Indiana football player preview: Wide receiver Donaven McCulley
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - Entering the 2024 season, Indiana boasts one of the most talented wide receiver rooms to grace Bloomington in some time.
The Hoosiers have talent up and down the receiving corp ahead of the season to come and it starts at the top with Donaven McCulley.
As McCulley gets set to take on his senior season in 2024, preview the year ahead for the talented wideout and look back in McCulley's breakout 2023 campaign.
Check out TheHoosier.com's other 2024 Indiana football player previews:
2023 Season Recap
After beginning his Indiana career as a quarterback, McCulley broke out as a wide receiver in 2023.
His second season at his new position on the outside of the Hoosiers' offense, McCulley appeared in all 12 games a season ago at Indiana.
The 6-foot-5, 203 pound receiver reeled in 48 catches for 644 yards, adding seven touchdown catches in 2023.
Down the back half of the season is where McCulley really took off.
Over the final five weeks of the season, the Indianapolis, Indiana native caught five of his six touchdowns, including a highlight reel grab at home versus Wisconsin.
Throughout the 2023 season, McCulley made a number of spectacular catches in traffic. Come the end of the year, McCulley finished third amongst Big Ten wide receivers with 10 contested catches.
For his efforts over the course of the season, McCulley was named an All-Big Ten honorable mention by the conferences coaches and media.
During 2023, McCulley asserted himself as the Hoosiers' clear-cut No. 1 wide receiver, putting together one of the most productive seasons Memorial Stadium has seen in recent years.
2024 Season Outlook
As the saying goes, sometimes the best gets in the transfer portal are the guys that you already have on your team.
When Curt Cignetti took over as the head coach of the Hoosiers, McCulley was was in the transfer portal, boasting impressive offers from the likes of Michigan, Penn State and Texas A&M.
Cignetti managed to convince McCulley to return to Bloomington and now the 6-foot-5 wideout enters his senior season with the highest expectations of his career.
The quarterback turned wide receiver enters the 2024 campaign as the undisputed No. 1 target for the Hoosiers. Because of that, McCulley will likely find himself at the top of opposing teams scouting reports entering the upcoming season.
The quarterback turned wide receiver will be catching passes from the most experienced signal caller of his career in sixth-year quarterback Kurtis Rourke.
Combine the Hoosiers' experienced signal caller with the offseason influx of talent around McCulley in the receiving corp and there's plenty of reason to believe that McCulley can have yet another career year in 2024.
From Cignetti
“I think Donaven (McCulley) needs to pick it up a little bit,” Cignetti said following a spring practice earlier in the offseason, challenging the Hoosiers' top target.
"I thought he made a really nice catch, that first touchdown on the post,” Cignetti said a few weeks later following Indiana's spring game. “I saw him really respond. I don't do that a lot. I did it once last fall with our quarterback, and he really responded about the middle of the season.”
“He still has some improving," Cignetti continued. "Everybody's got to improve. I know what his goals are, to be a great player, and it starts with the way you practice, your attention to detail, how you study off the field, how you prepare. Those are some of the areas he's got to improve in. But I'm glad we got him.”
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