As Good as He Wants to Be – McCulley Builds for Big Year
Pete DiPrimio | IUHoosiers.com
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - The ball comes fast and far, too far to reach, an incompletion looming amid Indiana’s high-stakes quarterback competition.
Receiver Donaven McCulley launches himself toward the Memorial Stadium sideline. He extends his right arm, ball meets hand, body meets turf and, somehow, a catch is made in this spring football finale.
This is what head coach Tom Allen envisions when contemplating McCulley’s potential.
“When we met after the season, I said, ‘You have no idea how good you can be. No idea’
“No one should be able to guard him. He’s a 6-foot-5, 200-pound guy who can run and jump. He can be as good as he wants to be.”
Hold that thought.
It’s two days earlier. McCulley sprints around tightly spaced cones at Indiana’s sun-splashed practice fields. Other receivers quickly follow in a mid-morning drill designed to improve form, focus, and quickness.
“Tight turns!” receivers coach Anthony Tucker shouts. He’s a few yards away, hands on knees, head up, watching everything. “Stay level around the cones. Arms the whole way.”
McCulley and the others go again. And again.
“We need great pad level!” Tucker shouts. A pause. “I like that.”
A few minutes later, offensive coordinator Walt Bell sets up passing-receiving drills. In one, receivers sprint about 20 yards, then cut left to, hopefully, catch the ball. McCulley and the others comply.
“Low level,” Tucker shouts. “Elbows down. Stay level.”
McCulley, in year two of his transition from quarterback, shows big-play signs. His consistency is better, his cuts sharper, his knowledge of the offense improved.
“This year I’m way more comfortable with the playbook, with alignment, with what receivers are supposed to do,” he says. “I’m coming into my own.”
Allen vouches for that. He’s had several heart-to-heart conversations with McCulley, once seemingly IU’s quarterback of the future, now a 6-foot-5, 198-pound receiving standout in the making with a huge upside only occasionally reached last season, when he caught 16 passes for 169 yards and one touchdown.
“It’s about dominating the guy across from you,” Allen says. “When that ball is in the air, and the defensive back is close to me, I’m going to catch it. You saw that catch (in the scrimmage). He’s done that in practice. He has to do it consistently.”
Consistency takes time. McCulley is still learning the nuances of the receiver position, something that didn’t happen during an all-state high school quarterback career at Indianapolis Lawrence North, or during an IU freshman season in which he threw for 475 yards and two touchdowns, ran for 135 yards and two more TDs. Against Maryland, he threw for 242 yards and two touchdowns.
But there were enough struggles for the idea to grow that he was better suited for receiver.
“My first season (at receiver), I tried to take in everything I could,” he says. “I tried to be a sponge. I caught the ball well. I keep working on that.”
Work includes route running.
“Getting out of my breaks is big for me. Switching positions, you’re not used to that. I’m working on that.”
Work is the key, and it goes way beyond practice.
“He has figured out it’s not just showing up and practicing hard,” Allen says. “It’s 24-7, 365 days a year. It’s my diet; the way I take care of my body; the way I build myself up so I can be more explosive, get out of my breaks faster. That will allow him to be a better receiver.”
Then there’s his diet. McCulley says he’s lost about eight pounds from last year, and dropped his body fat from 10 percent to seven-to-eight percent.
“Last year, I felt I was too heavy. I felt I couldn’t run. So I dropped the body fat, worked on my flexibility, and kept learning how to run.”
Allen was all for it.
“He said, ‘I want to play a little lighter. I said, ‘I’m good with that.’
“He knows what he wants to do. That’s a huge part of this.”
McCulley got with senior assistant athletic director for football performance coach Aaron Wellman and director of sports performance nutrition Isaac Hicks.
“I wanted to make sure I was eating the right things,” he says.
That meant more chicken and rice, less candy.
“I’m a big sweets guy,” he says. “I had to cut that out.”
Add more after-practice work with receivers such as Kamryn Perry and the result, he says, is that he’s getting out of his breaks better.
“Last year I wasn’t very good with my releases. This year, I’ve taken more time on them after practice.”
Fellow receiver Cam Camper has noticed the improvement.
“He’s made some big strides. He has the right mindset. Everybody wants to be the guy, and that will make the whole team better. I see that coming out of him.”
So does husky Noah Pierre, who sometimes covers McCulley.
“He’s going to be good,” Pierre says. “You can see he’s a natural receiver. I’m pretty sure he played basketball. He’s taken his game to the next level with route running.”
McCulley says he follows Camper’s receiving example.
“I like to watch Cam Camper. He’s my size. We move alike. I take certain releases and moves from him.”
The result, Allen says, is that, “I’m excited that he’s decided what he wants to do. He’s another guy who has to have a big summer. I think it will happen.”