Shimko's Unorthodox Coaching Journey Has Led Him Back to the QB Room

Boston College quarterbacks coach Steve Shimko joked that you can see the back of his head in the third season of Netflix's hit documentary series "Last Chance U."

At the time, he was the offensive coordinator at Garden City Community College in Kansas, which played Independence Community College—the show's feature JUCO for that season in 2017, and the next in 2018.

"That was the most I made it into 'Last Chance U,' thankfully," Shimko said.

Shimko clarified that Netflix didn't portray junior college football inaccurately. He noted, however, that the series focused on the extremes of the sport, the players' lifestyles and everything in between.

"For the most part, you're still dealing with a college football player," Shimko said. "And, at the end of the day, they're trying to compete and do the best they can on Saturdays so they can get to the next level.

"Whether that's here (at BC), where they're trying to get to the next level on Sundays, or whether that's there (JUCO), where they're trying to get a scholarship to a place like here."

Shimko made it clear, though, that juggling young players with varying backgrounds, work ethics and personalities was extremely formative for him. For starters, he was in rural Southwest Kansas, which, as a Jersey guy who has lived in big cities most of his life, was alarmingly different. It was also his first time putting together and calling an offense.

Shimko said that, when he got to Garden City, he thought he knew football, especially because he just came from Georgia, a perennial SEC power where he was a graduate assistant. But he soon discovered there was much to learn, particularly when it came to managing a team.

"You deal with a lot of different types of players, young adults," Shimko explained. "Some didn't qualify for college, so they're really good but didn't have the grades. Some went to college and failed at their first college, so they're looking for a new chance. Some, people didn't think they were good enough in high school, so they didn't even get any opportunities, even though they had the grades.

"You're dealing with all these types of people, all these types of players. And you have to adapt your coaching and teaching style to reach every one of them."

In Shimko's first season, Garden City won the NJACC National Championship. After the next year, he got an opportunity in the NFL.

From 2018-19, Shimko served as an assistant quarterbacks coach for the Seattle Seahawks. It was a chance for him to get his feet wet at the next level while learning from a Super Bowl winning head coach in Pete Carroll and a longtime college and NFL OC in Brian Schottenheimer.

Shimko even learned from the players he was coaching, namely star quarterback Russell Wilson, who spent his first 10 years in the league with the Seahawks.

There was one lesson, in particular, Shimko took away from Wilson.

"How a quarterback can affect an offense, and a whole team, with just positivity," he said. "Whether a play is wrong, whether you're down 21 and it's the fourth quarter, there was never a point in time where Russ took the field and didn't feel like he was going to win every rep or every down or every game."

Shimko emphasized how that kind of mindset is contagious. He said that redshirt senior BC starting quarterback Phil Jurkovec has developed into a leader who now possesses that kind of positivity.

Jurkovec said he enjoys working with Shimko, who transitioned this offseason from coaching BC's tight ends the previous two seasons to coaching the team's quarterbacks. Jurkovec added that Shimko learned from former offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Frank Cignetti Jr., citing the crossover in teaching.

"I really like how he coaches," Jurkovec said. "He's funny, he can keep it loose, but he's also ambitious. He wants to have a great year. ... I'm sure he wants to be an OC someday. He's really driving us, and that's what we want. We want to be coached hard in the QB room."

Shimko has always had that light-hearted side to him since he began his coaching career as a 21-year-old student assistant at Rutgers. He was actually recruited by current BC offensive coordinator John McNulty, who was Rutgers' OC back then. The 6-foot-6 Shimko was a quarterback who quickly rose from scout team to two-deep territory, except he never attempted a college pass.

He had career-ending rotator cuff surgery that significantly affected his arm strength. Rather than transferring down to a lower level of college football, where he might have been able to continue his playing days, Shimko stayed at Rutgers and picked up a clipboard to help head coach Greg Schiano.

That's when Shimko started to blossom into the coach he is today—someone third-year BC head coach Jeff Hafley believes is a "star in this profession."

Hafley, like McNulty, overlapped with Shimko at Rutgers, albeit in different years. Hafley is confident in Shimko's ability to coach Jurkovec and backup Emmett Morehead, who appears to be the future of the program.

"Steve's done an awesome job," Hafley said. "I think both quarterbacks, if you asked them, would tell you that."

McNulty said that Shimko's previous experience, especially his time working in the NFL, has accelerated everything, as far as his coaching acumen goes. McNulty pointed out that having someone else with OC experience in an offensive meeting room comes in handy when you're installing scheme.

Shimko sees the game through a quarterback's eyes, said McNulty, who added that Shimko has a "good feel for what everybody's doing and how it affects everything else."

"Anybody that's done it before has a little bit more of appreciation of why you can't put 100 plays in, why you can't just put in 10 third-down plays," McNulty said. "It helps."

Shimko has come a long way since he was a quarterback at Rutgers.

He's grown to understand the power of the completion, the importance of positive plays—regardless if they go for a few yards or 50 yards—and, most importantly, how to reach each individual player.

"Because that's all coaching is," Shimko said. "It's how can you reach your guys that you're coaching and get them to learn what you want them to do."