Former Center Grove star Caden Curry heads home in 1-on-2 showdown

You could spend hours poring over every state high school football team in Indiana for 20 years and be hard-pressed to find more than a handful of players as dominant as Caden Curry was during his time at Center Grove.

Four years ago this month, with his parents sitting beside him in the Center Grove cafeteria, the four-star defensive lineman announced his commitment to Ohio State. Other schools in the running for Curry’s commitment? Alabama…and Indiana.

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In today’s universe, where Curry’s No. 1 Ohio State faces No. 2 Indiana on Saturday for the Big Ten Conference championship at Lucas Oil Stadium, it might make perfect sense for the Hoosier native to choose between the Buckeyes and IU in his final three. In 2021, IU was coming off a 2-10 season with a winless Big Ten record.

Then-coach Tom Allen lasted two more seasons, going 4-8 and 3-9, before Curt Cignetti took over and, well, the rest is history. But there was a world where Curry could have been on the other side of Saturday’s No. 1 vs. No. 2 matchup.

“I loved Coach Allen,” Curry said this week. “He was a great guy, and I definitely took a few visits there and went to a few games. I loved the atmosphere and I loved the university. But I just couldn’t go wrong with (Ohio State defensive line coach) Larry Johnson and coach (Ryan) Day.”

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So, four years later, Curry will play his first game at Lucas Oil Stadium since Center Grove beat Westfield 27-21 for the Class 6A state championship on Thanksgiving weekend 2021, about three weeks before committing to Ohio State, to finish a 14-0 season and complete a string of consecutive state titles (the Trojans would win a third straight 6A title the following year).

As a senior, often playing only partial games due to lopsided scoring, Curry accumulated 24 tackles for loss and seven sacks, a significant portion of his 65 total tackles. By that time, Center Grove coach Eric Moore was accustomed to seeing Curry, now 6-3 and 260 pounds, dominate. During his career, Curry totaled nearly 300 tackles, 83 ½ TFLs and 28 sacks.

“I remember taking the Iowa (coaches) to see him as a freshman baseball player,” Moore said. “He was a freshman playing (junior varsity). Iowa was going to offer him a scholarship. We went there and they asked, ‘Where is he?’ I say, ‘Look, he’s knocking.’ And it hits like a 500 foot home run. That’s Caden for you. They wonder, “What is he going to do playing professional baseball?” »

This season was a breakthrough year for Curry, who was named first team All-Big Ten by the media. The senior defensive end has 32 solo tackles (53 total) with 13 ½ TFL and nine sacks. Curry, who also recovered two fumbles and a forced fumble, was named Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week in a win over Washington in September, finishing with 11 tackles, a program record-tying five TFLs and three sacks.

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During his first three years, Curry was a key player on the Buckeyes’ defense and an outstanding special teams player. As a junior, he had 22 tackles, 3 ½ TFLs and 2 ½ sacks. But his production as a senior propelled him up the NFL draft boards. Mel Kiper ranked Curry as the No. 7 defensive end in the draft. Fox Sports projects him “into the Day 2 conversation” due to his versatility on the line as an “instinctive, passionate and productive player who ranks among the favorites of many scouts traveling to Columbus.”

“The only defensive lineman to make the kickoff team two years in a row,” Moore said of Curry, who won the Mr. Football job for the defensive line in 2021. “He became so important that they had to take him off special teams because he’s a starter. But what’s more important is that he played for four years — he didn’t leave. He didn’t transfer. He’s still a product of the system.”

Curry joked that “he’s definitely going to need a lot of tickets” for Saturday’s game, playing just 17 miles north of where he played his high school games at Ray Skillman Stadium on the Center Grove campus.

“Being able to grow up 20 minutes from Lucas Oil Stadium…it’s really, really cool,” he said. “I’ve been to a lot of Colts games and had the honor of playing in three state championships there. I definitely know what it’s like to be in that environment, even though I don’t know what it’s like to play in front of all those fans. It will definitely be exciting and exhilarating to play there.”

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Curry’s emergence this season coincided with Matt Patricia’s first year as defensive coordinator. Ohio State ranks No. 1 nationally in total defense (203 yards per game) and scoring defense (7.8 points per game).

“When Coach Patricia came in, he gave us a very simple but effective defense that was hard for the offense to learn but easy for us to play,” Curry said. “I feel like we just go out there and have fun and play together.”

Strangely, given Ohio State’s success and national championship last year, this will be the program’s first appearance in a Big Ten championship game since 2020. With the College Football Playoff still on the horizon, this trip to Lucas Oil Stadium won’t be the end point of a season for Curry like it was in high school.

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But it’s an opportunity to take a detour home and see familiar faces again. His family, as far as he knows, will be cheering for the Buckeyes.

“Growing up, everyone in my family was an Indiana basketball fan,” Curry said. “Football wasn’t really something that Indiana was known for, so there weren’t really a lot of Indiana football fans. But I definitely have a lot of Indiana in my family. But they always choose me over the school, so I feel like they’re all Ohio State fans now.”

Call Star reporter Kyle Neddenriep at (317) 444-6649. Get IndyStar’s high school coverage delivered straight to your inbox with the High school sports bulletin. And don’t forget to subscribe to our new YouTube channel IndyStarTV: Preps.

This article was originally published on the Indianapolis Star: Former Center Grove star Caden Curry and Ohio State face IU for Big Ten title