In-depth article on Phil Jurkovec in P'burgh Post-Gazette
by SWPaDem (2020-09-16 12:41:47)
Edited on 2020-09-16 12:50:14
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Why he went to Notre Dame, what didn't work out (he was contemplating a position change), how he ended up at Boston College, and why he's looking forward to a new opportunity to play there. Notre Dame was his dream school; he didn't know diddly about BC. He's glad Book came back as it gave him the opportunity/push to leave.

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There weren’t many laughs for Jurkovec last year, his second season at Notre Dame. Things got so bad, the self-doubt so strong, that Jurkovec actually thought about switching positions. This from one of the best high school quarterbacks in Western Pennsylvania history who was highly ranked nationally.

“Near the end at Notre Dame, I was really not liking football. I lost my love for it. I really did,” said Jurkovec, the Post-Gazette high school athlete of the year in 2018. “I brought up to my family about switching positions and not even playing quarterback. I wanted to make it work. I didn’t want to be one of those guys when things get hard, they transfer and run away from it.

“But talking with my family, I had to leave. And after I decided to leave, it was very hard. You understand that you’re leaving your dream school, the team you always watched growing up. But I didn’t really know what Notre Dame was like. I committed to the dream of Notre Dame and not everything else.”

Jurkovec said he doesn’t regret spending a redshirt year and his freshman season at Notre Dame. He insists he learned “about a lot of things” and he grew fond of some people. But Jurkovec believes he went backward as a quarterback under coach Brian Kelly and offensive coordinator Chip Long, who left Notre Dame after last season and is now an assistant at Tennessee. Long wasn’t at Notre Dame when the Fighting Irish recruited Jurkovec, who made a verbal commitment during his sophomore year.

“I was going to eventually play at Notre Dame. I wasn’t going to go my whole career and not play,” Jurkovec said. “But really, the main reason why I left was the frustration of not progressing. I knew coming out of high school, I needed to go somewhere and develop. I thought Notre Dame was the place. I think I developed in a lot of ways. But in quarterback play, I think I regressed in certain areas over time. It was incredibly frustrating. ... At times, it got to the point where I could not even throw the ball at all. My footwork was all jacked up.

“It was not a good situation for me at Notre Dame,” Jurkovec said. “The second time around, I didn’t go for the brand. I went for nothing other than the people. I found really good people in Hafley and Cignetti and I made this decision for a chance to play for them. ... Coach Hafley is 100 percent real. They’re for the players here, and not just in a football sense.” Jurkovec, who now goes 6 feet 5, 230 pounds, acknowledges that the Hafley and Cignetti ties to the NFL were enticing.

“We’ve watched a Joe Montana footwork tape. We’ll watch tape of Marc Bulger when he was with the Rams,” Jurkovec said. “Those are the types of things I never had access to before. ... A lot of what we’re running is tried and true NFL concepts. It’s definitely an adjustment. We have long play calls, checks and protection adjustments. I’m reading off a wrist band. I’m under center. That’s a lot of stuff I never did before, but I like it.”

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As a quarterback, Phil is in a so much better place now.



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