Last year’s breakout wide receiver for Indiana has become a midseason transfer portal casualty.
Donaven McCulley is no longer listed on the program’s roster and will enter the transfer portal, a source confirms with The Daily Hoosier.
The 6-foot-5 McCulley posted a 48 catch, 644 yard and six touchdown 2023 season.
McCulley also entered the portal after the 2023 season and the resulting coaching change but decided to return to play for new head coach Curt Cignetti.
Cignetti and his staff loaded up the receiver room during the offseason with a number of veterans from the portal. It was clear in the season opener vs. Florida International McCulley was not at the top of the depth chart. He suffered an injury in that game and missed week two.
Because he has only appeared in four games, McCulley will be able to play a redshirt season in 2025 wherever he transfers.
McCulley posted just two catches for 21 yards and a score this season.
Cignetti made multiple remarks during the offseason hinting at a disconnect involving player and coach.
“I think Donaven needs to pick it up a little bit,” Cignetti said in April.
Again in July at Big Ten media day, the first-year IU head coach seemed less than pleased with McCulley.
“He needs to continue to develop, play in and play out,” Cignetti said. “I don’t want him to be a sometime guy. I want him to be an every down, every play guy, that we can count on.”
For his part, McCulley said during fall camp he wanted to be challenged by the new staff.
“I told (Cignetti) to coach me hard,” McCulley said in August. “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.”
Indiana has three wide receivers with nine or more receptions through five games — Elijah Sarratt, Myles Price, Omar Cooper, Miles Cross, and Ke’Shawn Williams. Cooper and McCulley were high school teammates at Lawrence North H.S. in central Indiana.
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