ACC transfer QBs ready to make most of opportunities
Possibly no conference in college football has the depth of experienced quarterbacks like the Atlantic Coast Conference. Ten of the ACC’s 14 teams return signal callers who have experience as starters.
However, there are two transfer quarterbacks that will make their debuts with their new team this weekend and one who is backing up a starter who missed six games last season due to injury.
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STARTERS
Kedon Slovis, Pittsburgh
Last week, Pittsburgh named senior Kedon Slovis, who transferred from USC, as its starter for its Week 1 rivalry game against West Virginia.
Slovis started 26 games for the Trojans, completing 68 percent of his passes for 7,576 yards, 58 touchdowns and 24 interceptions. It is his freshman season, when Slovis threw for 3,502 yards, 30 touchdowns and nine picks, that Panthers head coach Pat Narduzzi hopes Slovis comes close to duplicating. If that happens the No. 17 Panthers could be in their second straight ACC championship game.
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Grant Wells, Virginia Tech
Thanks to a strong spring performance that carried over into preseason camp, redshirt junior Grant Wells is the starter for Virginia Tech’s season opener against Old Dominion on Friday. A 6-foot-2, 208-pound redshirt junior, Wells transferred during the offseason from Marshall, where he threw for 5,623 yards and 34 touchdowns in two years as a starter.
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BACKUPS
Jason Brown, Virginia Tech
Wells’ backup, Jason Brown, set multiple school records during his three years at St. Francis. Brown then transferred to South Carolina, where he worked his way into the starting lineup and led the Gamecocks to wins over Florida (in his first start), and Auburn on the way to helping the Gamecocks secure a bowl berth.
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Zach Gibson, Georgia Tech
Georgia Tech needed depth at quarterback. Injuries forced starter Jeff Sims to miss six games last season, and the Yellow Jackets lost three scholarship quarterbacks following the season. So, the Yellow Jackets turned to Akron transfer Zach Gibson, who also heard from LSU, Nebraska, Virginia Tech, Maryland and Indiana during his portal recruitment.
Gibson has starter experience: He started 14 games over three seasons and threw 157 passes last season without an interception. He also has plenty of moxie.