No Joey Galloway, Kurtis Rourke Won’t Sit vs. Ohio State
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Written By: Ben Gillard (@benjgillard
I can’t believe I have to say this, but no, IU will not be sitting their star QB for their top-5 matchup against Ohio State this Saturday. Yet this was ESPN pundit Joey Galloway’s take on Tuesday’s CFP show. Galloway said, “If I’m Indiana, I don’t know if I’m playing Rourke against Ohio State…What could keep Indiana out of this? Getting their quarterback hurt.” At the same time that Galloway was floating this contender for worst take of the year, Kurtis Rourke was speaking to the media in Bloomington, excited at the opportunity of a top-5 matchup.
As if reading Galloway’s mind, Rourke opened by discussing his health, saying “Yeah, no, I feel great. I feel really good. Just, I mean, that was one of my things I was looking forward to most for the bye week was to be able to let my thumb heal up and not beat it up and not have to throw five, six days a week. So, really excited and happy with the progress made, and I'm feeling pretty close to 100%.”
Rourke then turned his attention to the elephant in the room, Indiana’s huge game against the #2 Ohio State Buckeyes, saying, “I mean, it’s just another week. You know, no matter what their logo is, we still gotta go prepare; every single game is just the same.”
While the Ohio transfer is approaching this game as he would any other game, that isn’t to say that he is not excited for the opportunity, saying, “I recognize the history behind Ohio Stadium, and the amount of fans, and how great the atmosphere will be. So I’m really excited for that and ready for the challenge.”
Ultimately, however, Rourke and the Hoosiers have been quieting the noise from pundits like Galloway all season long. When asked about how they block out the noise, Rourke said, “It’s a big game cause it’s the next one kind of thing. I think a lot of us full-heartedly believe that, and knowing that we can play with anybody, and that doesn't matter who we're playing against, we just got to go execute and we'll be fine. And so that's kind of our mindset going into this week, just like it was every other week.”
It’s clear that pundits like Galloway have not witnessed the Cignetti culture change in person. If he had, he never would have brought this up in the first place. Cignetti is a man who keeps his starters in up 49-3 against Western Illinois. Do you really think he would keep his star QB out of the biggest game of the season for fear of injury?
While it was tragic what happened to Jordan Travis and FSU last year, it has been even more tragic to watch their fall from grace this year. Indiana has the chance to solidify the culture change with a win or impressive performance on Saturday, and to do that, they will need all hands on deck.