Despite not officially naming Kurtis Rourke as the starting QB for IU football — Curt Cignetti will ‘sleep better at night’ with him under center

The inability to find consistent quarterback play was one of the reasons for the struggles over the past three years for IU football. The success that Curt Cignetti has had with the position throughout his entire career made it a perfect match when Indiana was looking for its next head coach.

Under the tutelage of Cignetti, offensive coordinate Mike Shanahan and quarterbacks coach Tino Sunseri, that trio has been able to develop numerous All-Conference players at the quarterback position. That has also coincided with numerous Player of the Year’s.

And Cignetti makes sure that’s on the top of just about everyone’s mind nearly every time he speaks.

“I’ve always made the quarterback decision when it comes to the portal,” Cignetti said at Big Ten Media Day. “Our last four quarterbacks have all been Player of the Year in the league, and they were all different, and they all had their skeptics. We’ve done a great job of developing our quarterbacks.”

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So it’s easy to say he and his offensive staff have an eye for talent under center as well as a knack for getting the most out of that position.

That’s why it was a perfect match when Ohio transfer Kurtis Rourke joined the IU football program. He comes with a strong resume and extremely productive career up to this point.

His production is what caught the eyes of Cignetti and Co.

“I felt like he was the best out there for us,” Cignetti said of Rourke. “He had started a lot of games. He was Player of the Year in the conference in 2022. He won a lot of games, engineered a lot of two-minute drives, done a lot of touchdown passes.”

Rourke has 33 starts under his belt in his collegiate career and has thrown for 7,651 yards and 50 touchdowns. So, it’s easy to see why the IU football staff is excited about what could be the next great quarterback to play in this system.

Rourke spent most of the spring and summer working with the starters and entered fall camp as the favorite to land the starting job come August 31. While Cignetti isn’t listing an official starter at the moment, it’s easy to read between the lines.

“I feel really good about Kurtis Rourke,” Cignetti continued. “Tayven Jackson has improved but still needs to keep improving in terms of his preparation and processing and playing quarterback at a high level. I’m talking the mental part about it and the decision making.

“I want to promote competition at every positions. I’m not necessarily looking to get him (Rourke) beat out because he had a really good spring. He didn’t really get to show it in the spring game. It’s like the first quarter and a half of the game, you’ve got to have the opportunity to show what you can do. He had a good summer — when we went back and watched all of our spring cut-ups offensively, the more I watched him, the more impressed I was.”

So — at the moment — there should be an expectation that Rourke takes the reigns and looks to add to the great list of successful quarterbacks under this coaching staff.

“I sleep better at night knowing I’ve got a guy like that that’s played that many games,” Cignetti emphasized.

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