Jurkovec to Miss Significant Time, Possibly Rest of Year, With Hand Injury
Andy Backstrom (@andybackstrom)
Staff Writer
Boston College starting quarterback Phil Jurkovec is out for significant time with a right hand injury and could potentially miss the rest of the season, the team announced Monday.
Jurkovec fell on his throwing hand on his first and only series of the Eagles’ 45-28 win at UMass Saturday. The redshirt junior posted a photo of his injury to his Instagram story Monday afternoon, and the team announced his prognosis a few hours later.
Jurkovec completed 3-of-4 passes for 22 yards in his 14 snaps against UMass. The week before that, he shared ACC Co-Quarterback of the Week honors with Virginia’s Brennan Armstrong after throwing for 303 yards and a trio of touchdowns against Colgate, in addition to running for a team-high 61 yards in the season-opening win.
With that performance, Jurkovec vaulted to fifth in program history for most 300-yard passing games with five in his first 12 starts at BC.
The 6-foot-5 gunslinger received a few ACC Preseason Player of the Year votes following a breakout 2020 campaign, in which he piloted the ACC’s third-best aerial attack. Under the watch of fellow Yinzer offensive coordinator Frank Cignetti Jr., Jurkovec revolutionized a BC offense that was run-oriented during Steve Addazio’s seven-year tenure.
BC averaged 284.2 yards per game through the air last season. Jurkovec became the first Eagles starting signal caller to complete more than 60% of his passes since 2013. No quarterback in the FBS had as many pressure dropbacks as Jurkovec in 2020, according to Pro Football Focus. Of his 336 pass attempts, 125, or 37.2%, came while he was pressured, per PFF. He completed 70 of those passes, piling up 1,080 yards through the air, the most under pressure of any D-I quarterback during last year’s regular season.
His yards per attempt and NFL-adjusted passer rating dropped when he had a clean pocket, though. That’s also when he threw all five of his interceptions. Still, his magic outside the tackle box is what turned heads. Jurkovec drew comparisons to Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger throughout 2020 and one NFL scout said he looked like a more talented Ryan Fitzpatrick. He’s been projected as high as the first round of the NFL Draft, and other analysts see him as a middle-of-the-pack ACC signal caller.
Last year was his first as a college starter. He spent the first two years of his career at Notre Dame, where he sat behind Ian Book and attempted only 17 passes. He entered the transfer portal during the 2019 offseason, after Book announced his return for one final hurrah, and committed to BC in January 2020. The former Pine-Richland High School star was granted an immediate-eligibility waiver from the NCAA in August of that year.
Jurkovec took some big hits in 2020. He injured his throwing shoulder against Clemson but played through it. He did, however, leave BC’s Senior Day game against Louisville early with a knee injury that kept him out of the regular season finale at UVA.
Dennis Grosel filled in, fending off a Cardinals comeback and tying Doug Flutie’s single-game program record in a loss to the Cavaliers with a whopping 520 yards through the air.
Grosel has started eight games in his career. The redshirt senior is a former preferred walk-on who received a scholarship ahead of the 2019 campaign, during which he replaced third-year BC starter Anthony Brown Jr. (now at Oregon). Brown suffered his second season-ending torn ACL of his Eagles career in the sixth game of the season at Louisville. Grosel entered and threw a trio of touchdown passes, albeit in a losing effort.
He started the final seven games of BC’s season that year, posting a 9:3 touchdown-to-interception ratio and a 3-4 record. His accuracy was all over the place, as he completed just 67-of-138 attempts, or 48.6%.
But he’s been much improved in that regard while operating Cignetti’s system. These last two seasons, Grosel has hit on 71.6% (53-of-74) of his passes and thrown for seven touchdowns and three interceptions. He’s also averaged 11.0 yards per attempt in that span, almost double his 6.3 yards per attempt in 2019.
Grosel said after Saturday’s win at UMass that he’s almost more comfortable coming in as the backup than he is starting a game.
Now, he’ll have to get comfortable being the guy again.
