Calm Amid the Storm – Rourke Thrives By Keeping Quarterback Cool
Pete DiPrimio | IUHoosiers.com
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Panic isn’t in Kurtis Rourke’s nature. Potential mayhem might surround him, as it does every quarterback, with some defensive players seeking to hit him while others aim to confuse him, and the play you called doesn’t necessarily go as planned.
No matter. Good quarterbacks, the best quarterbacks, find a way. They perform and lead and do not, no matter what, rattle, because that gets you beat.
Rourke is such a player. It’s why he was once the Mid-American Conference offensive player of the year at Ohio University, why he’s now the Indiana starting quarterback, why he did the job in Saturday’s season-opening 31-7 win over FIU by throwing for 180 yards and a touchdown, and why he’s determined to do better in Friday night’s game against Western Illinois (0-1) at Memorial Stadium, and then the Big Ten opener at UCLA the following Saturday and in every game after that.
“It’s important as a quarterback to control your emotions,” Rourke says. “I’ve always been someone who has been calm because that’s the way I best process the game and information.
“Whenever something happens, good or bad, I like to stay on the same level so I can attack the next play, the next drive. I want to be able to move on. The hardest thing to do is to move on from a good or a bad play and get ready for the next one.”
Elite quarterback play demands elite film watching, which is why Rourke and quarterbacks coach Tino Sunseri spend plenty of time together, as well as separately, watching to find a difference-making edge and correct mistakes that surface.
“I think that it has evolved throughout my years,” Rourke says. “I have been watching more tape as I have gotten older and gotten more playing time.”
Older brother Nathan, a two-time All-Mid-American Conference quarterback at Ohio who later played in the Canadian Football League as well as for the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars, provided a personal example of the benefits.
“Everywhere I go,” Rourke says, “I learn something new about how to watch tape. I learned a lot from my brother who has gone through all of college and into the pros with how he watches film and how he prepares. And then Coach Tino, who has been around the best of the best. Seeing how he prepares and how he watches film throughout the week, I have tried to copy that, as well.”
Rourke watched a lot of James Madison tape when he first arrived in Bloomington to get a sense of how the offense worked. That included seeing Dukes quarterback Cole Johnson, the FCS national player of the year in 2021 after throwing for 3,770 yards and 41 TDs, thrived in the system.
“We watched a lot of past JMU tape for installs or just learning how things would be,” Rourke says. “Cole is a great player. He’s very smart. Having Tino talk about (Johnson’s) thought process and how he analyzed games was very helpful because he was very successful.”
Friday night’s game gives the Hoosiers (1-0) one less day to prepare than usual. That isn’t a problem, Rourke said.
“It’s not too different. You have time to get your body back. It should come back quickly so you’re ready to play right away. You prepare and move on as fast as you can.
“We watched tape on Monday (after the FIU win) and right away had to be ready to switch gears and focus on a new defense and a new game plan.”
Against FIU, IU’s offense slowed down after jumping to a 21-0 lead, which did not please head coach Curt Cignetti. That’s something the Hoosiers must avoid moving forward, Rourke says.
“It’s always tough when feel you have a win in the bag. Coach Cignetti did a good job of making sure we played the same no matter who was in there. We need to maintain that focus from the first quarter to the end of the game.”
A major highlight from the FIU win was the one-handed, 30-yard leaping catch by receiver Miles Cross, which ranked No. 3 on ESPN Sportscenter’s top-10 plays. It came at the end of a Rourke scramble on third and 21.
Cross, like Rourke, is a transfer from Ohio.
“That catch was impressive at all angles,” Rourke says. “When I threw it, I was hoping nothing bad would happen. He saved me. He’s a heck of player. He has great hands, some of the best hands I’ve ever played with. I can’t say I was expecting that, but I’m not surprised. I’m glad we have him.”
A football cliché, which doesn’t make it any less true, is that teams improve the most from the first to the second game. For IU, improvement goals center on cutting down the nine penalties for 80 yards and focusing on consistent execution, especially with UCLA and other Big Ten opponents looming.
“You want to get into a good rhythm,” Rourke says. “The first game is always about getting that game speed back. You can prepare as much as you want in the offseason and do as many live reps as you can, but until you're in the game and you take that first hit, then you know you're going now.
“It’s getting that rhythm down and game timing down. It is good to have a couple games before conference play in order to get that out of the way, but the sooner the better and that's what we are striving for this week.”
As for reducing the penalties, Rourke adds, “We have to get in sync. A lot of those penalties we didn’t have in camp. We have to have more attention to detail, myself included, to minimize those. As the season goes on, those penalties will hurt more.”