Jurkovec's Summer Assignment

A quarterback's mind is the football equivalent of a supercomputer. It processes a constant stream of information at an instantaneous pace, but it remains full of digestible information capable of understanding an unlimited number of reads and reactions. It's influenced by a person's individual experience, but the vast quantity of knowledge acquired through a game or by studying film is additionally interpreted through their personal approaches to the game. Everyone has their own unique spin, which is the conversations between any group of players generates the type of conversation only they understand.

Every year, that's what happens at the Manning Passing Academy, a football symposium hosted by the Manning family. It brings together an all-star roster of athletes who learn and interact with one another, and it allows them to attack the cerebral side of the game under the watchful eyes of football's royal family. This past summer, Boston College quarterback Phil Jurkovec enjoyed the experience for a second time after having first attended the camp last season before his second season with the Eagles.

"I bounced around and talked to a lot of guys from all across the country," Jurkovec said. "The Mannings are great [with] the camp, and talking to them, seeing how they operate, was a very, very cool experience. You learn how to deal with people [in] the way the Mannings did it, and their expertise in football, their football knowledge, you try to gain everything you can from them."

Some New Englanders might disagree, but both Peyton and Eli Manning rank among the greatest quarterbacks of all-time. They each finished their career ranked near or at the top of the NFL's career passing leaders, with Peyton in particular shattering untouched ceilings to stake a claim as the best to ever play the game. He is still the only five-time MVP in league history, and he finished his career as the second quarterback to defeat each of the modern NFL's 32 franchises.

He is one of eight quarterbacks with seven touchdown passes and the only quarterback to ever win 12-for-more games over seven consecutive seasons. He broke Dan Marino's 20-year record for most touchdown passes in a single season when he threw for 49 scores with Indianapolis in 2004, then broke the record again with Denver in 2013 when his 55 passing scores eclipsed Tom Brady's 50. During that same season with the Broncos, Manning passed for 5,477 yards, still a league record.

Most of Manning's career numbers have been passed by either Drew Brees or Tom Brady in the seven years since he retired, but Manning's status on football's Mount Rushmore is undisputed. He was a nightmare for opposing defenses, and even the most perfect scheme wasn't enough to stop him. At least that's what Boston College head coach Jeff Hafley was led to believe on the two occasions his defensive backfield matched up against the Sheriff. In both games, trips to Denver by both the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Cleveland Browns ended in disappointment for Hafley after Manning threw for a combined 532 yards and four touchdowns in games in 2012 and 2015, respectively.

"Yeah those [games] weren't fun," laughed Hafley, who was the assistant defensive backs coach for the Bucs and the lead position coach for the Browns. "Gosh, Peyton was so smart. He saw everything. I remember one time, we were disguised, and I was young at the time, probably early 30s at best, and [I thought] we had the perfect disguise. We sent a corner from his blindside, and he just kind of laughed and threw a completion. He threw that [ball] up in the air, and I was just like, 'How did you see that?' He was unbelievable."

The Manning family is far from a one-person show, and Eli finished his career as a two-time Super Bowl champion with MVP awards in both wins over the Patriots. The four-time Pro Bowler had his number retired by the New York Giants, with whom he holds a number of franchise records, and his 1,200-plus yards during the 2011 postseason remain a league record. His career numbers weren't as prolific as his brother, but Eli still retired with over 57,000 career passing yards and 367 touchdowns passes. Both were in the top-10 and likely form the basis for his induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame once he's eligible in 2025.

"I know they're older now," Jurkovec said, "but they aren't the most athletic guys. They don't have the motion of Patrick Mahomes or Aaron Rodgers. They don't just flick the ball. They really try to throw, but they still make all of their throws. They know the game so well that they could [still] play it at the highest level. That just shows you that the mental side is so important. And if you're ahead of the game mentally, then you can make up for a lot of things."

Combined with their father Archie Manning, a former New Orleans Saints legend who led the franchise to a .500 record at a time when their nickname was more colloquially known as the "Aints," and older brother Cooper, who was forced to retire because of a medical condition, the Mannings formed the MPA in Louisiana in 1996, and it's evolved to reach thousands of football players since its first incarnation. It's built to include four different offensive skill positions, each of which are intertwined beyond just the quarterback position, which in turn teaches players a cerebral approach to the game.

There are daily meetings, classes and speakers geared towards the philosophy of teaching the players what to expect. For Jurkovec, the camp brought him exposure to his peers at an intellectual level, including several who appeared on BC's schedule both last year and this season. Virginia's Brennan Armstrong attended this year's camp, as did East Carolina's Holton Ahlers, and former Missouri quarterback Connor Bazelak was among the list of attendees with Georgia's Stetson Bennett and both Spencer Rattler, Anthony Richardson, and CJ Stroud.

"Most of [what they teach] is mental," Jurkovec said. "It's conversations, really, and it's kind of like a conference. You get all of these quarterbacks together, and people just bounce ideas off one another. There was a little bit of physical [activity] where we did a couple of workouts, and we were out on the field where the Mannings were coaching us up and teaching us techniques, but the majority of it was mental."

"Some of those [pro quarterbacks] do a lot [at the line of scrimmage]," Hafley said. "They can redirect the line, slide the protection, get the protection that they want if they see something, or get the route that they want. They can change the run from the shade to a three-technique. There's a lot that goes into [quarterbacking]. Some guys, I'm sure, have fun with it, too, just to confuse us [as coaches]."

Even getting that little bit of a rub is something Jurkovec appreciated as he enters a crucial season for both himself and Boston College. He is currently the ninth-best quarterback on Mel Kiper, Jr.'s rankings towards the 2023 NFL Draft, and this is his final season with the Eagles before he matriculates to the pro level. He's been highly-touted and is already one of BC's all-time greatest passers, but he knows there's a future rub if he can help push his team over the six-win or seven-win hump.

"Coming into the spring, it was a little different with a new playbook," Jurkovec said, "but a lot of the plays were similar, with similar reads and slight variations. You can kind of read them the same way as we did before, so it's been good [to continue that growth]."

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