All but five of Boston College quarterback Phil Jurkovec’s 17 completions went to tight end Hunter Long and wide receiver Zay Flowers in the Eagles’ season-opening win at Duke. Without veteran Kobay White, who suffered a season-ending ACL tear before the start of the year, it appeared as if target distribution could be minimal in 2020.

That’s been far from the case.

BC is the only team in the ACC that has five players with at least 22 receptions this season. Pittsburgh is the next closest with four. Every other team has three or fewer.

Long (47 receptions) and Flowers (41) remain at the forefront of BC’s 42nd ranked passing offense, however, Jaelen Gill (26), Travis Levy (24), and CJ Lewis (22) have rounded out one of the nation’s deeper receiving corps.

Before this year, three Eagles had topped 500 single-season receiving yards since 2013. A pair has already surpassed that bar this season, and two more are within reach.

Long leads all tight ends nationally with 47 catches—11 more than Tommy Sweeney, now with the Buffalo Bills, ever had in a single season at BC. Long’s 47 receptions are also the most by an Eagle since wide receiver Alex Amidon notched 77 catches in 2013. That season, though, Amidon was BC’s sole perimeter threat. Granted BC was pounding the rock with Andre Williams during his 2,000-yard season, but the next player on the Eagles’ receiving leaderboard was Jake Sinkovec, a tight end with 14 catches.

Spearheading a multi-faceted passing attack in 2020, Long kicked off the year with four straight games of six or more catches and 80+ yards. The junior has had four or fewer grabs the last five games but has attracted a great deal of attention, both in the middle of the field and on the outside, creating openings for other BC receivers.

Flowers has been the beneficiary of 16 passes that have gone for at least 15 yards this year, including nine that have produced 25+ yard receptions, the second most in the ACC. The sophomore has done a lot of damage in space, easily making defenders miss with jump cuts and side-step jukes.

The 5-foot-11 wideout has been quite vocal this season about how happy he is in Frank Cignetti Jr.’s offense. He went from running jet sweeps and underneath routes at the tail end of last season to being the Eagles’ No. 1 wide receiver. Earlier this fall, Flowers became the first BC player to ever win ACC Wide Receiver of the Week twice in the same season. It didn’t take long for him to become a household name.

Gill, on the other hand, burst onto the scene five weeks into the Eagles’ campaign. The Ohio State transfer was the silver lining of an otherwise miserable, five-turnover performance at Virginia Tech. Gill tallied six receptions—as many as he had in 2019 with the Buckeyes—surpassing the 100-yard mark for the first time in his career. Not only that, but he found the end zone for the first time in his BC career.

The Westerville, Ohio native hasn’t scored another touchdown since, although he has made some critical catches over the past month, notably hauling in a 48-yard pass at No. 1 Clemson and a 40-yard deep ball against the No. 2 Irish. He finished the Notre Dame game with 100+ yards receiving, bringing his year total to 369 yards.

Levy is behind Gill on BC’s reception ladder. Following a 19-catch 2018 campaign, the scatback had just one reception last season, as he was largely reduced to being the Eagles’ return man. This time around, he’s Jurkovec’s security blanket out of the backfield. It’s not a huge surprise, considering Cignetti’s affinity for screen passes.

The senior tailback has posted four or more receptions in three games this year. He’s also carried the ball 10 or more times on three separate occasions, something he had only done twice during the first three years of his BC career.

While Levy hasn’t always been productive on the ground in 2020—he’s averaged fewer than three yards per rush in three games this fall—his receiving ability has added another element to the Eagles’ passing offense.

Arguably the most surprising breakthrough has been Lewis, who redshirted last season and had just one touchdown in his previous two years as an Eagle. The 6-foot-3, strong-bodied wide receiver struggled with drops the past few seasons. He saw his most playing time in 2018, when he registered 12 catches for 143 yards and a score, yet, notably, failed to extend both arms for a pivotal slant pass on 4th-and-7 late in the third quarter of BC’s regular season finale against Syracuse. This year, though, the former high school quarterback has caught pretty much everything thrown his way.

At Clemson, Lewis hauled in five balls for 66 yards, including an 18-yard touchdown where he made a juggling catch after Jurkovec’s pass deflected off the body of Tigers cornerback Mario Goodrich and Lewis’ left thigh. Backpedaling, the redshirt junior lowered his center of gravity and plucked the ball out of mid-air. The previous week against Georgia Tech, Lewis scored twice, first reeling in a toe-tapping touchdown grab and then leaping for six to bring down a pass in the middle of the end zone.

Lewis has made his mark in the first half of games. In fact, he ranks 11th among all ACC wide receivers with 295 first-half receiving yards. He’s averaged 18.4 yards per catch in the opening two quarters of play and, when stacked up against fellow league receivers, is tied for the fifth-most first-half catches (nine) of 15+ yards.

Like Lewis, Levy, Flowers, and Long were on the Heights before this year but hadn’t had the opportunities to put up significant numbers. In a similar vein, Gill—the 41st overall recruit in the Class of 2018—was rarely called upon at Ohio State.

Because of Cignetti and Jurkovec, they’ve all had a chance to flourish this season.

And they’ve certainly made the most of it so far.