Anyone who watches college football, really watches college football, knows who Kurtis Rourke is. After guiding the Ohio Bobcats to the conference title game, he was the 2022 MAC Player of the Year. But, after utilizing the transfer portal to make a leap to the Power Four level, Rourke is truly emerging on the national stage as the quarterback for the 3-0 Indiana Hoosiers.
Statistical Standout Kurtis Rourke Emerging on the National Stage
No longer just the little brother of Nathan Rourke, the Indiana quarterback is leading the Hoosiers into uncharted recent territory. Named the Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week for his performance in the 42-13 win over the UCLA Bruins, he became the first player for the program to scoop that accolade since 2020.
Head coach Curt Cignetti mined the transfer portal as well as anybody after arriving from James Madison, a tactic put to good use since bringing the Dukes to the FBS level, but it is fair to say that his addition of the former Ohio quarterback has been the most significant contributor to the early-season success the Hoosiers are enjoying.
The showing against UCLA was just the latest in a commanding first season at the Power Four level for Rourke. While there will be tougher tests to come, through three games, he has set a career-high mark for completion percentage, ranking seventh in the nation, having completed 74.3% of his pass attempts.
Completion percentage can be a deceptive number, especially when you consider that five of the top six players in the country for that metric have completed less than 10 yards per attempt. Not Rourke, however, whose 10.2 YPA ranks in the top 10 nationally, while 18.1% of his passes have traveled over 20 yards.
Rourke is putting up numbers unlike any seen since Michael Penix Jr. hopped into the transfer portal and away from the Hoosiers.
Numbers like a Big Ten-leading seven touchdown passes. Rourke has thrown a touchdown on 9.5% of his throws this season. Five of those seven have come in the first quarter of games, a mark that leads the nation. In compiling a stacked touchdown stat sheet, he’s yet to throw a single interception, one of 29 quarterbacks not to throw a pass to the opposition in 2024.
The mark of a great quarterback performance is not how they do when things go their way and they effortlessly churn through defenses like a knife through butter but how they thrive when tested and challenged.
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Moving the chains in the toughest of situations is key, and Rourke has delivered on third down consistently. After going nine for nine on third down against UCLA, he’s now picked up a first down or touchdown on 76.1% of his third-down plays during this remarkable first season at the Power Four level.
Indiana already has as many wins through three games as it did in the entire 2023 season. Some of that has to do with coach Cignetti. Some of that has to do with a transfer portal class that added 31 players (only Colorado welcomed more transfers in this cycle). Much of that has to do with the Maple Missile they chose to add from that transfer class.
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