Jurkovec, Flowers, DeBerry Attending 2022 ACC Kickoff
Andy Backstrom (@andybackstrom)Publisher
The ACC Football Kickoff is a week away, and that means that fall camp is right around the corner.
For the second year in a row, each ACC program will send three student-athletes—along with their respective head coach—to Charlotte, North Carolina, for the league-wide media event.
Boston College is bringing quarterback Phil Jurkovec, wide receiver Zay Flowers and defensive back Josh DeBerry.
Jurkovec attended last year's ACC Kickoff with defensive end Marcus Valdez and offensive guard Zion Johnson. Johnson was selected by the Los Angeles Chargers with the 17th overall pick in this year's NFL Draft. Valdez decided to return to the Heights for a sixth and final season.
Jurkovec is coming off a roller coaster season, in which he suffered a season-threatening fracture to his throwing hand in Week 2, unexpectedly came back to guide the Eagles to their sixth straight year of bowl eligibility and struggled down the stretch while battling weakened grip strength and the flu. He had moments of brilliance, like his five-touchdown performance at Georgia Tech, where he passed for 310 yards and scampered for three scores. But he also had head-scratching stretches, like when he recorded only one more completion (three) than interceptions (two) against Wake Forest.
Still, the 6-foot-5 dual-threat quarterback is BC's best pro prospect under center since Matt Ryan. In 2020, he posted 2,558 passing yards and a 17:5 touchdown-to-interception ratio in just 10 games.
Flowers is Jurkovec's right-hand man. Earlier this offseason, the speedy wideout turned down a pair of six-figure offers from NIL companies—each that would have required him to enter the portal and transfer to a specific school, as first reported by ESPN's Pete Thamel. Flowers is primed to be BC's first wide receiver drafted since 1987. Even without consistent quarterback play in 2021, he logged 44 catches and 746 receiving yards. The year before that, though, he broke out with 892 receiving yards—the 18th most in the country—and nine receiving touchdowns. Only two FBS wide receivers have recorded six or more 40-plus-yard receptions each of the past two seasons, and Flowers is one of them (the other is Wake Forest alum Jaquarii Roberson).
BC's most valuable player on the other side of the ball is DeBerry, who moved to nickel last season after breaking onto the scene as a playmaking corner in 2020. DeBerry missed the final two games of last season with an ankle injury yet still finished fifth on the team in total tackles and ranked atop the BC leaderboard with 36 solos.
He thrived inside. DeBerry was used in blitz packages, as a run defender and, naturally, in coverage. He allowed just 23 catches on 44 targets, yielding a career-low reception percentage of 52.3%, per Pro Football Focus. He also picked off a pair of passes: first at UMass, then against Missouri. DeBerry registered the highest PFF defensive (82.2) and coverage (79.2) grades of any Eagle in 2021.
Here's the position breakdown for the 42 student-athletes attending the 2022 ACC Football Kickoff:
OFFENSE
— 9 QB
— 7 OL
— 4 WR
— 2 TE
— 2 RB
DEFENSE
— 8 LB
— 7 DL
— 3 DB
ACC Network will broadcast the ACC Football Kickoff July 20 and July 21, starting at 9 a.m. both days.
