Notre Dame's Opponents: Now with his hometown Pittsburgh, former Irish QB Phil Jurkovec gets one more year
For the third time since he left Notre Dame, Phil Jurkovec will get to face his former team. At the absolute least, his appearance in a Pittsburgh uniform in late October should go better than when he was too injured to take the field last year and still aired some grievances with the Irish via social media.
“Notre Dame holds some of the highest ideals and these are very difficult to live up to,” Jurkovec wrote on Instagram last November. “I don’t think the institution practices its stated virtues in all aspects of campus but I urge it to do so because I think it can be better.”
Though a concussion, broken rib and sprained MCL forced Jurkovec to the sideline for that 44-0 Boston College loss, he then added some trash talk. And to be completely fair, some decently creative trash talk.
“Let’s remember that Boston College was founded for and by Irish immigrants. Notre Dame du Lac was founded by the French (something they teach you in First Year Moreau). The Dropkick Murphys were started in Boston and their song ‘For Boston’ is our fight song. They sing ‘I’m Shippin’ Up to Boston’ and definitely not ‘I’m Shipping Up to South Bend.’ So if you’re in that stadium and you cheer when that song comes on fork kickoff, know that you are either rooting for BC or otherwise supporting cultural appropriation.
“But in the words of Mac, it ain’t nothin’ but a brand name.”
The first half of that message will be brought up when the Panthers head to South Bend this fall. The post was eventually deleted, but the internet remembers forever. The second half of the message should also be remembered, as it shows Jurkovec may not have meant as much malice as some will insist.
His career has very much not panned out as anyone anticipated after Brian Kelly once insisted Jurkovec was the best quarterback in the 2018 recruiting class, even if rivals.com rated him the No. 5 dual-threat quarterback in the country. In the 2019 Blue-Gold Game, Jurkovec played so poorly his postgame interview became an exercise in unnecessary self-flagellation. A transfer eight months later was not overly surprising.
RELATED READING: Notre Dame’s tale of two QBsNotre Dame QB Phil Jurkovec’s transfer a 2020 reality, not a surprise
Jurkovec had gone from the first commit in the Irish class of 2018 to just another transfer, one of the five quarterbacks to transfer from that class’s top-100 rankings.
Since then, he had a strong 2020 — 61.0 percent completion rate, 7.6 yards per pass attempt, 17 touchdowns and five interceptions — before injuries derailed his 2021 and again cut short his 2022. That 2020 performance sparked some NFL conversations, ones that now exist in memory only.
ABC really spending some time establishing Phil Jurkovec does not like Ian Book and #NotreDame, holds some grudges.
Two things:
1) Did anyone really think it was all good? To quote Cocktail, of course it ended badly, why else would it end?
2) QBs transfer. It's a reality.— Douglas Farmer (@D_Farmer) November 14, 2020
Jurkovec now ends his collegiate career where it effectively began, a Pittsburgh area native, once a heralded Pittsburgh recruit, now getting a chance to play with the “Pitt” script across his helmet. That may not be how Jurkovec’s career was expected to go, but what is there not to like about a player getting a chance at a better ending than injury?
OFFENSIVE SUMMARY
The headlines assume Jurkovec transferred to Pittsburgh solely because he was from the area. The more pertinent piece may be a chance to reunite with offensive coordinator Frank Cignetti Jr., who spent 2020 and 2021 in that role at Boston College with Jurkovec as his passer.
Across those two seasons, Jurkovec completed 59.5 percent of his passes, averaged 8.0 yards per pass attempt and threw 24 touchdowns against nine interceptions.
Without Cignetti, Jurkovec completed 59.5 percent of his passes last season but at an average of 6.9 yards per pass attempt and threw 11 touchdowns against eight interceptions.
Matching those former numbers will depend somewhat on Pittsburgh’s offensive line, which returns three starters and 84 career starts. Star running back Israel Abanikanda may have gone in the fifth round of the NFL draft, but the Panthers have running backs Rodney Hammond (five touchdowns, 460 yards, 4.2 yards per attempt last season) and C’Bo Flemister, yes that C’Bo Flemister, to take some burden off the passing game.
Few teams replace a veteran quarterback like Kenny Pickett with one with the allure of Kedon Slovis, and even fewer than move on from Slovis (to BYU) by finding a native son with 33 career games. Pittsburgh may be known as a defensive team under head coach Pat Narduzzi, but he continues to show an openness to a bit more offense.
DEFENSIVE SUMMARY
But make no mistake, it is still a defensive team, and the Panthers will be only as good as their defense in 2023. This rendition returns three defensive backs of note, but recent history expects Pittsburgh to continue to be driven by its front seven.
The Panthers ranked No. 2 in the country last year with 3.69 sacks per game, and that was actually a step backward from the previous three seasons. Since 2019, Pittsburgh has racked up 199 sacks, 3.9 per game. It now has to replace six of its top-seven pass rushers, as measured by quarterback pressures, including most notably tackle Calijah Kancey, last year’s ACC Defensive Player of the Year.
But Narduzzi has shown a habit of recreating that pressure. Sixth-year linebacker Shayne Simon, yes that Shayne Simon, may play on the edge more to help create some, building on his two sacks and 5.5 tackles for loss last year.
2023 OUTLOOK
Pittsburgh is decidedly in the ACC’s middle tier this year, but it could still generate buzz this season given the first half of its schedule. Looking at the Panthers’ first seven games, they should be favored in six of them with the seventh, a visit from North Carolina on Sept. 23, quite possibly a pick’em.
If Pittsburgh arrives in South Bend at 7-0 — to be clear, that is unlikely, back-to-back games vs. Louisville and at Wake Forest should throw further doubt on that possibility — it should be the second consecutive unbeaten Notre Dame foe.
That would not set up Narduzzi for his first-ever win against the Irish (yes, he is 0-3, despite your instinct otherwise), given Notre Dame would be favored by 12.5 points if the game was played next week, but it would create some buzz for the Irish schedule.
NOTRE DAME’S OPPONENTS
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