Indiana Football’s Rourke Named Jim Cornish Trophy Winner

IU Athletics Release

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – The Jim Cornish Trophy, honoring the top Canadian performer in NCAA football, has announced Indiana quarterback Kurtis Rourke as the 2024 recipient of the award.

In the eighth year of the award, Rourke is the first Hoosier and second Big Ten player to earn the award (Chase Brown, Illinois; 2022) and the second member of his family to win the award, joining his brother, Nathan, who won the award while at Ohio in the awards first two years (2017 & 2018).

A finalist for the Manning Award, Rourke set the Indiana single-season record for passing touchdowns (29) and produced just the fifth 3,000-yard passing season in program history with 3,042 yards. He finished among the top-10 in single-season total offense (3,007) and is just the seventh IU player – eight occurrence – to reach 3,000 yard of total offense in a single season.

Rourke finished No. 9 in the Heisman Trophy balloting, earned second-team All-Big Ten pick and was a semifinalist for the Maxwell Award, Walter Camp Award and Davey O’Brien Award.

The only Big Ten quarterback since 2000 to throw for 250 yards and at least 3 touchdown passes in their first three conference road games, Rourke completed 246-of-361 passes for 3,042 yards and 29 touchdown tosses to just five interceptions. He added two rushing touchdowns to account for 31 total scores on the season.

He finished his career with a 31-15 overall record as a collegiate starting quarterback between four seasons at Ohio and one season at Indiana. Rourke finished his career with 10,693 yards passing and 79 touchdown passes to go along with 13 rushing scores.