The 2024 season was Curt Cignetti’s first year as head coach of the Indiana Hoosiers football program. Traditionally, Indiana is a basketball school. That was not the case in 2024. Indiana went 11-1 during the regular season and earned a spot in the college football playoffs.
Despite a 27-17 loss to Notre Dame, the Hoosiers still had an incredible season and set a program record for wins. Transfer QB Kurtis Rourke was impressive in his lone season with Indiana. It was reported on Friday that Rourke re-tore his ACL in August and played through the injury all season long. Rourke is a tough QB and he was not going to let an injury stop his final season of college football.
Kurtis Rourke played through a torn ACL for the entire 2024 season
Kurtis Rourke re-tore his ACL in AUGUST and played through it in the 2024 season
Led the Hoosiers to the Playoff on one leg as he threw for 3,042 yards, 29 touchdowns/5 interceptions, on 69.4% completion rate
WARRIOR pic.twitter.com/aGznlKIUvs
— Unnecessary Roughness (@UnnecRoughness) January 3, 2025
In 2019, Kuris Rourke was a red-shirt freshman with the Ohio Bobcats. He played in one game that season and that year did not count toward his collegiate eligibility. Rourke played only three games in 2020 due to the COVID pandemic and got an extra year of eligibility because of it. The 2021 season was his first year playing double-digit games for the Bobcats. Over five seasons, Rourke played in 36 games for Ohio. He threw for 7,651 yards, 50 touchdowns, and six interceptions.
With one year of eligibility remaining, Rourke transferred to Indiana for the 2024 season. The 24-year-old made the most of his final year and led Indiana to their best season in program history. In 12 games during 2024, Rourke passed for 3,042 yards, 29 touchdowns, and nine interceptions. The Hoosiers went 11-2 and Rourke played on a torn ACL the entire season. Next week, the sixth-year QB will have surgery and his sights will likely be on the NFL. He’ll have an injury to recover from but Rourke could find his way to the next level with the toughness he showed in 2024.
