Wednesday it was reported that Notre Dame redshirt sophomore quarterback Phil Jurkovec has entered the transfer portal with the intention of leaving Notre Dame.
Jurkovec is an intriguing prospect that should be front-and-center on West Virginia coach Neal Brown’s radar. Jurkovec is the kind of 5-star quarterback recruit WVU doesn’t get out of high school. It was the route taken by Will Grier, a top-flight high school recruit who came to Morgantown via Florida and starred for the Mountaineers for two seasons.
Jurkovec is a 6-foot-5, 227-pound athletic passer from Western Pennsylvania. Jurkovec was one of the most sought-after prospects in the nation.
He was the fourth-ranked dual-threat quarterback as a high school senior and ranked the 83rd-best player overall. Jurkovec threw for 8,202 yards and 71 touchdowns and won a Pennsylvania state championship in his career at Pine-Richland High School.
Jurkovec played in the Army All American game his senior year and had offers from almost every school in the country, including Clemson, Ohio State, Michigan State, Penn State, Pitt, Tennessee, UCLA and Wisconsin.
Compare Jurkovec’s recruit ranking to those to Garrett Greene, WVU’s top quarterback prospect in the 2020 class. Greene, from Tallahasse, Fla., is a Rivals 3-star recruit and is the 20th-ranked dual-threat quarterback. Greene (6-0, 175) is significantly smaller than Jurkovec, and Greene’s list of suitors was far less impressive. Besides WVU, Greene had offers from Arkansas State, Bowling Green, Cincinnati, South Florida, Mississippi, Mississippi State and Georgia Tech. Florida State showed late interest but it’s unclear if the Seminoles offered Greene a scholarship.
Bowling Green transfer Jarrett Doege is likely to be the Mountaineers starter in 2020 after a solid four-game showing at the end of last season. Like Greene, Doege pales in comparison to Jurkovec in both size and pedigree. Doege (6-2, 188) was, like Greene, a 3-star Rivals recruit who was lightly sought by most Power 5 conference schools
Doege also doesn’t possess the athleticism of Jurkovec (or Greene for that matter) and Brown has a history of preferring dual-threat type quarterbacks.
Wherever Jurkovec transfers, he likely will have to sit out the 2020 season and regain eligibility in 2021. All available indicators suggest Jurkovec would be the best quarterback on the 2021 Mountaineers.
