Looking Ahead: Jeff Hafley Expecting More From Boston College Offense in 2021

Second year head coach Jeff Hafley is expecting a lot of improvement from his Boston College offense, and a lot of that optimism centers around what he's seen from quarterback Phil Jurkovec.

In Jeff Hafley's first season at Boston College, his team came very close to pulling off one of the biggest upsets of the season.

The Eagles had top-ranked Clemson on the ropes last season in Death Valley, at one point leading the Tigers 28-10 late in the second quarter. However, an inability to convert key third downs would, in part, allow Clemson to make a ferocious comeback in the second half and squeak out a 34-28 win in D.J. Uiagalelei's first career start.

Now heading into his second season with Boston College, Hafley insists his team must be better on third downs if they are to improve upon their 6-5 record of last year.

"I think we found ourselves behind the sticks a little too much, meaning there's too many third-and-seven, eight, nine, ten," Hafley said at the ACC Kickoff. "We're going to run the ball better this year. I think we'll have more of an identity, who we are running the football. I think that's what spring ball was all about."

Against the Tigers in that heartbreaking loss, the Eagles managed just two yards per carry on the ground. On the season, those numbers weren't much better as BC averaged just 3.1 yards per carry. Hafley said improving those numbers is the first step, and that quarterback Phil Jurkovec will factor more into that aspect of the offense in 2021.

"Being able to run the football is going to get us into or manageable situations, third-and-two, third-and-three, third-and-four," Hafley said. "What you're also going to see is a quarterback, 225-pounds that can run the ball. When you can do that on third down, it's hard to stop when you get into those third-and-short or third-and-medium situations.

Jurkovec, a transfer from Notre Dame, is also heading into his second season with the program, and Hafley has seen a notable difference in his quarterback throughout the spring and summer.

"He's so talented, he can throw the ball all over the field," Hafley said. "He's big, he's strong, he's hard to sack. He sees it, he can process. Here is what I saw of him in spring this year. I saw confidence and I saw leadership coming in and out of the huddle as each practice went on. I told him. I mean, there were some days I was like, man this guy is getting better every day."

Jurkovec threw for more than 2,500 yards, while completing 61% of his passes last season. Now that he's had a full, and normal, spring, summer and fall in the program, Hafley is expecting more from his quarterback in the coming season.

"The guy hadn't played since his senior year in high school," Hafley said. "He comes to a new team, doesn't know the team... harder than me, guys, and I'm the head coach trying to figure this out. Imagine you're the guy playing quarterback, guys from Clemson are trying to knock you out. I didn't have to get hit."

"Here this guy comes in really without a spring ball, training camp was kind of every other day we were practicing. So does he know the offense well enough to do it in his sleep? Probably not. He goes out and plays the way he did. I mean, that's why I'm so excited about him. How hard he works, the leadership, the confidence. But confidence and leadership is what I see. I'm really excited about it."

Boston College currently has the fourth-best odds of winning the ACC, according to FanDuel, at +3000.