FootballScoop is proud to announce that Mike Shanahan (Indiana) is the 2024 FootballScoop Offensive Coordinator of the Year presented by AstroTurf as selected by prior winners.
One could glance at Indiana's offense in 2024 and say Curt Cignetti simply copy-and-pasted James Madison's 2023 offense, added Ohio quarterback Kurtis Rourke, just added water and, voila, a nationally elite unit sprouted overnight. One would be wrong.
Start with Rourke. The former MAC Offensive Player of the Year ranked 65th nationally in passing efficiency with the Bobcats in 2023, but ranked second nation with the Hoosiers in 2024.
On the season, Rourke completed 222-of-320 passes (69.4 percent, eighth nationally) for 3,042 yards (9.5 per attempt, third) with 29 touchdowns against just five interceptions. No other quarterback fired 29 or more touchdowns and as few as five interceptions.
Indiana also showed marked improvement on the ground. After averaging a scratch over 120 yards per game and an anemic 3.33 per carry in 2023, the Hoosiers rushed for 165 yards per game and 4.37 per carry. Justice Ellison led IU's ground efforts, running 159 times for 848 yards -- the most by a Hoosier since 2018 -- and 10 touchdowns. Close behind was Ty Son Lawton, who added 668 yards and a team-high dozen touchdowns, which tied for fourth in the Big Ten.
Elijah Surratt turned in the best season by an IU receiver since 2019, hauling in 53 grabs for 957 yards and eight touchdowns, while Omar Cooper, Jr., became one of seven players nationally to average 20 yards per catch, collecting 28 balls for 594 yards (21.21 per) and seven scores.
As a unit, Indiana exploded from 332.8 yards per game in 2023 to 426.4, and 4.99 yards per play to 6.51. On a per-play basis, IU's attack leapt from 114th in FBS to 16th. And after averaging 22.2 points per game in 2023, Indiana nearly doubled that average to 41.3 in 2024, the second-most in college football. Perhaps Indiana's night-and-day improvement under Shanahan is best summarized this way: IU scored 266 points in all of 2023; in 2024, Indiana scored its 267th point at the 6:44 mark of the third quarter of the Northwestern game, played on Oct. 5. All told, Indiana scored 537 points in 2024.
Indiana also excelled in speciality situations. The Hoosiers converted 47.2 percent of their third downs, 14th nationally, while punching in 55 touchdowns in 69 red zone opportunities, a 79.7 rate that stands as the best in FBS over the past three seasons.
A ninth-place finisher in Heisman Trophy voting, Rourke was a finalist for the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award and earned Second Team All-Big Ten honors. Sarratt and center Mike Katic were Third Team All-B1G honorees.
A two-time Pitt graduate, Shanahan was a four-time Academic All-Big East honoree and a two-time team captain. After a brief professional career, Shanahan entered coaching as a GA at his alma mater in 2014. He coached wide receivers at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Elon and James Madison before Cignetti promoted him to JMU's offensive coordinator in 2021. Shanahan also coaches Indiana's wide receivers.
The FootballScoop Coaches of the Year awards presented by AstroTurf are the only set of awards that recognize the most outstanding position coaches in college football. The finalists (Shannon Dawson [Miami], Tim Leger [Louisiana], Brennan Marion [UNLV], Will Stein [Oregon] and Shanahan) were selected based off of nominations by coaches, athletic directors, and athletic department personnel. The prior winners selected this year's winner.
Previous winners of the Offensive Coordinator of the Year award are Kevin Wilson (Oklahoma, 2008), Bryan Harsin (Boise State, 2009), Gus Malzahn (Auburn, 2010), Kliff Kingsbury (Houston, 2011 and Texas A&M, 2012), Philip Montgomery (Baylor, 2013), Tom Herman (Ohio State, 2014), Lincoln Riley (Oklahoma, 2015), Lane Kiffin (Alabama, 2016), Josh Heupel (Missouri, 2017), Mike Locksley (Alabama, 2018), Joe Brady/Steve Ensminger (LSU, 2019), Steve Sarkisian (Alabama, 2020), Jeff Grimes (Baylor, 2021),, Garrett Riley (TCU, 2022), and Mike Denbrock (LSU, 2023).
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