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Some claim they have football in their blood. Others — like the Rourke Family, formerly of Oakville, Ontario — don’t talk about it. They pack up the family home, uproot their lives and leave anything they’ve ever known to move to the American Deep South in search of gridiron glory.
Kurtis Rourke grew up in one of those rare Canadian households that preferred pigskin over ice. By 2014, his older brother, Nathan, had blossomed into one of the country’s best prep quarterbacks — and had garnered almost zero interest from U.S.
schools. So, parents Larry and Robyn rolled the dice. They moved the family nearly 1,000 miles south to Alabama, hopeful the football world would discover their children.
Advertisement Mission accomplished. Nathan, who preceded Kurtis as Ohio’s starting quarterback from 2017-19, is now one of the best young quarterbacks in the CFL. And Kurtis, who followed his brother to Athens, Ohio, before taking a leap with first-year Indiana whirlwind Curt Cignetti this offseason, is in the midst of a potentially life-changing season in Bloomington.
GO DEEPER Why No. 8 Indiana is the 12-team College Football Playoff's ultimate test case Kurtis Rourke entered the 2024 season with more draft buzz from the CFL than the NFL . Three months later, that’s changed, partly because of what appears to be a subpar 2025 QB draft class overall, partly because he’s finally gotten the type of exposure — and the team — that makes him shine.
How much, though? Is Rourke a serious 2025 NFL Draft riser? Let’s take a look. Rourke threw for more than 7,500 yards in five years at Ohio, despite suffering a torn ACL at the tail end of a breakout 2022 campaign. He appeared in 11 games at Ohio last season before entering the transfer portal and, finally, finding his biggest break.
That break came in the form of Cignetti, whose true coaching superpower is his ability to morph an offense completely, and totally, around the talent he has. What that means: If he picks you as his quarterback, the offense will revolve around concepts at which you thrive, so it’s going to make you look really good. It might even make you look better than you are sometimes, but only if you’re smart and talented enough to handle it.
GO DEEPER College Football Playoff 2024 projections: Indiana rise continues as Clemson falls out With Rourke this season, Cignetti’s offense has leaned heavily on its quarterback’s ability to properly ID coverage and make reads pre-snap while also staying aggressive enough vertically to attack the middle of the field. Rourke’s brother, Nathan, made his name through an ability to get rid of the football as soon as humanly possible, something required for a player his size (6-foot-1, 210 pounds). Advertisement Kurtis Rourke, who is 6-5, 231 with quick feet and good balance, has many of the same gifts.
He’s been a very good RPO quarterback when Indiana has called for it, and he’s done a great job of taking quick safety valves against off-coverage or making pre-snap shot decisions based on coverage looks. He’s also been very unbothered by pressure. Great example above, as we see a bit of a different pre-snap coverage look from UCLA .
There are six stand-up defenders in the box, with three deep safeties in what could be Cover o, robber Cover 1 or some sort of funky zone drop. Rourke does a great job maintaining his pocket rhythm, sticking with his progression keys and delivering a great ball for a big gain. Absolutely zero panic, totally in control and confidence to attack teams in areas of the field where they’re often the softest — that combination has more or less been the key to Indiana’s explosive success.
Rourke’s ability to simply take what’s given and not be afraid of a miss over the middle have been huge difference-makers. Entering Saturday’s game against Michigan , 17.7 percent of Rourke’s pass attempts have been to the middle of the field at a depth between 10 and 22 yards.
That’s the fourth-highest number nationally. Ten of his 19 touchdown passes have been in that area of the field, often one of the telltale signs whether or not a QB has enough confidence to handle what he’ll see in NFL defenses. Rourke also ranks No.
1 (minimum 200 attempts) in third-and-long conversion rate, at a ridiculous 57.1 percent. That’s nearly 10 percent higher than the next-best QB (Miami’s Cam Ward).
This one is pretty great. UCLA’s defense isn’t quite set, but the patience and courage Rourke shows to stand in the pocket and wait for the second dig route to come open is exactly how this play is drawn on Cignetti’s white board of terror. No matter how athletic a player is, dealing with pressure right in your face is one of the most difficult things a quarterback faces.
There’s no place to step up there. The play is designed for Rourke to make that drop, take a big hitch and wait for that first dig to clear before ripping the ball right between the seams. GO DEEPER Which 2024 draft picks are thriving? Our NFL midseason All-Rookie team Rourke knows he’s getting leveled there and doesn’t care.
This ball is perfect. More than that, ask yourself how many times you’ve seen a college QB bail on this exact route — the pressure comes up the middle, they panic and roll out into chaos as a WR runs wide open down the middle. This is terrific quarterback play against pressure.
Speaking of pressure, it’s probably no coincidence that Cignetti’s last two starting QBs, Rourke and current Texas State QB Jordan McCloud , rank Nos. 1 and 2, respectively, in EPA/pressured attempt. The best part about Cignetti’s offense is how it has answers for just about anything a defense can possibly do.
But, again, the quarterback has to be smart enough, and good enough in the pocket, to handle it. McCloud is a better mover than Rourke, but the Indiana QB is no slouch. Most importantly on the play above, his eyes never drop, and at no point is he trying to pull this down and run.
He’s moving so he can reset and hit an open receiver. Part of this comes with experience, as Rourke’s been in college since 2019. But the rest is just instinct, something with which Rourke is blessed.
Advertisement He does not, however, have a cannon. His arm is strong enough to do a lot of damage, but you will see throws in the air-yard range of 35 or so die on him. That is going to limit his upside in the eyes of some NFL teams.
A few of his interceptions this season have been the result of balls that either died on him or didn’t have enough zip. GO DEEPER 2025 NFL mock draft: How many QBs crack the top 10? Is Travis Hunter worth the No. 1 pick? When Rourke is throwing in rhythm, using his whole body, he’s very accurate and has the ability to layer balls and attack between the numbers.
If his process gets wobbly, at all, everything falls off. His arm is not dynamic enough to overcome any errors in the pocket. In a wide-open 2025 QB class, the players with more arm talent (like Shedeur Sanders or even Drew Allar ) have gotten more attention.
In some cases, that’s fair enough. But in this particular case, scouts will be better served looking at Rourke’s net positives because there are many. There are injury concerns, too, as we know, including the thumb surgery Rourke required in October.
He’s since returned, obviously, so if his medicals are clean and Rourke can duplicate this rate of play down the stretch (and possibly into the playoffs), do not be surprised if he shoots up the QB list by April. More teams will see him as a No. 2 NFL QB than a No.
1, but many likely will conclude that Rourke, not unlike current Las Vegas Raiders quarterback Aidan O’Connell , is plenty good enough to make a living in the NFL for a good while. Ward, Sanders, Garrett Nussmeier , Carson Beck and Jalen Milroe are the closest we have to a top-five QB consensus right now, and that’s only if Nussmeier and Milroe enter the draft. However, should Rourke close strong and put together a good pre-draft stretch, he could climb to QB6 (or better) — yes, even in front of a guy like Texas’ Quinn Ewers — on more than a few draft boards.
(Photo: Michael Hickey / Getty Images).
