Indiana senior quarterback Kurtis Rourke saw his Heisman Trophy hopes take a hit after a disappointing performance in the Hoosiers’ first loss of the season against Ohio State on Saturday.
Before the Ohio State game, Indiana had been averaging 43.9 points per game, and Rourke was second in the nation in QBR with an impressive 88.9, behind only Cam Ward of Miami.
However, the Hoosiers’ offense struggled mightily in the loss, totaling just 151 yards and scoring a season-low 15 points. Rourke was sacked five times and completed only 8 of 18 passes for 68 yards, with no touchdowns, no interceptions, and one fumble. His QBR for the game dropped to a season-low 42.6.
Despite the setback, Rourke is focused on moving forward. “You’ve got to be close to perfect in order to beat a team like this,” he said after the game. “We’re going to have a chance to play a lot of similar teams like that. Knowing that, we can’t have the mistakes.
We’ve got to be on our game for the whole game. It’s a good learning opportunity. But we’ve got to be able to move on now and not have any more learning opportunities,” he told SportsNet.
The latest Heisman Trophy odds from FanDuel Sportsbook list Travis Hunter as the frontrunner (-750), followed by Ashton Jeanty (+600), Cam Ward (+1,110), and Dillon Gabriel (+6,000).
Rourke will have the chance to bounce back this upcoming weekend against 1-10 Purdue on Senior Day, but it remains to be seen if his performance will be enough to propel him back into the Heisman conversation as the ballot looms in two weeks.
