For the first time this season, Indiana football has a player win player of the week in the Big Ten.
As it was annouced per an Indiana football release, quarterback Kurtis Rourke was named Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week. This comes off his 25-of-33 completed passes for 307 yards and four touchdowns in Indiana football’s win over UCLA.
Below is the full release.
ROSEMONT, Ill. – After leading Indiana football to its first conference road victory since 2022 and largest Big Ten road winning margin since 2001, quarterback Kurtis Rourke was named the Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week.
His efforts also earned him a spot on the Manning Award Stars of the Week list and the Davey O’Brien Award Great 8 list. Voting for the Manning Award Star of the Week can be found by clicking here and voting closes on Wednesday at 8 a.m.
Rourke helped IU defeat UCLA inside Rose Bowl Stadium by 29 points, 42-13, for its largest Big Ten road win since a 31-point margin in 2001 at Wisconsin (63-32). The victory was the first conference road win since taking the Old Brass Spittoon from Michigan State in Spartan Stadium in 2022.
In the game, he completed 25-of-33 passes for 307 yards and four touchdowns. His efficiency on third down was spot on, as well, going 9-of-9 passing for 128 yards with eight of those completions accounting for a first down or touchdown. He also rushed for seven yards.
The four touchdown passes were the most for an Indiana quarterback since 2020 when Michael Penix Jr. threw four against Ohio State and his 25 completions were the most by an IU signal caller since the 2022 season.
He is the first Indiana player to earn Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week since 2020 when Ty Fryfogle (Week 4 & 5) and Stevie Scott III (Week 6) won three straight awards from Nov. 16-30. The last quarterback to earn Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week was Nate Sudfeld in Week 13 of the 2015 season at Purdue.
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