Notre Dame Transfer QB Phil Jurkovec Receives Immediate-Eligibility Waiver

The seven-month wait is over for Boston College quarterback Phil Jurkovec.

Jurkovec, who transferred from Notre Dame and enrolled at BC as a full-time student in January, received his immediate-eligibility waiver from the NCAA on Tuesday afternoon. The redshirt sophomore, who threw just 18 passes in two years behind Ian Book in South Bend, will now be able to play this fall and square off against the Irish in Alumni Stadium.

Jurkovec is the second BC transfer to get an immediate-eligibility waiver from the NCAA this offseason. Ohio State wide receiver Jaelen Gill got the green light on July 14, less than two months after announcing his plans to leave Columbus for the Heights.

Gill, USC-turned-Georgia quarterback J.T. Daniels, and a handful of other Power Five transfers heard back from the NCAA before Jurkovec, fueling a good bit of frustration in the BC community—particularly on social media.

Superfan and BC women’s soccer alum Deidre Decker, known as @BCdee97, or simply “BCdee,” on Twitter, took matters into her own hands. She created the hashtag “FreeJurk” and began posting it on her timeline relentlessly. In late July, the hashtag spread furiously throughout the Eagles’ Twittersphere, especially after Barstool BC picked it up.

Prominent Eagles, such as David Bailey, Kobay White, Mike Palmer, and Max Richardson joined in on the phenomenon, and Jurkovec himself retweeted Barstool BC’s #FreeJurk tweet. Soon enough, BC alum and former Monday Night Football play-by-play man Joe Tessitore chimed in on the situation, getting colleagues Jay Bilas and Rod Gilmore—longtime college basketball and football analysts, respectively—to provide their takes about Jurkovec and the NCAA’s waiver-approval process.

News of Jurkovec’s waiver comes just two days before the start of BC training camp and less than a week after the ACC announced its 10-plus-one schedule model.

For the first time in league history, conference teams will play 10 ACC games, in addition to one non-conference matchup, which will be scheduled by ACC institutions individually and must be played in each ACC school’s home state.

BC will host Georgia Tech, Pittsburgh, North Carolina, Notre Dame, and Louisville. The Eagles will travel to Clemson, Syracuse, Virginia Tech, Duke, and Virginia. All in all, BC will face six Coastal Division teams, three from the Atlantic, and, of course, the Irish—who are competing for a conference championship for the first time since the program’s inception in 1887.

What’s more, BC-Notre Dame will be played in back-to-back seasons for the first time since 2011-12. Jurkovec was on the other side of things last year, as the Irish handed the Eagles an embarrassing 40-7 defeat. The dual-threat quarterback completed one pass and ran for 42 yards in relief of Book. When all was said and done, Jurkovec was 12-of-16 for 222 passing yards and two scores in 2019. On the ground, he carried the rock 22 times for 130 yards.

Less than two weeks after Book announced his return for a fifth season at Notre Dame, Jurkovec transferred to BC. He then applied for an immediate-eligibility waiver.

Before Notre Dame, the 6-foot-4 gunslinger was a four-star product of Pine-Richland High School, where he threw 39 touchdowns and just six interceptions as a senior, all while rushing for more than 1,200 yards and 24 scores. The 87th-best recruit in the Class of 2018, Jurkovec entered the college ranks drawing high praise.

Now, he finally has his shot. In a new year with a new program, the redshirt sophomore has a chance to make his mark and show his old team what it missed out on.