Coming out of Pine-Richland high school in Pennsylvania, Phil Jurkovec was a highly touted four-star recruit that was on the wish list of some of the most prestigious college football programs in America, receiving offers from Notre Dame, Alabama, Clemson, Ohio State, Penn State, Michigan State and a host of other programs.
In a recruiting class that included quarterbacks like Clemson’s Trevor Lawrence and Ohio State’s Justin Fields, Notre Dame football coach Brian Kelly proclaimed that Jurkovec “was the best high school quarterback in the country” while he was still a high school senior.
Despite all the promise and hype that surrounded Jurkovec prior to arriving at South Bend, he would not progress and develop into the quarterback of the future that Notre Dame hoped for and found himself behind Ian Book on the depth chart.