Indiana football wide receivers Donaven McCulley and Omar Cooper spoke with the media on Wednesday, following the conclusion of fall practice 11.
Below is their full Q&A, as well as a partial transcript of each conversation.
On being pushed by Coach Cignetti to grow...
McCulley: Coming back to Indiana just talking to coach, I told him to coach me hard. Him getting on me in the spring and challenging me it kind of helped me really learn how he operates and learn how the team operates. I really just kind of took the initiative to really get in my playbook more.
On the decision to return to Indiana...
McCulley: Coach Cignetti and Coach DO (Derek Owings), Coach (Mike) Shanahan were showing me numbers and that the proof is in the pudding. I was just like I’m going to take a chance on them, and I think I made the right decision.
On the receiving room's depth...
McCulley: We’re extremely deep at the receiver position. I feel like we’ve got an entire room of guys that can go out and make a play and really take over the game. I feel like us having a deep receiver room is going to really affect DBs because it’s just going to keep rolling. We’ve got guys rotating.
On the connection with the receivers and the quarterback room...
McCulley: As a receiver, you always have to get along with your quarterback. Me, Kurt (Kurtis Rourke), Tayven (Jackson), all the other receivers we get along pretty well. Even the young guys get along with them, it’s a great relationship.
On the versatility and rotational nature of the receiver room...
Cooper: I don't think canI don’t think it’s (the heavy rotations) anything that’s difficult. I think it helps us actually because we can all just stay fresh and continue to rotate and help us be better at our game. When it comes to the plays it’s basically we’re just flipping sides. It’s not as difficult as it may seem, but I think it will be really good for our offense and help us be really successful.
On what he has seen out of Donaven McCulley this offseason...
Cooper: One of the biggest things is he hasn’t really been the fastest guy growing up, and over the past six months I’ve been seeing he’s been getting progressively faster. I feel like the weight training staff have a good program with that.
On having different receiver coaches every year...
Cooper: There’s some positives and some negatives. A negative is they all have different personalities, so you don’t know what to expect. The positive is you get a lot of different knowledge from coaches from different levels, some from the league, some from anywhere and some played (themselves). It works out really well just because you’ll learn and grow because they all know different stuff and they can help you add to your game.
On taking the next step this year...
Cooper: I think my confidence. Last year, at first I wasn’t playing as much so my confidence got pretty low, so this spring coming into the year I was just focusing on that and just trying to get better with that each and every day. So, that’s something that will help me with my role and just playing as hard as I can.
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