Roller Coaster True Freshman Season Made Morehead a Confident QB2

Emmett Morehead was ready to make his first collegiate start. He was going to be the guy.

Three days after he made his debut at Syracuse on Oct. 30, during which he alternated series with Dennis Grosel for much of the afternoon, the Woodside, California, native was trotted out in front of the media. Morehead discussed his experience inside the Carrier Dome and getting his feet wet as a true freshman who hadn’t played in a game since his junior year at Episcopal (Alexandria, Va.) because of COVID-19.

The next day, starting quarterback Phil Jurkovec—who had missed the last six games with a season-threatening fracture to his throwing hand—told head coach Jeff Hafley and offensive coordinator Frank Cignetti Jr. that he was playing against Virginia Tech in the annual Red Bandana Game. Jurkovec had been medically cleared the previous Friday and was anxious to get back on the field and help the Eagles snap a humiliating four-game losing streak.

Even so, it wasn’t official that Jurkovec would be under center again until Thursday night. After all, his grip strength wasn’t close to 100%.

“They told me the night before that I wouldn’t start,” Morehead said last week.

Then Morehead prepared the rest of the year as if he was the starter, simply because he didn’t know if Jurkovec would be able to go each week due to not only his wrist but also how many hits he was taking every game.

A “roller coaster”: that’s how Morehead describes his first year at BC.

“But it was a lot of fun,” he added.

When Morehead arrived in Chestnut Hill, there were at least five quarterbacks ahead of him on the depth chart. He grew up as a baseball player and had only played two seasons of football. COVID-19 threw a wrench in his senior year. Episcopal wouldn’t let him mid-year so he had to return home to California, where he was able to finish up and prepare for a January start at BC.

Jurkovec, Grosel, Matt Valecce, Sam Johnson III, Daelen Menard and Matthew Reuve were all returning. But, as is often the case in today’s college football, the landscape of the position group changed quickly. First, Valecce and Johnson transferred in the summer. Then Jurkovec went down at UMass in Week 2. And, despite a strong start against a friendly schedule, Grosel struggled mightily in ACC play.

Although Menard was listed behind Grosel on the depth chart most of the season, when it came time to try something new, Morehead was the candidate of choice.

On BC’s third offensive series, the 6-foot-5 gunslinger took control of the huddle. He ended up playing 43 snaps—14 more than Grosel—and completed 6-of-15 passes for 87 yards. Most notably, Morehead hit on a pass of 20 or more yards on his third play. Those came at a premium for Grosel in 2021. But Morehead was right on the money with a 44-yard dot for Zay Flowers after taking a five-step drop.

“For him to go in with limited practice reps and play the way he did, I think he’ll just get better,” Hafley said of Morehead’s performance at the time.

Morehead was far from perfect, though. He had happy feet in the pocket, scrambling when he should have kept his eyes downfield and taking sacks when he should have gotten the ball out quicker. He was taken down four times, including once before halftime that got his “head rattled a little bit.”

Still, Morehead said making the throws he completed at Syracuse built up his confidence.

“A lot,” he said. “Especially with the guys just knowing that I can do it. So there’s a lot of faith in me as well. I’m really grateful for that experience. I think that taught me a lot.

“Coming in last year, I wasn’t expecting to necessarily have that. … So that was really exciting.”

Morehead, now firmly BC’s QB2, called the Eagles’ quarterback room “really special.”

“We’re all really close,” he said. “Daelen is probably my best friend. I’m really close with Jack [Brandon] as well. He’s in my grade. So I think it’s special. And I’ve talked to kids, like friends at other schools, and it’s not like that.”

Morehead mentioned that he and Jurkovec have a great relationship, too. And he mentioned that Grosel, someone he looked up to last season, and him still have a strong connection.

Throughout the spring, Morehead was with the second unit, just as Grosel was at this time last year. But, if the 2021 season was any indication, anything can happen.

“I’m just trying to embrace being ready,” Morehead said. “Every snap, it’s one hit away from playing. So I’m taking the starter mentality knowing that [Jurkovec’s] got that [role], and if he goes down, I gotta be ready to go in.”

Morehead “really loved” Cignetti, both as a mentor and as a coach. When Cignetti was hired away to be Pittsburgh’s offensive coordinator earlier this offseason, Morehead told Hafley that he wanted the new OC to be a mentor as well. So far, so good.

Morehead said that John McNulty, who came over from Notre Dame to call plays for the Eagles, was great at rolling out a new scheme while guiding the players in spring practice. Morehead finds McNulty’s system “much easier” to understand than Cignetti’s.

“Last year was very pro-style,” Morehead explained. “You have a lot of different route combinations versus coverage. You depend on receivers to read coverage as well as you. So you have to be on the same page. And then there’s obviously going to be disconnections between your reads occasionally.”

Morehead continued: “It’s much nicer to be in a spread. We did that for Syracuse, which I was very comfortable with. … It’s much more progression-based. You really have starting points on each coverage and each read. So it’s really efficient. And also the RPO game I think is so much more natural for me because I played baseball much longer than I played football.”

While Morehead hinted there will be more quick throws and decisions, which he loves, he acknowledges that pocket awareness remains a work in progress. Comfortability inside the tackle box comes with understanding pressures, Morehead pointed out. He put in that work this offseason and feels more confident in his wherewithal to determine when to use his legs.

Morehead showed off his arm talent in Saturday’s Jay McGillis Memorial Spring Game, completing nice throws downfield to both Taji Johnson and Dante Reynolds. Accuracy, though, will continue to be a critical part of Morehead’s development. The redshirt freshman was just 13-of-31 for 153 yards, averaging a mere 4.94 yards per attempt.

That stat, of course, is a bit misleading, given Morehead’s ability to uncork the deep ball.

As much as Morehead’s occupying the backup role with a starter’s mindset, he’s fully supportive of Jurkovec and believes the NFL prospect will do great with a healthy 2022 campaign.

Meanwhile, Jurkovec is anxious to see what Morehead does with the program once he leaves for the next level.

“He’s been playing well for a while,” Jurkovec said.

“I can’t wait for his chance. He’s going to be a really good player.”