Notre Dame football: 3 takeaways from 2019 Blue-Gold Game

1. Phil Jurkovec is still a work in progress

While Irish fans didn’t expect sophomore Phil Jurkovec’s Blue-Gold game performance to warrant a quarterback controversy, there was a decent amount of excitement surrounding his first few drives with the team’s top unit. However, Jurkovec may have disappointed fans who expected to see a refined performance as he appeared to be a bit lost throughout the game.

This doesn’t necessarily suggest that Jurkovec isn’t progressing properly, but it should make fans glad to have a player like Ian Book (who looked great) suiting up for Week 1. It’s been a long time coming for Jurkovec, and he should have plenty more time to grow under Book before his services will be needed full-time.

What is encouraging is the fact that Jurkovec did display some exceptional athleticism outside of the pocket, but such plays were hard to properly assess given the aspect of the game that prevented quarterbacks from taking hits.

Overall, while this may not have been the performance everyone wanted, we did get to see a few nice plays out of a player who should have at least an entire season of development under his belt by the time he takes over quarterbacking duties. If anything, the emergence of Book makes this performance look more like a disappointment than a legitimate concern.