Reflecting on Wake Forest: What Did Hafley Say During His Sunday Presser?

Jeff Hafley put rumors to bed Sunday. The second-year Boston College head coach told reporters that he plans on being in Chestnut Hill “for a long time” when he was asked about his name being floated in coaching searches.

“I didn’t come here to just be here for a short period of time and leave,” Hafley said. “I believe in Boston College. I believe if we build it the right way, in time, I think we can win here consistently.”

Hafley was reportedly a top candidate for the Washington job among other rumor mill developments.

But he reaffirmed his confidence in BC Sunday.

“There’s certain things, obviously, I need to do better,” Hafley said. “But I do not plan on leaving. I plan on being here for a long time. I plan on building it the right way with great people. I plan on developing players. And I plan on winning here.”

It was a disappointing season for the Eagles, who were an ACC darkhorse after surprising the conference with a 6-5 record in Hafley’s first season with the program. Injuries, most notably a season-threatening fracture to starting quarterback Phil Jurkovec's throwing hand, handcuffed BC, and the Eagles never found consistency on offense. They averaged 16.4 points per game in conference play, the second-lowest mark in the ACC.

BC (6-6, 2-6 ACC) finished below .500 in league competition for the first time since 2016. But the Eagles still have a bowl game ahead of them. For now, though, Hafley and his staff are focusing on the future.

“These next two weeks, it has to be all about recruiting,” Hafley said. “We feel like we have a great class coming in. And we need to go close out on them. That is our focus. It’s about getting the player right now.”

BC currently has the 24th-ranked 2022 recruiting class (fourth in the ACC), according to the Rivals recruiting database. It’s a group that features a trio of four-star recruits.

Hafley said he flies out Monday night to see a recruit and then will be in a different state practically every day until Thursday or Friday before he returns for an official visit weekend. After that, he’ll hit the road again ahead of another weekend of official visits.

Hafley stressed the importance of player development Sunday. He said the biggest lesson he learned during the regular season was that it’s necessary to create depth. The 42-year-old head coach admitted that he wasn’t “mentally prepared” for all of the injuries the Eagles sustained in 2021.

“We need to take our young guys, and we need to develop them faster,” Hafley said. “So when injuries happen, they’re more ready to play. And I think we could have done a better job of that this year.”

The position that caused the greatest headache was obviously quarterback. Jurkovec missed six games, and Dennis Grosel struggled mightily in replacement. Hafley didn’t have a QB3 in place for much of the season, following the transfer of both Sam Johnson III and Matt Valecce this past offseason. Eventually, it became Emmett Morehead, however, that wasn’t until the Eagles were well into their four-game losing streak.

Even when Jurkovec returned, his grip strength wasn’t 100%. Not only that, but the 6-foot-5 dual threat found himself battling the flu in the final week of the season. He was just 3-of-11 for 19 yards, a touchdown and two picks in the regular season finale blowout loss to then-No. 21 Wake Forest.

Hafley pulled Jurkovec late in the third quarter in order to protect his quarterback. Hafley said that Jurkovec wanted to continue playing but that it was “the best way to go” at that point.

“I think Phil struggled to throw yesterday because of his injury,” Hafley said. “I think the lack of him really not practicing until Thursday sure didn’t help. I just feel like he was a little beat up still from the game before.”

Hafley acknowledged that it’s easy to point to the O-Line when addressing the Eagles’ latest offensive woes this season, especially considering BC gave up seven sacks in its final two games.

It’s not that simple, Hafley said. He actually believes that his offensive line was one of the team’s most consistent units this season.

“There’s a lot more that goes into it on why there is pressure, why we’re getting sacked,” Hafley said. “And why we weren’t as successful on offense as we could have or should have been. But I don’t believe it is putting the blame on the line. And I really mean that.”

BC’s O-Line was its most experienced position group. Ben Petrula and Zion Johnson were able to come back to play a final season because of the COVID-19 waiver. Not everyone will have that luxury in 2022, Hafley noted.

While “super seniors” didn’t count against the NCAA’s 85-scholarship limit this past season, they will going forward. Essentially, Hafley and his staff can’t keep every player on scholarship just because they have a COVID year.

“So if I wanted to keep 15, let's call them ‘super seniors,’ they'd have to fit in our 85, which means I would have to recruit less high school players, which means if I continue to do that, each year, all of a sudden, I'm not going to have any young players on the team to develop, and the roster management is going to be a mess,” Hafley said.

He continued: “ So I gotta have conversations with all these guys this week. I can't guarantee every single one of our players who has the extra year to be on the sixth year here. Now some of them might choose to go use their sixth year elsewhere. Or some of them might just say, ‘Hey, coach, I'm going to go get a great job, I got a great degree.’ But those are conversations. And they're really hard, because I have to look at the management of the roster by position, by numbers, by the future.”