Spring game yields ‘healthy competition’ for Indiana football quarterbacks heading into summer months

Thursday’s Spring Game for Indiana football was a ‘glorified practice’ as stated by head coach Curt Cignetti, but it was time for additional live action and a chance to see how position groups would perform in a different game-like setting.

One of those position groups was the quarterback room. Coming into the spring, the outside expectation was for Ohio transfer Kurtis Rourke to be the starter come Indiana’s season opener in the fall. Throughout the spring, Cignetti made it known the ‘significant steps’ that Rourke had taken.

He also was equally as open about Tayven Jackson and the development he still needed to see from the returning IU quarterback.

On Thursday, both players showed signs of positivity while shaking off some rust. But, it was Jackson who may have come away with more to build on as he shined early on.

Indiana Football Quick Hitters: Key Takeaways from IU’s Spring Game

Jackson started off the game 7-of-7 and led Indiana’s offense on a 90-yard touchdown drive. It was a mix of explosive plays down the field, over the middle under the sticks or on check downs to the running backs or tight ends. His talent or arm strength have never been issues — just his consistency.

“I was trying to figure out if our two offense was that good or our two defense was that bad. I think I know the question to that — or the answer,” Cignetti said after the game. “I think the freshman corner got exposed a little bit in the boundary. But Tayven made some nice throws, and Andison made a play or two.”

Jackson started four games last year and threw for 914 yards with two touchdowns and five interceptions. He had a completion rate of 60.9 percent.

“Tayven’s improvement has been a little slower, and while he has the physical ability most of the time to get the ball from point A to point B, there’s a lot more to playing quarterback than that,” Cignetti said earlier this spring. “I need to see a jump from his game in that area.”

Thursday was definitely a step in the right direction for his progression.

On the flip side, Rourke spent his entire night with the starting offense but saw his night start out a bit slower than Jackson. There was a lack of explosiveness down the field and a few broken plays. But, throughout the night, his group took some very nice steps and eventually saw things click.

On the final drive of the night for Rourke, it was run like a two-minute drill and the Indiana football offense needed a touchdown to win. Rourke responded by going 10-of-13 on the drive and completing eight straight passes to move the ball down the field.

The result — a three yard touchdown to Andison Coby with 45 seconds left to give the offense the win.

“It means a lot. We had some flashes of good plays throughout the whole night but just couldn’t finish drives and that starts with me,” Rourke said after the game. “But being able to get ready for the next play and have that mentality of next play, we were able to go down and finish on a good drive. So it’s confidence building for myself and the whole offense.

“I think we’ve come a long way since the start of spring. Day one, everyone is trying to feel out the offense, feel out the playbook. Just trying to get used to everybody. Every practice we’ve built on that and built chemistry together and been able to get things going as an offense and a team. So today (Thursday) was a good showcase of what we can do and it’s the bottom right now and we are going to continue to keep growing all the way up to fall.”

Thursday put an exclamation on 15 spring practices across the last month. The main goal of spring for the quarterbacks were to get an understanding and have control of the offense. After that, everything will fall into place.

Rourke believes that was accomplished.

“The big emphasis this spring was to get control of this offense and control of the team and the offense be able to run that,” Rourke said. “Because when you do that, you’ll have the confidence to go out and play. So that’s what I was trying to do every single day.”

That understanding of the offense comes with working hand in hand with new IU quarterbacks coach Tino Sunseri, who Rourke says is one of the ‘most knowledges coaches’ he’s worked with.

“I hold myself to a really, really high standard and he’s really instilled that in me. He’s a great coach, one of the most knowledgeable coaches I’ve been around,” Rourke said of Sunseri. ” … So much goes into being a quarterback and you can’t be complacent. And that’s the biggest thing I admire about him, he doesn’t let us get complacent. That’s ultimately helped us grow as a whole quarterback room and shown in spring.”

As Indiana football moves into the summer, it’s another phase in Curt Cignetti’s first offseason.

Both Rourke and Jackson bring different skillsets to the field and the huddle. Thursday was a good look at that. There will not be a true decision on a starter until the fall and Cignetti likes that fact there will continue to be a ‘healthy competition’ going into the next few months.

“I think there’s a healthy competition there heading into summer and fall camp. Competition is a great thing. We need more competition at all positions,” Cignetti said. “That was one of our issues this spring is we have some guys that played some football in the past that didn’t have the kind of competition we’d like to see to motivate them to go out every day, every play, focused in, best effort, improving. That’s how I saw it.”