday in front of 60,834 fans at LaVell Edwards Stadium.
“I think we just came out and played better and executed,” Slovis said. “That’s the team that I have seen all fall camp, and that’s the offense that we are.
We still (left) a lot of plays out there and yards on the field. It wasn’t a perfect game by any means, but I’m proud of the guys, and when adversity hit, I thought we did a pretty good job executing.
Slovis completed 22 of 32 passes, with the one interception. The 348 passing yards was the ninth-most in his 40 career starts and his passer rating of 195.1 was the sixth-best of his career.
“If you give Kedon the time to throw, he can do it,” coach Kalani Sitake said. “We need to find ways to keep him upright, because when he is there,
and can throw and deliver the ball, all within the right timing, he is really good. Now he is getting a lot of confidence running the ball, too.”
Ironically, Slovis had never rushed for a touchdown in his lengthy college career — until he got to BYU.
Now he’s rushed for three in the last two games, adding a 6-yarder to the two TD runs in last week’s 14-0 win over Sam Houston.
Of course, BYU didn’t bring Slovis in to replace dual threat QB Jaren Hall and run the ball as well as Hall did, but that little element to his game is a nice surprise.
Overall, the Cougars’ rushing attack has been disappointing, and Slovis knows that will have to improve
if BYU hopes to stay with the likes of Arkansas (next week) and some of the Big 12 powers like Texas and Oklahoma.