Curt Cignetti doesn’t call out his players very often.
Sure, he’s unafraid of criticizing his team as a whole, or maybe even a position group. But he usually avoids identifying any individuals in those sorts of remarks, even if asked to.
That made it more noteworthy when he did it twice this spring. At separate points, he said that redshirt sophomore quarterback Tayven Jackson’s development has “been a little slower,” and that senior wide receiver Donaven McCulley needed to pick it up.
Both players seemed to heed the message. Jackson enjoyed a strong spring game, showing a clear grasp of the No. 2 job and perhaps some potential to challenge Kurtis Rourke for the starting quarterback role. And McCulley caught the first touchdown pass of the night, as he ran a post route into the middle of the end zone and went up to haul in the ball over a defender.
McCulley is coming off a strong junior season, as he led IU with 644 receiving yards on 48 receptions with six touchdowns. His 55 yards per game ranked 10th in the Big Ten. But Indiana added several experienced wide receivers in the transfer portal in the offseason, putting onus on McCulley to earn his playing time for the coming year during spring and fall camps.
Cignetti was pleased with the way McCulley played after his comment earlier in camp.
“I thought he made a really nice catch that first touchdown on the post. 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,” Cignetti said after the spring game. “He still has some improving (to do). 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.”
Jackson played with the second-string offense during the spring game, against the second-string defense. So the performance should be taken with a grain of salt — nearly everything in the spring game should be, but particularly a quarterback with starting experience facing reserve defenders.
But Jackson operated very comfortably last week. The interception he threw may have been a little ill-advised, but for the most part, Jackson’s decision-making was sound. Most of his throws were on point, whether short-range, intermediate, or deep balls.
Rourke will still likely be Indiana’s starter in the fall, but Cignetti suggested Jackson could compete for the job.
“Tayven made some nice throws, and Andison made a play or two, Coby,” Cignetti said. “I think there’s a healthy competition there heading into summer and fall camp. Competition is a great thing. We need more competition at all positions. That was one of our issues this spring is we have some guys that played some football in the past that didn’t have the kind of competition we’d like to see to motivate them to go out every day, every play, focused in, best effort, improving.”
For complete coverage of IU football, GO HERE.
The Daily Hoosier –“Where Indiana fans assemble when they’re not at Assembly”
- Find us on Facebook: thedailyhoosier
- You can follow us on Twitter: @daily_hoosier
- Seven ways to support completely free IU coverage at no cost to you.
