Slippery Rock's Chad Kuhn hopes final chapter ends with national championship

Chad Kuhn spent four seasons dissecting defenses as Kiski Area’s starting quarterback from 2012-15.

Six years, 2 inches, 40 pounds and a position change later, and it’s safe to say Kuhn has a different perspective.

Now 24 and working toward his MBA, the 6-foot-3, 240-pound Kuhn ranks among the best defensive ends in Division II for Slippery Rock. He received preseason first-team All-American honors from Lindy’s Sports and has three sacks through three games for the sixth-ranked Rock (3-0).

“Honestly, I knew he was going to be good, but I didn’t expect him to turn out to be this good,” Slippery Rock coach Shawn Lutz said. “He’s elite right now.”

Kuhn played zero downs of defense at Kiski Area, and Slippery Rock was the only school to pursue him as a linebacker/defensive end. Kuhn turned down a chance to play QB for Clarion, which, like Slippery Rock, competes in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference, to start over at a new position.

“I came here mainly because of the winning,” Kuhn said. “I felt more at home here.”

And it’s not like he had never tackled anybody.

“I starting playing football when I was at 6,” Kuhn said. “My whole life I was always the quarterback and an offensive player, but, to be honest, I was always better at defense.”

He also was a standout wrestler for the Cavaliers, one of the reasons Lutz saw potential in him as a pass rusher.

“That helped a lot with me becoming a defensive end because it’s a lot of handwork and a lot of winning one-on-one with leverage,” Kuhn said.

“It took a long time to get comfortable. … The hardest part was pass rushing. Some people make it look so easy, and then you’re like, ‘How are they doing that?’ Timing your moves and getting off the ball, I’d definitely say that was the hardest part.”

After redshirting in 2016 and starting seven games in 2017, he continued to gain weight, and the production started to show up in his redshirt sophomore year, when he had 7 1/2 sacks and 14 tackles for loss. He broke out in 2019, recording 11 1/2 sacks and 17 tackles for loss en route to second-team All-America honors. Slippery Rock reached the national semifinals that season.

“He’s such a great pass rusher because he’s so athletic,” Lutz said. “That’s how he gets to the quarterback so well.

“It took him a little bit to develop there. And now, man, he’s killing it. What makes him such a great player is his relentless approach to everything he does.”

The PSAC canceled its football season last fall because of the coronavirus pandemic, and Kuhn graduated with a master’s in safety management. He could have moved on with life, but he said returning for one more year was an easy decision, so he applied to grad school and is two classes away from earning his MBA.

“A lot of us have one goal in mind, and that’s to win a national championship because we came back and put our lives on hold to come back this year,” Kuhn said. “We know we can do it. We’re going one game at a time, but in reality, you know what you want and everyone thinks about it.”

And there might even be one more position change on tap. Lutz said several NFL scouts are looking at Kuhn as an H-back/fullback.

“I think I could adapt,” Kuhn said. “I think it’d be something I’d be very interested in doing.”