Kurtis Rourke, QB, Indiana
Size:
Height: 6042
Weight: 220
Arm: 30 ½”
Hand: 9 ⅜”
Accomplishments:
9th place Heisman (2024) • MAC Offensive Player of the Year (2023) • First-Team All-MAC (2023) • Second-Team All-MAC (2022),
“Kurtis Rourke is a tall distributor who uses a quick trigger and pre-snap defensive identifications to carve up opposing defenses.”
Strengths:
Football IQ
Timing
Winning from the pocket
Repeatable mechanics
Ball placement
Concerns:
Making plays off-script
Post-snap movement
Developmental upside
Blind-side pressure sense
Film Analysis:
Kurtis Rourke was the No. 1-ranked Canadian player coming out of Holy Trinity, where he compiled 4,250 career yards passing with 63 passing touchdowns. He went on to commit to the University of Ohio. He was a part of their football team in the MAC for five seasons, playing four, and started 30 of his last 32 games for the Bobcats. He threw for 7,651 yards passing and 50 touchdown passes and showed off a dual-threat ability while at Ohio, adding 1,240 rushing yards and eleven touchdowns. He entered the transfer portal for his sixth collegiate season as a four-star transfer and landed at Indiana. He led them to the College Football Playoff as their starting quarterback.
Rourke operates the quick game at a high level with a good understanding of defensive shells and pre-snap looks. His football IQ and leadership significantly impacted Indiana’s offense, and the RPOs were smooth and executed with great timing. He’s also asked to handle full-field reads, and when the pocket is kept clean, he progresses quickly and on time. He predominantly operates from shotgun but still gets through short, intermediate, and extended dropback concepts without difficulty. His footwork has a good cadence to them and keeps him on schedule. When on time, Rourke’s throwing mechanics are smooth and repeatable, allowing him to showcase top-level ball placement in the short and intermediate parts of the field.
When faced with pressure he can see, Rourke is willing and able to stand in the pocket to take a hit while delivering the football to his playmakers. He’s a tough pocket quarterback with the footwork to step up and into it, buying himself an extra half second or step into a throw over the middle of the field. He needs to improve his pocket presence to all sides; too often, he’s blindsided by hits he doesn’t feel, which can lead to fumbles.
He will occasionally make a tackler miss in the pocket, but his willingness and ability to do it consistently to make the extra throw is lacking. While he could rack up rushing yards in Canada and at Ohio, his rushing upside took a hit against better athletes in the Big Ten and wasn’t a reliable part of his game. The athleticism to extend plays when timing gets thrown off flashes occasionally, but he’ll need to win from the pocket against NFL defenses.
Rourke offers a good understanding of quick game principles with high-level ball placement and overall floor as a prospect. While he has the NFL-size teams will be looking for, Rourke is an older prospect with less athletic upside who profiles as a better backup quarterback.
Prospect Projection: Day 3 — Developmental Traits
Written By: Daniel Harms
Exposures: Michigan (2024), Ohio State (2024), Purdue (2024), Nebraska (2024)
