Indiana QB Kurtis Rourke Played All Season With Torn ACL

A heroic performance.
Kurtis Rourke during Indiana’s CFP loss to Notre Dame.
Kurtis Rourke during Indiana’s CFP loss to Notre Dame. / Trevor Ruszkowski-Imagn Images
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Kurtis Rourke helped the Indiana Hoosiers reach the College Football Playoff for the first time in the school's history. Indiana ended up losing to Notre Dame, but today new information came to light that made what Rourke and the Hoosiers did this year much more impressive.

According to Tom Pelissero of the NFL Network, Rourke played the entire season with a torn ACL.

Rourke first tore his ACL while he was playing for Ohio in 2022. He came back the next season and appeared in 11 games, finishing his career with the Bearcats with over 7,000 yards and 50 touchdown passes. With one year of eligibility remaining, he transferred to Indiana where he became the school's 16th all-time leading passer and threw the 11th most touchdowns in school history in just one year.

Rourke completed 69% of his passes this season as he surpassed 3,000 for the second time in his college career. He also threw 29 touchdown passes and just five interceptions and finished ninth in the Heisman voting.

All on a torn ACL.

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Stephen Douglas
STEPHEN DOUGLAS

Stephen Douglas is a senior writer on the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. He has worked in media since 2008 and now casts a wide net with coverage across all sports. Douglas spent more than a decade with The Big Lead and previously wrote for Uproxx and The Sporting News. He has three children, two degrees and one now unverified Twitter account.