IU football head coach Curt Cignetti has provided plenty of clues who his starting quarterback will be when the Hoosiers open the season on Aug. 31.
But Monday morning, the first-year leader of the Indiana program shared his strongest signal yet that Ohio transfer Kurtis Rourke will be behind center when IU hosts FIU in just under three weeks.
Indiana had a scrimmage on Saturday, and coming out of the weekend, Cignetti says the gap has widened for the starting role.
“I thought Rourke had a good day, really sort of separated himself pretty significantly in that scrimmage,” Cignetti told the media Monday morning.
Rourke is the most experience quarterback on the team by a wide margin.
The Canadian product appeared in 36 games with 33 starts over five seasons at Ohio (2019-23). He earned Mid-American Conference Offensive Player of the Year and first-team All-MAC as a junior, and added second-team All-MAC as a senior.
The 6-foot-5 Rourke has amassed 8,479 career all-purpose yards and accounted for 61 touchdowns (50 passing, 11 rushing). He has completed 638-of-963 passes for 7,651 yards passing and 50 touchdown passes, and rushed for 1,240 career yards on 232 carries and 11 touchdowns.
All of that experience has helped Rourke create what seems to be an insurmountable margin for the starting role.
“Rourke stacks days,” Cignetti said. “He had an off-day or two last week where maybe he wasn’t really good in seven-or-seven but came back and had a really good two-minute drill. For the most part he’s been playing good football.
“Now, always room for improvement for anyone on this football team, any coaching staff member, never satisfied. But (he’s) consistent, and knows how to play quarterback.”
Redshirt sophomore Tayven Jackson is expected to be Rourke’s backup.
Cignetti said Monday Jackson is capable of making the “wow” play, but he’s looking for more consistency and some technique improvement from the redshirt sophomore.
For more on the quarterback room, see our position preview here:
IU football 2024 position snapshot: Quarterback depth chart and outlook
For complete coverage of IU football, GO HERE.
The Daily Hoosier –“Where Indiana fans assemble when they’re not at Assembly”
- Find us on Facebook: thedailyhoosier
- You can follow us on Twitter: @daily_hoosier
- Seven ways to support completely free IU coverage at no cost to you.
