Saturday night was meant to highlight UCLA’s debut in the Big Ten. With the game being nationally televised from the Rose Bowl, it was set to be a big event for the Bruins.
However, Kurtis Rourke and Indiana stole the spotlight.
Rourke threw for 307 yards and four touchdowns, helping Indiana build a 14-0 lead by the middle of the first quarter and cruise to a 42-13 win over UCLA, ruining their Big Ten debut.
“I know (the win) will get a lot of people’s attention,” said Indiana coach Curt Cignetti, who became the first Hoosiers coach since Bill Lynch in 2007 to start with three straight wins. “We went in there and wanted to play physical, tough and nasty and we did.”
The 29-point win was the largest Big Ten victory for the Hoosiers (3-0, 1-0) since they defeated Northwestern 34-3 in 2019.
For UCLA, it was their worst loss in a home opener since they were shut out 35-0 by Stanford in 2010.
“This hurts. I’m a Bruin through and through. I don’t want to get emotional, good or bad, but it hurts,” said first-year Bruins coach DeShaun Foster. “That’s not something … It’s not acceptable, and we’re gonna fix it.”
Rourke completed 25 of 33 passes and was perfect on third downs, going 9 for 9 with 128 yards.
This was the 10th 300-yard game of Rourke’s career, with his previous nine games being at Ohio University, where he was the Mid-American Conference’s Offensive Player of the Year in 2022.
“There were definitely a lot of flashes since January and spring ball that we could be a good team,” Rourke said. “We had a lot of really good pieces in order to compete this year, and it’s great to see that come out and show it and be able to let everybody know that we are to be taken seriously.”
After a close win against Hawaii on August 31, the Bruins (1-1, 0-1) found themselves in a big deficit early in the game and were unable to recover.
Indiana scored first for the second game in a row when Miles Cross caught a 2-yard touchdown pass in the back of the end zone, capping off a 75-yard, 12-play drive.
UCLA quickly made a mistake when quarterback Ethan Garbers fumbled, and Indiana defensive lineman Mikail Kamara recovered the ball at the Bruins’ 17-yard line.
“I think it’s pretty simple. It just comes down to at the end of the day, we didn’t execute as an offense like we would like. We had a bunch of self-inflicted wounds, including our first play of the game,” said Garbers, who went 14 of 23 for 137 yards and had two turnovers (one fumble and one interception).
Rourke threw two touchdown passes to Ke’Shawn Williams. Williams, a senior transfer from Wake Forest who had three catches for 31 yards, scored Indiana’s second touchdown by catching a short pass from Rourke and running 14 yards.
Williams then caught a 2-yard pass on third-and-goal with 4:55 left in the third quarter, extending Indiana’s lead to 28-10.
Cross made six catches for 90 yards, including a one-handed grab for 33 yards while being covered by UCLA’s Devin Kirkwood in the second quarter. On the next play, Justice Ellison scored his third touchdown in as many games with a 1-yard run, making it 21-0 for Indiana.
After UCLA’s Mateen Bhaghani kicked his second field goal early in the fourth quarter, Rourke threw his fourth touchdown pass on the next drive — a 23-yard throw to Omar Cooper Jr.
Elijah Greene then added the final score with a 14-yard run.
UCLA’s only touchdown came in the second quarter when T.J. Harden ran 1 yard into the end zone with 42 seconds left, making it 21-7 at halftime.
