Football

QB Kurtis Rourke leading undefeated Indiana while playing 'to glorify God'

By Kevin Mercer Nov 21, 2024
Indiana QB Kurtis Rourke, Nov. 9, 2024. (AP Photo/AJ Mast)

Week after week, the Hoosiers just keep on winning.

Now 10-0 and one of only three undefeated teams in the FBS with two weeks remaining, No. 5 Indiana is the talk of the college football world. Yet some of the chatter surrounding the Hoosiers involves their 106th-ranked strength of schedule as they try to crash the party and earn a spot in the new 12-team College Football Playoff.

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Indiana can answer many of the questions about its seemingly soft schedule and lack of ranked wins on Saturday, when first-year head coach Curt Cignetti and quarterback Kurtis Rourke lead their team into “The Horseshoe” in Columbus, Ohio, for a top-five matchup at No. 2 Ohio State (12 p.m. ET).

Rourke, a 24-year-old super senior from Ontario, Canada, will bring with him ample experience. It’s showed on the field this fall, as he’s picked apart Big Ten defenses and is on pace to set career highs in both completion percentage (currently 71.8%) and quarterback rating (currently 182.7). He is the highest-rated FBS quarterback (92.3) according to Pro Football Focus and a semifinalist for the Walter Camp Player of the Year, Davey O’Brien Award and Maxwell Award.

Rourke is in his first season leading the Hoosiers, although he spent five seasons (including two 10-win campaigns) quarterbacking the Ohio Bobcats and earning the MAC Most Valuable Player Award in 2022. His arrival in Bloomington, Indiana, has provided a shot in the arm for a program that hasn’t posted a winning record since the COVID-shortened season of 2020 (6-2) and has never before won 10 games in a single season.

The Walk, an athlete-focused ministry, posted a video recently to Instagram and X where Rourke revealed that it was God who led him to Indiana after entering the transfer portal last December.

“The biggest thing that I saw God do is just close doors and open others,” Rourke said.

He was pursued by a few other big-name schools, but as the opportunities began to dwindle, he realized that God was making the right decision obvious. He committed to the Hoosiers on Dec. 14, 2023.

“I kept praying about it and just felt peace as the doors started closing and Indiana seemed just even more like the clear answer,” Rourke explained. “Looking back on that time, it just shows me more that I need to continue to trust Him, because look where we are now. I just want to glorify Him and thank Him for just shutting those doors.”

Rourke — who calls himself a “Follower of Christ” in his X bio and lists the Bible verse 1 Corinthians 15:57 on Instagram — said his relationship with Christ deepened at Ohio through the ministry of Athletes in Action (AIA).

“I think community is really important for me,” Rourke told the Ohio Bobcats website in October 2023. “Community was a big part of me coming to faith in Jesus and so I want to keep that going as much as I can.”

He was the vice president of the school’s AIA chapter, and he even had an opportunity to speak at a church in the area. At an AIA meeting in 2022, he hit it off with a woman named Caroline. The two were married this past February.

 

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Rourke has turned to his Heavenly Father for healing and comfort while recovering from various injuries, most notably a season-ending torn ACL in 2022.

“One of the biggest ways that I felt [God’s] presence was actually when I got injured in that ’22 season,” Rourke said in an interview on the ZenGame QB Show in August. “Because my life kind of just got struck down.”

Yet during the lengthy recovery process, Rourke saw God’s goodness to him.

“God had His hand on my shoulder,” Rourke said, “and He was saying, ‘I’m gonna be with you and it’s gonna be all right.’ … My purpose wasn’t to play football; it was for bigger things. And God showed me that. When I was able to start the recovery process, I kind of had a new sense of why I’m playing football. I’m playing it to glorify God and not play it to glorify myself.”

It appeared as though the injury bug may have followed Rourke to Indiana, when he suffered a thumb injury on his right throwing hand against Nebraska on Oct. 19 which kept him out for the rest of the game and required surgery.

“I shed some tears,” Rourke admitted to The Herald-Times this week.

The injury sidelined him during Indiana’s 31-17 win against Washington, but he returned the following week against Michigan State and threw four touchdowns as the Hoosiers won, 47-10.

“It was a miracle,” he told The Herald-Times. “… I saw it improving throughout the week and I believe God was a big part of that.”

Rourke knows God has led him to Indiana, and he knows it’s a gift from God to even be able to play against Ohio State in a game with massive playoff implications. He knows he’s right where he’s supposed to be.

“My identity is in Jesus and not my sport,” Rourke said on the ZenGame QB Show. “I may have a bad practice, may have a bad throw, but knowing that, no matter what, Jesus is proud of me. He’s proud that I’m there and my goal every day [is] to work to glorify Him.”

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