IU football is expecting to get one of its key players back on Saturday night when it takes the field for its Big Ten opener against UCLA. According to Matt Zenitz of 247Sports, Donaven McCulley is expected to suit up for the Hoosiers.
McCulley missed Indiana’s week two win over Western Illinois due to an upper-body injury.
Early in the second quarter at the 9:35 mark in the season opener, McCulley was working on the left side of the field when he caught a nine-yard curl route. He dove down towards the first down marker when he took a hard hit to the back of his head and back area. There were no additional details to specific what the injury was, but it definitely appeared to be upper body.
He was clearly shaken up and made his way over to the sideline. He would head to the locker room and did not return in the second half.
McCulley finished with just one catch for nine yards. Following the game, IU head coach Curt Cignetti said that McCulley was not ‘medically cleared’ to return.
McCulley was the leading receiver for IU football in 2023, totaling 48 receptions for 644 yards and six touchdowns. He had 40+ yards in each of the last five games of the season, including three 70+ yard performances. His averages over the final five games were 5.6 receptions for 84 yards. He also had five of his six touchdowns over that span as well.
“I knew I could play at that high level since I started,” McCulley said this fall. “I just felt like the last half of the season it was really the results of us getting the ball out and spreading the ball out and stuff like that.”
IU is coming off of a 77-point showing in week two against Western Illinois, a game in which the Hoosiers totaled over 700 yards of total offense.
Indiana and UCLA square off in Pasadena at 7:30 on NBC.
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