Brian Kelly expectedly, dutifully and respectfully fielded questions this week before Saturday’s reunion with Boston College starting quarterback Phil Jurkovec, one of the highest-ranked offensive recruits the Irish head coach has ever brought to Notre Dame.
As we know, Jurkovec, the No. 87 overall player in the 2018 cycle, announced in December that after playing two seasons as an Irish backup in 2018 and 2019, a decision to stick around for a third go-around in 2020 behind fifth-year senior quarterback Ian Book wasn’t in the cards.
And upon winning his transfer waiver case in August to become immediately eligible in 2020, Jurkovec expectedly became the Eagles' opening-day starter.
Then — much more unexpectedly and after some 11th-hour ACC schedule shuffling this summer because of coronavirus — Jurkovec drew the task of starting this weekend against an Irish team he admits to still feeling a distant part of, other than this week.
“We’ve been talking throughout the year, especially the guys in my class,” Jurkovec said of the ongoing correspondence with his former teammates. “We are still pretty tight.”
Rated by Rivals as a 4-star player in the 2018 recruiting class, the fifth-best dual-threat quarterback in the country and the highest rated signal-caller recruit of the Kelly era, Jurkovec’s departure left behind a disappointed Irish fanbase, and an ongoing debate on what might’ve been had he stayed, for better or worse.
During a 5-3 start this season for Boston College, the durable Jurkovec (6-5, 226) is averaging 260.4 passing yards with 15 touchdowns and only four interceptions. His 2,083 passing yards during the first eight BC games are the most in program history.
Jurkovec’s 161-yard, two-touchdown performance during the first half on Halloween at Clemson helped BC build a 28-10 lead and launch a nationwide upset alert before the top-ranked Tigers rallied for a 34-28 comeback win.
Kelly was asked this week about what he sees and expects from his former player.
“What he’s doing this year on film is he’s making plays outside of the realm of the offense, which he was very accustomed to doing in high school, and when he was here as well,” Kelly explained. “He can throw on the run, he’s got a strong arm, great size, and he’s a tough kid.”
Through air, and by land, Jurkovec accounted for almost 6.5 miles of total offense and 114 touchdowns in only 34 games at Pine-Richland High School, just outside of Pittsburgh.
Pledging his allegiance to Notre Dame in May of 2016 as a high school sophomore, Jurkovec was the first player to commit from the Class of 2018 and became active and instrumental in bolstering that recruiting class, and eventually helping to hold it together.
Remember, a few months after Jurkovec’s verbal pledge, Notre Dame went 4-8 in 2016 but it suffered few recruiting hiccups in no small part because of the adhesive work Jurkovec did behind the scenes.
Even off of a four-win season — after which Kelly purged and rebuilt nearly his entire coaching staff — Rivals still ranked Notre Dame’s 27-player haul in 2018 as the No. 11 recruiting class in the country.
And, upon Jurkovec signing his National Letter of Intent in December of 2017, Kelly called his prep prodigy, “somebody that I could put up against any quarterback that I’ve ever seen.”
That said, Jurkovec explained in September to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that the player-coach-team relationship wasn’t necessarily symbiotic.
“I think I developed in a lot of ways [at Notre Dame],” Jurkovec told Post-Gazette writer Mike White. “But in quarterback play, I think I regressed in certain areas over time. It was incredibly frustrating.”
None of this is an indictment on the Irish coaches or Book, especially as the veteran Notre Dame quarterback resumes his push this weekend for a 2020 National Championship and another winning tick on his 27-3 record as the Irish starter. Book is obviously the right QB at the right time.
But whatever this game or the future holds for Phil Jurkovec, Notre Dame and its fanbase owe the former recruiting prodigy nothing but sincere appreciation, well wishes, and a hearty thank you for his two years of hard work as a Notre Dame quarterback, and his two years of hard work as a “recruiting coordinator” that helped hold a class together and clear a path to the 2020 College Football Playoffs.
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