There has never been a better time to be a fan of Indiana football than right now. Since hiring Curt Cignetti back in November 2023, the Hoosiers are setting themselves up to become a real player in the Big Ten for years to come. With one of the top transfer classes, four new Big Ten teams and a lot of great one-liners from the coaching staff, the Indiana Hoosiers are ready to roll.
Here are three things from the Indiana offense that you need to watch out for this year.
Kurtis Rourke
Indiana got its guy at quarterback in Ohio University transfer Kurtis Rourke, who is leading a new offense in his final college football season. After spending the last five seasons in Athens, Ohio, with the Bobcats, Rourke looks to take the Hoosiers to new heights.
In his junior season in 2022, Rourke had a phenomenal year: passing for 3,257 yards, 25 touchdowns and four interceptions. Not to mention, he was also MAC Offensive Player of the Year and a Barstool Sports Arizona Bowl win. However, after tearing his ACL in November 2022, Rourke was already behind the 8-ball to start 2023.
While most Bobcat fans believed Rourke to be fully healthy, looking to build on the 2022 10-4 season, he suffered an unrelated injury in the first half of the first game of the 2023 season. He missed the next two games before returning to his top form. Rourke finished the season passing for 2,207 yards, 11 touchdowns and five interceptions in 11 games. His best game came in week six against Kent State University where he went 20-for-32 with 300 passing yards, and four total touchdowns, including one rushing.
Following a full, healthy offseason and entering a completely new system, Rourke is ready to get back to his best football. He meshes well with the receivers during practice, and while at Ohio, he always found a way to put the ball where only his receiver can get to it. His work with quarterbacks coach Tino Sunseri is going to show, but it is also going to be on the receiving room to help Rourke settle in.
Ke’Shawn Williams, possibly pivot to depth of WR room
One of Cignetti’s biggest successes in the transfer portal was the revamped wide receiver room. Not only did he bring senior Elijah Sarratt with him from James Madison University, but he also went directly into the power four, bringing in players such as Myles Price (Texas Tech University), Miles Cross (Ohio) and Ke’Shawn Williams (Wake Forest University). Those four players alone would make for one of the most talented corps in the Big Ten, but retaining Donovan McCulley, E.J. Williams and Omar Cooper Jr. sends the Indiana wide receivers to a totally different level.
Sarratt highlights the transfer class after catching 82 passes last season with the Dukes for 1,191 yards and eight touchdowns, as well as a single rushing touchdown on his lone rush of the season.
Texas Tech transfer Price is also looking to shine in 2024, especially in receptions this season. With how much of a connection he seems to have with Rourke, that wouldn’t be surprising after he caught 43 passes for 410 yards and five touchdowns a season ago.
Cross, who committed to the Hoosiers just four days after Rourke, was Ohio’s second leading receiver last season, finishing with 617 yards on 47 catches and a team-leading five receiving touchdowns. He caught two of Rourke’s three passing touchdowns against Kent State, while also going for 125 yards.
Williams has the chance to be the most underrated of the entire bunch. We’ve heard the hype around Sarratt and Price, and we know the connection Rourke has with Cross. However, where does Williams fall in all of this? He is going to be the burst of electricity the Hoosiers need.
“[Williams] was probably the best — besides Zay Flowers — route runner I've ever faced,” former Wake Forest corner (now on the San Francisco 49ers) Malik Mustapha said during Wake Forest’s pro day.
The practices and film show it. He can beat a defender down the field, and then elevate to make the catch. That strength coupled with Williams’ elite speed makes for a game changing wide out. Passing is only half of what Indiana is going to do on the field this season, and with a backfield that the Hoosiers have brought in this offseason, there are plenty of options.
Running Back room
With the departure of Jaylin Lucas, who is now playing at Florida State University, Cignetti and company needed to get two to three high quality running backs. The Hoosiers picked up five: three of which (Kaelon Black, Ty Son Lawton and Solomon Vanhorse) were teammates at James Madison last season.
While Vanhorse is going to provide great depth on the back end of the running back room, Black and Lawton will make impacts from game one. The two backs led the Dukes in rushing last season, combining for 1,205 yards and six touchdowns. For context, Indiana rushed for just 1,451 yards as a team last season.
Wake Forest transfer Justice Ellison is looking to take a massive leap in 2024 in his first year in Bloomington after rushing for 1,909 yards and 15 touchdowns in his four years with the Demon Deacons. While he carried the ball 29 times less last season than he did in 2022, expect Ellison to become one of the most important pieces of the Indiana offense. The Hoosiers were also able to bring in Elijah Green from the University of North Carolina, who saw minimal playing time last season.
Everything is in place for Indiana’s offense: a solid quarterback, top tier wide receiver room and running backs that will be a threat every time the ball touches their hands. The only thing the Hoosiers need to do now is go out and put it all together. Through the growing pains and changes that will happen over the course of the season, the offense will figure it out — and has the potential to be one of the most prominent in the Big Ten this season.
The Hoosiers will kick off their season against Florida International University at 3:30 p.m. Saturday at Memorial Stadium.
Follow reporters Daniel Flick (@ByDanielFlick) and Dalton James (@DaltonMJames) and columnist Jhett Garrett (@jhettgarrett) for updates throughout the Indiana football season.
