Growing up in Irwin, setting passing records at Norwin and living only 30 minutes from Pitt’s campus, Jack Salopek was pleased when coach Pat Narduzzi offered him a scholarship.

“Pitt was my first scholarship offer,” he said, proudly.

He was 17, not far beyond his sophomore year of high school, dreaming big dreams.

“I thought it would have been cool being the quarterback for the hometown team,” he said.

But as Salopek soon discovered and reiterated over the phone Tuesday from Kalamazoo, Mich., “You never know in recruiting.”

A year later, Narduzzi fired offensive coordinator Shawn Watson, who had been recruiting Salopek, and everything changed.

“That’s when they brought in coach (Mark) Whipple,” Salopek said. “That’s when coach Narduzzi kind of said they wanted to let coach Whipple look at some other quarterbacks.

“They kind of pulled back my offer, I guess you could say.”

Undeterred, confident in his abilities and loyal to Norwin, Salopek kept to his timetable of picking a college before his senior year. He committed to Western Michigan in spring 2019, a year before he graduated.

“Western Michigan had been talking to me for a while,” he said. “I just felt like it was a great fit here in Kalamazoo.”

Salopek said he was “getting close” to giving Pitt a verbal commitment, but he didn’t let the snub bother him.

“I was a little surprised, but at the end of the day, they wanted to do that. That was their decision,” he said.

Curiously, Pitt didn’t have a scholarship quarterback in its class of 2020, but it aggressively has added three others, including two transfers, since then.

“I’m not too sure what their thought process was,” Salopek said. “I’m happy. I ended up in a good spot here in Kalamazoo. Everything worked out.”

Salopek’s recruiting story will complete one revolution Saturday night when he steps under center against Pitt as a redshirt freshman.

He admits he is motivated to play the school that disappointed him, but not merely for that reason.

“I think a lot of guys that played in the MAC (Mid-American Conference) and this level always kind of thought that they deserved to be at the bigger schools,” he said. “Not only me.

“I think there are a lot of other guys on our team who feel that way, not just because it’s Pitt — against any bigger school you play. A lot of guys have that chip on their shoulder that they carry throughout their careers.”

For Salopek, revenge is only a small motivating factor in his success story. His motives run much deeper, settling back home with his two older brothers, T.J. and Michael.

“Those two guys are my biggest role models, the two people I look up to the most,” he said of the brothers who are 13 and 11 years his elders. “Being able to watch them have their success at Norwin and past Norwin just gave me confidence and something to look forward to and kind of strive for.”

T.J. Salopek, now an assitant principal at North Allegheny High School, earned four letters as a quarterback at Allegheny College from 2007-10. Michael, a project manager for Duquesne Light, wrestled at Virginia, twice qualifying for the NCAA championship and winning an ACC title at 184 pounds.

Norwin coach Dave Brozeski remembers Salopek as “a little tyke,” following his brothers to football practice, hanging with the older guys. “You could tell he wanted to be successful.”

Salopek ended up starting a handful of games as a freshman at Norwin before winning the full-time starting job a year later. He was Norwin’s offensive MVP as a sophomore, team MVP the next two seasons.

Through four seasons, Salopek set school and Westmoreland County career records for passing yards (6,150) and touchdowns (40). But it wasn’t just the numbers that set him apart, Brozeski said.

“If not the most competitive athlete, (he’s) the top two or three I have ever coached at any position,” he said, leafing back through his 27-year coaching career. “Still is. He has a tremendous competitive attitude in a good way. He hates to lose.”

Just like at Norwin, Salopek has seized a starting job at an early stage of his career.

He played briefly last season in Western Michigan’s 44-41 victory at Pitt when starting quarterback Kaleb Eleby was dealing with a minor injury at halftime. He started the second half, completed all three of his passes for 20 yards and moved the Broncos to the Pitt 29 before turning the ball over on downs.

In two games this season (a 35-13 loss to Michigan State and a 37-31 victory against Ball State), Salopek (6-foot-3, 186 pounds) has completed 46 of 79 passes for 423 yards, with a touchdown and interception. He added a 61-yard run against the Spartans.

Narduzzi is paying closer attention to him these days.

“He’s tough. I think he’s a tough guy,” Pitt’s coach said. “When you watch him, from everything we gather, just a very coachable guy who’s going to do it exactly the way they’re supposed to do it. He does a nice job.”

There’s one other factor that will push Salopek and his teammates this season. They are not happy that last year’s 4-1 start ended up 8-5.

“To the average person’s eye, they would view last year as a good year,” he said. “Everybody here was kind of disappointed after how we started, beating Pitt. That was a big deal for us. We were average throughout the rest of the year, which is not our standard. Our standard is to win our conference every single year, and we weren’t able to do that last year.

“That’s always the goal, every year, to be better than you were last year.”

Note: Salopek isn’t the only Westmoreland County product on Western Michigan’s roster. Defensive back Gio Vonne Sanders, a Jeannette graduate, plays on special teams.

Copyright ©2025— Trib Total Media, LLC (TribLIVE.com)