‘Locked In’ – McCulley Developing into Complete Receiver
Pete DiPrimio | IUHoosiers.com
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - Memorial Stadium lights glow amid muted late-morning sunlight. A few sprinkles atop sideline white benches are the only reminders of an intense early morning rainstorm.
Senior receiver Donaven McCulley runs routes in a quasi-scrimmage setting. Some passes come his way, some do not, as the Hoosiers sharpen their offensive and defensive form for the Aug. 31 season opener against FIU.
“Push it! Push it!” shouts offensive coordinator Mike Shanahan to the entire offensive unit, reflective of the improve-every-day approach crucial to long-term success and head coach Curt Cignetti’s win-now approach.
And so the 6-foot-5, 203-pound McCulley pushes. He wants to be good. Check that. He wants to be great, wants to dominate his final season of college football and get his NFL shot. He has the physical skills to do so.
Experience is another matter.
Once considered IU’s quarterback of the future, McCulley is in his third year of learning the nuances of the receiver position, and mastery remains a work in progress.
Still, the potential is obvious given McCulley is bigger and more physical than most defensive backs he faces, given the big plays he's displayed in limited doses.
“Off the field, Donaven has done a good job,” Shanahan says. “He’s locked in in the meeting room. He’s taking notes. He’s asking questions.
“On the field, he is still developing into a complete receiver. I know he came here as a quarterback. He’s only been doing it for a couple of years. It’s still a little bit new. Maybe the way we’re teaching it is a little bit new from what he’s used to.
“I told him this, I tell all the guys in our (offensive room) this, if you play with effort, you have a great chance. He's giving great effort. It might not be perfect. It might not be exactly how you want it, but I can work with that. Any coach can work with that. He continues to get better every day.”
Effort includes being receptive to hard coaching, which is a hallmark of a Cignetti-run program.
McCulley is all in.
“I told (Cignetti) to coach me hard. Do what you need to do. Him getting on me in the spring and challenging me helped me really learn how he operates and learn how the team operates. I took the initiative to really get in my playbook more and master the playbook.”
The spring practice challenge included some public criticism, when Cignetti said McCulley needed to “pick it up a bit,” a rarity for a coach who generally keeps his critiques out of the spotlight.
As coaching tongue lashings go, it was a 1 on a scale of 10, but it got McCulley’s attention. He responded with better play and a spring game touchdown catch.
“Coach Cig is really coaching me hard,” he says. “At first, I wasn’t used to it. Now, I am.”
Fellow receiver Omar Cooper Jr. sees McCulley benefit from demanding coaching now just as he did when they played together at Indianapolis Lawrence North High School. McCulley was the do-it-all quarterback and Indiana Mr. Football finalist. Cooper was the standout receiver. They’ve known each other since middle school.
“He likes it when coaches are hard on him,” Cooper Jr. says. “When they get on him, it fuels him up. It makes him angry. When he plays angry, he plays better."
What does “better” mean? Consider McCulley is coming off his best season as a Hoosier, when he led the team with 48 catches for 644 yards and six touchdowns. He was at his best in the final five games, when he had 28 catches for 420 yards and five TDs. That included an 11-catch, 137-yard, two-touchdown performance against Illinois. He had catches of 69, 41, 38 and 32 yards in that stretch.
“I knew I could play at a high level since I started,” he says. “The last half of the season was the result of us getting the ball out and spreading the ball out.”
McCulley had entered the transfer portal last December in the wake of the coaching change from Tom Allen to Cignetti.
Then Cignetti, Shanahan and director of athletic performance Derek Owings made their stay-a-Hoosier pitch. They talked about their plans for him and the team.
They pushed a strong offensive resume at James Madison that included having five different receivers top 1,000 receiving yards since 2019 and the fact Cignetti has never had a losing record in 13 seasons as a head coach.
“They were showing me numbers and that the proof is in the pudding,” McCulley says. “I was like, I'm going to take a chance on them.”
He pauses.
“I think I made the right decision.”
Evidence includes McCulley’s improved speed. Cooper Jr. credits the work of Owings and his strength-and-conditioning staff.
“One of the biggest things is he hasn't really been the fastest guy growing up, and over the past six months, I've seen him getting progressively faster,” Cooper Jr. says. “The weight training staff has a good program with that.”
McCulley says he’s benefitted from practice challenges against cornerback D’Angelo Ponds, who projects as one of the Big Ten’s best after a freshman All-American season at James Madison.
“He’s real good,” McCulley says of Ponds. “I like going against him every day. He makes me better.”
McCulley’s challenge of transitioning from quarterback to receiver was magnified by having multiple offensive coordinators and receiving coaches over the last three seasons. Still, he finds the silver lining.
“That can be a positive and a negative from a team standpoint,” he says. “In a positive way, I take little nuggets from every coach I’ve had and put it together.
“Coach Shanahan is about mastering the playbook and being efficient in your routes. He has a lot of experience. He really knows what he’s talking about.”
McCulley and Cooper Jr. are part of a talented group of receivers that bring plenty of speed and skill.
“We're extremely deep at the receiver position,” McCulley says. “We've got an entire room of guys that can make a play and take over the game.
“Having a deep receiver room is going to really affect DBs because it's just going to keep rolling.”
It’s among the reasons why the Hoosiers see a breakthrough season coming.
For those who doubt, McCulley has a message:
“We can go as far as we want to go.”