Before freshman quarterback Donaven McCulley started his first career game against Maryland and before Indiana football’s first and second-string quarterbacks suffered injuries, head coach Tom Allen said McCulley was going to be redshirted.
McCulley entered the season as the third-string quarterback behind juniors Michael Penix Jr. and Jack Tuttle. He was set to learn the playbook as a freshman, appear in fewer than four games and retain his four-year eligibility.
But McCulley started in Indiana’s 38-35 loss to Maryland on Saturday, and he turned in exactly the type of performance Indiana needed from him.
“(McCulley) gave us a chance,” Allen said in a postgame press conference. “He got some awesome experience to play in this environment at his age.”
Related: Offense outperforms defense in Indiana football’s 38-35 loss to Maryland
McCulley threw for 242 yards, Indiana’s second highest total of the season, on 14-25 passing and scored two touchdowns. Indiana’s four touchdowns Saturday were more than the three it had scored against all of its Big Ten opponents combined.
“I think he played amazing,” graduate student running back Stephen Carr said about McCulley. “He didn’t flinch. It just didn’t end the way we wanted it to.”
Indiana rushed for 204 yards, the most it has had this season, and Carr broke off a 66-yard rushing touchdown, the team’s single longest rush of the year.
For the first time all season, Indiana wasn’t let down by the offense. With a freshman under center, Indiana scored its highest point total against a conference opponent in 2021.
But Maryland’s 419 pass yards were the most the defense has allowed this year. Maryland scored as many points as No. 2 University of Cincinnati did in Bloomington on Sept. 18.
“At the end of the day, it’s a team loss,” Allen said. “The defense didn’t play good enough.”
In the fourth quarter, the Hoosiers’ offense took the ball over at the Terrapins’ 25-yard line with just over a minute left in the game. Indiana trailed by 10 and needed to score on the drive in order to keep its hopes of winning alive.
On the first play, McCulley remained poised in the pocket and earned a roughing the passer penalty. He found senior wide receiver Ty Frygogle wide open down the left sideline on the second play, completing a 52-yard pass into the red zone. Indiana cut the lead to 3 when McCulley connected with senior tight end Peyton Hendershot for both the touchdown and the 2-point conversion.
The score would have tied the game, but Maryland’s previous drive went for 12 plays and ended in a field goal. Maryland picked apart the Indiana defense, picking up three first downs on short rushing plays. Maryland only collected 36 yards the entire drive.
The defense had been reliable for Indiana all year, but couldn’t hold up its end of the bargain Saturday.
The Hoosiers fell to 2-6 on the year and will need to win every game for the rest of the season to become bowl eligible, including next week’s game against No. 6 Michigan.
But if McCulley is Indiana’s only healthy quarterback, Allen said he thinks having him under center might give the team a fighting chance.
“Donaven’s a good quarterback, he just needs to play,” Allen said. “Everything I’ve said, all along, he’s got a real talent. But he’s young, really really young.”
