Opening the offense
QB Jurkovec sees room for improvement after Eagles’ win
Boston College quarterback Phil Jurkovec is ready to delve into the remote regions of his playbook.
BC coach Jeff Hafley described the Eagles’ offense as “vanilla” in last Saturday’s 26- 6 victory over Duke in the ACC season opener in Durham, N.C.
“Truthfully, that was about as vanilla in all three phases as you’ll see all year,” said Hafley. “We kind of took our greatest hits from what we felt best about and comfortable about and just stuck to them.
“We didn’t want to throw a whole lot out there. We wanted our guys to play fast and be confident and do what they felt good at.”
Hafley and offensive coordinator Frank Cignetti are ready to continue the gradual opening of the offense. Expect Jurkovec to execute a few new plays when BC takes on Texas State in a nonleague matchup at 6 p.m. today at Alumni Stadium.
“Not having spring football and then really kind of having a strange training camp, I think you will see from week one to week three to week five to week 10 and so on you’ll see us gradually grow and develop,” said Hafley.
“I think you’ll see us open it up a little more and get more guys involved. I think what you saw in the first game was a very dialed-down offense from what you are going to see going forward.”
Jurkovec, a transfer student from Notre Dame, showed command of the basic pass plays against the Blue Devils defense. Jurkovec completed 17-of23 attempts for 300 yards and two touchdowns.
Jurkovec’s primary targets were speedy split end Zay Flowers and tight end Hunter Long. The pair combined for 12 receptions for 255 yards, with each catching a touchdown pass.
Jurkovec is capable of expanding the offense but knows he must involve more players in the passing game to open up the ground attack.
The Eagles had 20 first downs, 13 via passes. BC went four of four in the red zone with two touchdowns and two Danny Longman field goals.
“Even from what we had up in the game plan, we didn’t get to didn’t really run as much as I think we would like to,” said Jurkovec, a 6- 5, 226pound, redshirt sophomore from Pittsburgh.
“We have a whole lot installed and more that we can put in. I don’t think we’ve shown much against Duke. We do have more weapons, a lot more and those guys who’ve showed in practice didn’t get their opportunities during the game. I’m excited to see what they can do.”
Jurkovec came out of the Duke game with obvious areas for improvement. Jurkovec took five sacks, some of which were avoidable by a simple shift in the pocket or by throwing the ball away. He also threw a deep ball into double coverage resulting in a pass being intercepted on BC’s second possession of the game.
“I think if you watch the tape closely Phil will tell you there is so much room for improvement, I mean big time room for improvement,” said Hafley.
“There’s running the offense, making the right reads getting the ball out of his hands and running, making the run reads. He made some nice plays, but just like everybody else if we are going to continue to win games he’s got to play better too.”