Expect Kedon Slovis to be ridiculously productive for USC football in 2020

USC football quarterback Kedon Slovis is expected to be a ridiculously productive player in 2020.

Kedon Slovis’ true freshman season with USC football was one of the most productive for the Trojans ever.

His 3,502 passing yards rank ninth all-time, and that’s in just 12 games of action. Technically, in 10 outings with more than 10 attempts, he averaged a whopping 342.8 yards per game. That blows any previous records at USC out of the water.

Not shabby for a three-star prospect no one expected to play, let alone start, as a true freshman.

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Slovis may have been a surprise in 2019, but he’s not going to surprise anyone in 2020 if he skyrockets into the conversation of the best QBs in college football. He is already being touted as one of the most likely players to put up some serious production in 2020.

Kerry Miller at Bleacher Report put together a list of “College Football Players Who Will Put Up Ridiculous Stats in 2020” and Slovis was rightly included.

"In USC’s final six games, Slovis threw for at least 400 yards four times, averaging 380.5 yards and 3.5 touchdowns. Condense that data set a bit further to just the final four contests, and the true freshman had 14 touchdowns against one interception with a remarkable 77.5 percent completion rate. His passer efficiency rating in those four games was 196.48—only slightly behind Joe Burrow’s Heisman-winning season mark of 201.96."

Miller isn’t the only one calling attention to Slovis’ potential for huge numbers in 2020.

Over at CBS Sports, they asked a roundtable of writers “Who will be the most productive college football quarterback in 2020?” and Tom Fornelli took the opportunity to turn attention to Slovis.

"The mostly anonymous freshman seemed a perfect fit for USC’s new Air Raid offense. He finished ninth in the nation with 291.8 yards per game while completing 71.9% (third nationally) of his throws for 8.9 yards per attempt (11th). His 30 touchdown passes were the 14th most by any FBS QB last season despite the fact he missed most of USC’s win over Utah and its entire loss to Washington because of a concussion."

The 2019 numbers only begin to show what Slovis is capable of.

If you take Bleacher Report’s figures from his final six games of the season and project them out across 12 games, Slovis could put up 4,566 yards. To put that into perspective, Sam Darnold is the only Trojan QB to ever eclipse 4,000 yards in a season with 4,143 yards in 2017.

Include a potential bowl appearance and Slovis could approach the 5,000-yard mark. Include a spot in the Pac-12 Championship Game and the 5,000-yard mark could be passed for the first time at USC.

It’s not so unrealistic either.

Graham Harrell himself, USC’s offensive coordinator and the man in charge of getting as much out of Slovis as possible, twice posted 5,000-yard passing seasons in the Air Raid at Texas Tech. Joe Burrow did it last year with LSU, so did Anthony Gordon at Washington State.

Slovis has the weapons to make it happen. Not only are Amon-Ra St. Brown, Tyler Vaughns and Drake London returning, but new faces like Kyle Ford and Bru McCoy will also be expected to shine in the offense.

For Slovis, the best is yet to come.