Jurkovec on His Time at the Manning Passing Academy
Andy Backstrom (@andybackstrom)
Staff Writer
Phil Jurkovec was one of 46 quarterbacks to participate in the 25th annual Manning Passing Academy in July.
Every year, many of the most established signal callers in college football migrate to the bayou a few weeks before fall camp and wear two hats: one as a teacher of the game and the other as a student. The quarterbacks play the counselor role in helping young athletes develop their skill set while also learning from Archie, Peyton and Eli Manning.
The trip simultaneously acts as a meet-and-greet for this elite yet diverse class of quarterbacks. It’s a fraternity of gunslingers, several of whom are seemingly interconnected, either as former teammates or rivals—both at the college and high school levels.
Boston College alone had its own web diagram going at this year’s event. There were three current or former Eagles quarterbacks in attendance: Jurkovec, Anthony Brown Jr. and EJ Perry. Jurkovec succeeded Brown, who transferred to Oregon following the firing of Steve Addazio. Perry left BC for the Ivy League after flashing some promise as the Eagles’ QB2 in 2018, making the move to Brown, where his uncle is the head coach.
It’s worked out for all three of them. Jurkovec thrived in Frank Cignetti Jr.’s offense last year, piloting the ACC’s third-ranked aerial attack. Brown forced Tyler Shough out of Oregon with eye-catching performances in the Pac-12 Championship and Fiesta Bowl and just won the starting job in Eugene. Last but certainly not least, Perry put up video game numbers in 2019—the Ivy League didn’t have a season in 2020—averaging the most yards of total offense of any FCS player.
Jurkovec said that having that time to develop relationships with other quarterbacks was invaluable, as was the advice he absorbed from the Mannings, which he said was particularly helpful transitioning into fall camp.
“The Mannings, they’re so detailed about it,” Jurkovec explained during BC’s media day. “Peyton talking about how he’d watch film. Just kind of the sequence that he would do it in and throwing with receivers. Like how they would do it. How they would plan out their offseason.”
Cignetti’s connections with Eli, who he coached with the Giants in 2016-17, as well as Jurkovec’s breakout 2020 earned him an invite to the event, according to Jurkovec.
It wasn’t the first time Jurkovec’s been around NFL quarterbacks. Just this spring, New England Patriots’ dual-threat Cam Newton visited the Fish Field House.
In those situations, it’s important not to try to make yourself into the exact player you’re learning from, Jurkovec said.
“You have to have a little filter on it because everybody’s style is a little bit different,” he noted. “But the Mannings, anybody can learn from them. The advice that they give is pretty universal for all quarterbacks.”
Jurkovec mentioned that the camp consisted of more talking than throwing, especially since some of the field sessions got rained out, but he appreciated the opportunity.
It set the stage for his first full preseason with BC, during which he has showcased more confidence and poise than the inexperienced transfer that he was a year ago.
“You’re seeing a young man that is getting better at every phase of playing the quarterback position,” Cignetti said. “Now that he’s been here a year, and he feels more comfortable being the quarterback, he’s obviously become a better leader in the locker room and on the field.”
