All eyes on Indiana football quarterback Kurtis Rourke going into spring game

BLOOMINGTON — Indiana football’s quarterback competition is progressing this spring with Kurtis Rourke seemingly creating some distance from the rest of the room based on comments coach Curt Cignetti has made the past two weeks. 

Cignetti has been reluctant to go in depth about the topic, but he’s praised Rourke every time he’s been at the podium.

“I think Kurtis Rourke has taken a pretty significant step,” Cignetti said, on Tuesday. 

More:Indiana football coach Curt Cignetti keeping same format he used at JMU for spring game

Cignetti, who previously praised Rourke for operating at a “high level”, made sure to balance out his praise by pointing out the Ohio transfer still had room to “improve in a lot of different things.”

Rourke had the experience advantage over the other competitors coming into spring. 

He was a three-year starter for the Bobcats and earned MAC offensive player of the year honors in 2022 with 3,256 passing yards (69.1%) and 25 touchdowns. His numbers weren’t quite as impressive last season, but he still led his team to 10 wins as he worked his way back from a torn ACL he suffered the previous November. 

Cignetti said much of the spring has been focused on installing the offense and all that comes with it — learning news plays and a whole lot of new terminology. Rourke has passed that test so far while showing the live arm that jumps out on film. 

The other main development in the quarterback battle was Cignetti publicly stating he wanted to see a little more from Tayven Jackson. Jackson threw 914 yards (60.9%), two touchdowns and five interceptions in six appearances (five starts) last season. 

His best performance came against Louisville when orchestrated a second half comeback and was just a yard shy of scoring a game-tying touchdown late in the fourth quarter. The previous staff liked Jackson’s “moxie”, but he was benched after a series of middling performances. 

“Tayven's improvement has been a little slower, and while he has the physical ability most of the time to get the ball from point A to point B, there's a lot more to playing quarterback than that,” Cignetti said. “I need to see a jump from his game in that area."

More IU football:What you need to know about Indiana football’s high stakes QB competition

Fellow Center Grove alum Tyler Cherry, a mid-year enrollee, is also getting reps. The coaching staff remains excited about his long term potential and are eager to see how much improvement he makes this summer. 

“Just watching film from practice one to now I can tell a huge improvement from the whole quarterback room,” Indiana tight end Zach Horton said.  “They are listening to Tino (Sunseri), he's a great coach, I can just see a lot of improvement already, which is very exciting to see."

The quarterbacks haven’t gone live this spring, and that won’t change next week during the spring game. 

Cignetti was adamant in a preseason interview with The Herald-Times that risk of injury far outweighed any benefits of having quarterbacks go live during the offseason regardless of their experience level. 

Michael Niziolek is the Indiana beat reporter for The Bloomington Herald-Times. You can follow him on X @michaelniziolek and read all his coverage by clicking here.