I titled this article in a purposeful way. This past off-season former highly touted quarterback Phil Jurkovec transferred out of Notre Dame and joined Boston College where he was granted immediate eligibility for 2020. If you’ve read any articles about the situation in recent weeks it’s usually couched in terms of Notre Dame “losing” Jurkovec or failing to keep him on campus. For maximum effect, the situation has largely been framed as losing an important asset with most of the culpability falling on the coaching staff in South Bend. Jurkovec even stoked those flames in an interview prior to this season opening up.

I don’t care whose fault it is. Anyway, we know from experience that there’s a 99.99% chance both sides share plenty of blame. And until Jurkovec proves he’s worthy of being missed it frankly doesn’t matter.

Through 3 games as a starter for the Eagles it’s been a mixed bag for Jurkovec but he does look different and more confident than when he left Notre Dame.

In his defense, the BC offensive line has been severely underachieving so far. Officially, Jurkovec has only been hurried 9 times although it’s been far more than that in reality. Moreover, the Eagles have allowed 11 sacks through 3 games, the same as Florida State and their tire fire offensive line. By the way, what is up with the poor ACC offensive lines? NC State, Louisville, BC, FSU, Wake Forest, Syracuse, and Duke have given up a combined 87 sacks so far!

This looked like a run-first offense in the opener against Duke that was preparing to ease Jurkovec into the starting role but through 3 games their running backs have only 55 carries for 166 yards. To fill that void, Jurkovec has thrown 39 passes per game thus far, 8th most in the country.

Roughly half of Jurkovec’s 80 attempts have been towards tight end Hunter Long who heads into the weekend 3rd nationally among all players with 25 receptions. He’s also established a nice connection with sophomore Zay Flowers who has 243 yards so far.

Jurkovec does look a lot more sure of himself than he ever did at Notre Dame. While sneakily already a redshirt sophomore, there is a sense that he’s recaptured some of that future ceiling that was expected of him out of high school now with 3 years remaining of eligibility.

It’s unfair to expect a finished product at this point but through 3 games the biggest improvement for Jurkovec has been his accuracy and confidence throwing on short routes. That looked absolutely broken when he left Notre Dame.

This is good because BC is surviving on a steady diet of short passes.

For example, over the weekend BC had a 15-play drive late in the 4th quarter against North Carolina that ended in a touchdown to get within 2 points of the Tar Heels. Jurkovec ended up 8 of 10 on the drive with completions of 5, 6, 6, 5, 21, 16, and 6 yards with a pass-interference thrown in for good measure.

Jurkovec has 9 passes of at least 20 yards through 3 games which is about average for a starting quarterback in 2020. Five of those passes–including a busted play wide open 61-yard touchdown–came in the opener against Duke so the last 2 games especially have been very dink-and-dunk heavy.

Jurkovec is averaging 7.0 yards per attempt which is 10th best in the ACC and near the bottom third nationally. Outside of his 20+ yard completions he is 71 of 108 for 528 yards and 4.8 yards per attempt. It’ll be interesting to watch as the season progresses how much opponents can try and take away Long and Flowers and how this will affect Jurkovec’s progress.

He still has a funky delivery, although that’s been cleaned up quite a bit. Jurkovec doesn’t look real comfortable throwing deeper routes and his ball tends to still flutter down field.

Still, he’s showing himself well while under pressure quite a lot. He doesn’t look as quick-twitch and fast as when he was younger (he’s 6’5″ 226 lbs. to be fair) but he’s had a lot of success as a runner so far with 92 yards on 14 carries (6.67 per rush) and 2 scores. He’s also escaped pressure, run around, and made some big plays while under duress a handful of times through 3 games. Other times, he’s faltered like in the above 15-play drive that ended with an interception returned for 2 points for North Carolina and sealed the loss for BC.

Will Notre Dame really regret losing their once prized recruit?

It seems unlikely. For one, Jurkovec is still quarterback at Boston College where he won’t be surrounded by the best talent and he’ll have to overcome some major disadvantages to move into the national spotlight. Not that this isn’t understandable but his biggest fans are already imagining what he could do if he was working with better teammates, specifically if he remained at Notre Dame. Yet, if you’re really playing at a high level you don’t have to imagine such things.

Jurkovec also plays Notre Dame later this year and realistically that probably won’t go super well for him personally with Notre Dame’s defensive line likely to be all up in his business. We’ll probably all read way too much into that matchup, either way.

Also, the long history of quarterback transfers out of Notre Dame is not that impressive. True, seeing Jurkovec already starting so quickly at Boston College makes this more intriguing but there’s a big difference between playing a lot and being someone you’re upset didn’t stay at your school.

Here’s a scorching hot take: Jurkovec will be a solid quarterback over his career at Boston College. It’s still early but he’ll have to take several steps forward as a big fish in a small pond to make Irish fans envious of his career. If he does get to that point it won’t be any time soon.