On weighing the pros and cons of his performance on Saturday…

Rourke: “Yeah, I think you can see, first of all, that we got the victory and that’s the most important thing, definitely the way we got there and persevered. I think we could get there differently and get more points. I think we’re gone.” There’s a lot at stake, even 42 points. So that’s encouraging for the future, to watch the film and know that if we want to keep winning, we can’t have these turnovers in the future.”

How he pulls himself together after interceptions…

Rourke: “Yeah, it’s just a matter of washing it away straight away and not really thinking about it. You have to keep going somehow, because the game will continue somehow. Just like when you have a good game, you have to reset and be emotionally stable so you can move forward, good or bad. I try to keep doing that.

If he hadn’t had this stable attitude through ups and downs before…

Rourke: “Yes, you definitely don’t want there to be any turnovers, you don’t want there to be any negative plays. So if I could have learned to adapt and stuff at the beginning of my career, I probably would have done it differently. But.” In the end, I knew there were pieces I couldn’t do anymore, so I learned to just keep going.

About the appearances of Elijah Sarratt and Omar Cooper Jr….

Rourke: “Yeah, it’s great. These guys are great weapons. I like my chances when I throw the ball into their area. I just have to make sure they get their hands on him because they can make plays like they did today.”

About how hard it was to play in the rain…

Rourke: “It wasn’t that bad today. It wasn’t raining that much, so we had a pretty good handle on the ball. Our equipment managers also did a good job rotating the ball to keep it fresh. “But yeah, he.” wasn’t that bad.

On the significance of Cooper’s touchdown just before halftime…

Rourke: “Yeah, great. I think we wished it had happened sooner, but it was definitely very important to have some momentum at half-time. Going into the second half gave me a lot of confidence and I know the rest. “Both the offense and the entire team have been playing great up to this point, so it was really important for us to capitalize on that.”

For fan participation…

Rourke: “Oh, it was fantastic. I mean, the best fans in the Big Ten now. I appreciate everyone who was there and look forward to many performances like this.”

When he feels like the fans are getting more and more involved…

Rourke: “Yes, absolutely. Again, success attracts a lot of attention and the more fans we can get out of it, the better. So our job is to win, and their job is to show support, get into the other team’s heads and somehow do it together.”

On how the offense benefits from the defense getting big stops…

Rourke: “Yeah, our defense was great. Not allowing points when we lost the ball was huge and something we noticed as an offense. So when we look back as an offense and know that the defense can make the stops, we can look at it.” Let’s move forward and see that the margin of victory today would have been much greater if we just kept going and kept the ball wouldn’t twist.

What went wrong during the wiretapping attempts…

Rourke: “Sometimes my eyes weren’t in the right place and I could just make a better ball.”

What stood out about Elijah Sarratt’s performance…

Rourke: “He’s just consistent. He will simply always be reliable. That’s why I like throwing at him so much. He is reliable. He will always be there and he is someone I can trust and who will deliver. So he had a great game today, but that’s the type of player he is.

About Donaven McCulley’s touchdown…

Rourke: “It’s huge. All of a sudden you forget that this type of guy is on the team too, and that’s why I’m glad he was finally able to commit and continue to use him for the future because he’s a great athlete and has all the skills to make big plays . I would like to include him.”

About dealing with success in the future…

Rourke: “Yeah, I mean, 5-0 is great, but it’s not the end. We have to move on and look at Northwestern next week. Offensively we feel like we could do a lot better. We could have made it 50-60 today, and we did. “There’s a lot we can build on. So we can’t be complacent, we just have to chase next week and win without really looking at the bigger picture, although it’s definitely great to achieve something.”

To prepare for the rain…

Rourke: “Yeah, I mean, you can’t pay too much attention to the external elements. You really have to control what you can do. The preparation was the same every week, knowing that if it’s going to rain, it’s going to rain and you just have to be able to keep the mindset that you can’t let it affect you, give it your best and carry on.