Rourke has Hoosiers chasing football glory

When Kurtis Rourke was seeking a place to extend his NCAA football career after five seasons at Ohio last December, he wanted somewhere committed to winning in what would be his final college season and last chance to impress NFL scouts.

So, on the surface, his decision to transfer to Indiana University seemed curious, given that the Big Ten school had averaged fewer than five wins a season between 2017 and 2023.

But Rourke was trusting his sense that new head coach Curt Cignetti, who started talking a big game the moment he got to Bloomington from James Madison University in Virginia last November, was going to be able to back it up.

And has he ever, with Rourke, the 6-foot-5 quarterback from Oakville, Ont. and younger brother of BC Lions quarterback Nathan Rourke, as the prize of his transfer portal class.

The No. 16 Hoosiers are 6-0 for the first time since 1967, and host 5-1 Nebraska on Saturday with a realistic shot at finishing the season as part of college football’s first 12-team playoff class.

“It’s been a crazy first half,” said Rourke. “A lot of people ask if I’m surprised. I wouldn’t say I’m surprised, but I definitely didn’t go into the season saying we would have the season we’ve had so far. But there’s a lot of special talent here and we knew we could make some noise.”

That noise includes Rourke re-establishing himself on the NFL radar, following season-ending ACL surgery in 2022 and a disappointing 2023 season at Ohio.

So far this season, Rourke has thrown for 1,752 yards, which is 13^th in all of Division I, with 14 touchdowns to just two interceptions. His ESPN passer rating is the fourth best in college football. His 73.8 completion percentage ranks third.

There was the recent shout-out during a prime-time NFL game from broadcaster Joe Buck. Oh, and he currently sits with the 11^th-best odds of winning the Heisman Trophy.

“He’s like an old grizzly NFL vet that’s played in the Pro Bowl a few times and taken thousands of snaps and knows how to handle every situation and circumstance,” Cignetti said this week.  “He’s poised.”

Rourke attributes his smooth adjustment from Mid-American Conference football to the Big Ten to overcoming the feeling that he has to be perfect and focussing on getting the ball into the hands of his playmakers. He also credits quarterback coach Tino Sunseri, a former Saskatchewan Roughrider, with helping him improve the way he sees the field to grow his confidence.

“I’ve definitely grown as a player throughout my career. Every year I’ve tried to take a step in becoming a better player, whether that’s physically or mentally,” Rourke said. “Especially this year, I feel much stronger mentally. Coach Tino has really opened my eyes a lot to being able see the field in different ways. Being able to apply that to the five years I had in Ohio to then being able to use my eyes to maximize playing quarterback … I just feel I’ve had a lot of growth and continue to have that growth during the season.

“Every game that goes by I’m starting to get more confident in my abilities. Just based on how this year has gone, I am more excited for the opportunity, hopefully, to play at the next level because I know that I will be able to.”

Rourke will face some tough tests during the final few weeks of the season, including Washington, Michigan and Ohio State.

“We truly believe and have believed for a while that if we just go out and play our game we can beat anyone that’s lined up against us. Don’t over think it,” Rourke said.

Rourke had a breakout junior season at Ohio in 2022, throwing 25 touchdown passes and just four interceptions, passing for 3,257 yards and racking up some of the best passing statistics in all of college football. But a torn ACL suffered in the eleventh game of the year led to an entire off-season of rehab. Rourke was narrowly cleared in time to start the 2023 season’s first game in August.

Though Rourke has never blamed the injury for this 2023 struggles, his numbers dipped across the board, and his NFL stock followed suit. Had he not found the right college fit for this season, how prepared was he to enter the NFL and CFL drafts and bet on himself at the pro level?

“Honestly, pretty close,” said Rourke. “When the season ended and we were doing bowl prep, I had a lot of conversations with my family and friends and people around me to see what the best move was, because the season I had was not statistically as good as I wanted. What I though was best for me was to enter the portal and see if there was any interest, because I wasn’t sure there would be, based on the season that I had.

“If Indiana wouldn’t have called I don’t know if I would have been playing college football again. It makes me even more grateful to the coaching staff that’s believed in me and helped me get to this point.”