Culver football preview: Cavs return McCuens, top linemen, but lack experienced RBs

Val T.
6 days ago
6 min read

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS

Sports Editor, RTC

The Culver football team has an experienced coaching staff, an experienced quarterback, some experienced wide receivers and experienced linemen.

But who are their running backs?

Culver graduated 98.9 percent of their rushing yards from 2024 when Ethan Binion, Tony Sommers and David Hite received their diplomas in the spring.

Culver might have one of the more pass-happy attacks in the area. They threw the ball 135 times last year while running it fewer than 20 times per game.

The three non-freshman running backs listed on the roster are senior Theron Carrington, junior Isaiah Gonzalez and sophomore John Carr.

Carrington has primarily been a defensive end in his career. Gonzalez did not play last year.

“That’s the big question mark,” Culver third-year coach Austin Foust said. “Those guys carried the rock for us. We’re going to have to do it by committee again, kinda how we did. And honestly, I’m sitting here not knowing. … Theron Carrington, he’s a guy who’s moved around offensively for us, but he’s somebody that we’re going to give some carries to. He’s a good, strong kid. He’s got some speed. Isaiah Gonzalez has come back out as a junior. He’s got a lot of physical attributes as far as athleticism and speed too. And sophomore John Carr is going to be another guy we’re going to rely on. Hopefully, Caleb McCuen can be kinda like our Penn State’s (and Indianapolis Colts first-round draft pick) Tyler Warren, where we can kind of move him around and use him as a little bit of everything.

“Obviously, if you ask Caleb, he’s going to say he’s the better quarterback too.”

Carrington and Gonzalez will receive handoffs from quarterback Jonas McCuen, a senior in his third year as the starter. McCuen threw for 1,165 yards and 10 touchdowns last year.

“So obviously Jonas is going to be the starter again for his third year, and we saw huge gains in situations. … He kinda knew what I was looking for. Obviously, another year in that offense, and he was seeing what I was seeing and what we were wanting to attack and things. … We had too many interceptions, but a lot of those were in games where we couldn’t run the ball, and if we didn’t throw the ball up and give ourselves a chance, we weren’t going to be able to move the ball. So some of those interceptions was one of those where we’ve got to take chances and things like that. He’s shown big-time improvement in just running the team.”

Twin brother Caleb McCuen is the leading returning receiver (22 receptions, 353 yards). Braylon Jackson, who had 11 receptions for 124 yards last season, is the other receiver with experience.

“I feel like our skill guys’ athleticism and speed is the best we’ve had since I’ve been here,” Foust said. “But a lot of unproven guys because they haven’t played football. Braylon’s a guy that came on and started as a freshman from day one on both sides of the ball. As the year went on, he played corner, but he started at receiver for us every game. We’re looking for him to step up. I thought he’s had a pretty good offseason in showing his improvement in his hands. You watch him run, and it’s just effortless and fluid. He has the ability to go by people.”

In addition to the McCuen twins and Carrington, the other senior skill position player is tight end Scotty Banks, who is playing football for the first time in high school. Junior Jordan Green is another first-time football player who is in the mix at wide receiver. Sophomore Kolton Howard is a basketball player and high-jumper on the track team who is also giving wide receiver a try.

Meanwhile, left tackle Izaya Vela and right tackle Skylar Greer give the Cavaliers to bookend seniors on the offensive line. Junior Shane Martin will play left guard with freshman Colton Falk manning right guard. Drake Zorich moves from guard to center for his junior season.

Foust was asked about the chemistry and communication on the offensive line, and he expanded his answer to include the whole team.

“Just really as a whole, not even just the offensive line, we just seem to have a different vibe,” Foust said. “Our kids like each other. We have seniors to juniors that are helping the younger guys. But upfront, we’ve done a good job communicating different calls and checks we’ve got to make. They like each other. Our line coach, coach (Kyle) Klinge, does a really good job of getting those kids to buy in and have this mentality you have on the o-line.”

Vela and Carrington will play defensive end with Greer and Falk at defensive tackle.

“I think it’s contagious,” Foust said when asked how much his teammates feed off Carrington’s energy and intensity. “He’s like a little Energizer bunny. When he’s flying around and making plays, it’s hard for you to just stand there and not want to be a part of it.”

Zorich will play middle linebacker with Caleb McCuen and Gonzalez at outside linebacker.

Jonas McCuen moves from safety to cornerback, and Jordan Green will play the other corner. Foust said he picked those two because he wanted bigger, more physical corners. Jackson and Banks will play safety because Foust said he wanted more athleticism there.

Defensively, Culver improved its defensive scoring average from 47 points allowed per game two years ago to 36 last year under first-year defensive coordinator Kevin Danti. Foust spoke of a greater “buy-in” but he knows that number will have to be reduced even further if Culver wants to win more than two games.

“Thirty-six is too many, but there was improvement,” Foust said. “Now, not to sound like (former Indiana University basketball coach) Mike Woodson, but we’ve got to get over that hump kinda thing, where it’s those close games we had last year and those little things that kept us from doing that.”

Jonas McCuen is the punter. Vela is the kicker.

Culver is in the same conference and sectional with North Judson, who is ranked No. 2 in the preseason Class 1A USA Today media poll. No. 10 North Miami, No. 11 Pioneer and No. 13 Triton are also in their conference.

“We play some really good teams,” Foust, a former all-conference linebacker during his playing days at Rochester, said. “We play teams with guys that are capable of taking it to the house every play. Yeah, it’s going to be hard to hold guys to zero and things like that. The biggest thing that we have to improve on – and we’ve spent a lot of time on it – is just our tackling fundamentals. Get to that right spot so we’re ready to make a tackle.

“Because that was our problem. You go back on film. We have guys there, but they’re out of position and can’t make the play – that kind of thing. So that’s what we’re focused on.”

Foust talks about building the feeder system and getting to where Culver does not have 14-year-olds squaring off against 18-year-olds on Friday nights. He also spoke of the importance of playing games on “Mondays and Saturday mornings.” In other words, he spoke of the importance of having JV and middle school teams to allow younger players to develop and for the program to achieve "stability and growth.”

“We might be able to have a seventh and eighth grade and sixth grade team on its own,” Foust said. “It’s trending good at least as we sit here.”

Schedule

There are no changes from last year’s schedule. Attica’s 38-game losing streak is the longest current losing streak in the state.

Aug. 22 – at Attica, 7 p.m.

Aug. 29 – at West Central, 7 p.m.

Sept. 5 – vs. Triton, 7 p.m.

Sept. 12 – vs. Winamac, 7 p.m.

Sept. 19 – at North Judson, 7:30 p.m.

Sept. 26 – at Caston, 7 p.m.

Oct. 3 – vs. Pioneer, 7 p.m.

Oct. 10 – at North Miami, 7 p.m.

Oct. 17 – vs. South Central (Union Mills), 7:30 p.m.