BC transfer quarterback Phil Jurkovec ruled eligible for 2020 season

Boston College quarterback Phil Jurkovec’s long agonizing wait is over.

The 6-foot-4, 227-pound transfer from Notre Dame was granted immediate eligibility from the NCAA on Tuesday. He is eligible to play three seasons for BC.

Jurkovec was recruited from the NCAA transfer portal by BC first-year head coach Jeff Hafley. Jurkovec enrolled in January and immediately requested a transfer waiver from the NCAA, which took nearly seven months to adjudicate his case.

Jurkovec will begin assimilating into the program when BC opens training camp on Thursday. BC will play an 11-game season with 10 against ACC opponents that includes a home game against Notre Dame.

Jurkovec, a redshirt sophomore from Pittsburgh, will challenge incumbent Dennis Grosel for the starting job. Grosel started the 2019 season as a back-up, but he assumed the top spot when Anthony Brown suffered a season-ending knee injury on Oct. 5 at Louisville. Grosel won three of the five ACC games he started and finished with a bowl loss to Cincinnati. Brown transferred to Oregon.

Matt Valecce and Sam Johnson will fill out the depth chart while Hafley will likely redshirt 6-foot-4, 182-pound freshman Matthew Rueve from Xavier High School in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Jurkovec was a blue-chip prospect out of Pine-Richland High School in Gibsonia, Pa., but his climb up the Irish depth chart hit insurmountable roadblocks.

Jurkovec redshirted as a freshman in 2018, but he did participate in two games. Jurkovec appeared in six games last season, going 12-for-16 for 222 yards and two touchdowns while rushing for 130. Jurkovec participated in the fourth quarter of Notre Dame’s 40-7 win over BC at South Bend on Nov. 23.

Jurkovec was one of the most decorated quarterbacks in Western Pennsylvania history and he participated in the 2018 U.S. Army All-American Bowl in San Antonio, Texas.

Jurkovec established his dual-threat bona fides with 11,144 total yards that included 8,202 passing yards and 71 touchdowns. During his senior year, Jurkovec threw for a career-high 3,669 yards and 39 touchdowns with six interceptions. He also rushed for 1,211 yards on 132 carries with 24 touchdowns.

Jurkovec participated in five spring football practices at BC before the campus was shut down in response to the global COVID-19 pandemic.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/2Dzqfeg