Former Center Grove star Caden Curry returns home in 1 vs. 2 showdown

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You could spend hours poring over every Indiana high school football all-state team for 20 years and have a hard time coming up with 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 on each side of him in the Center Grove cafeteria, the four-star defensive lineman announced his commitment to Ohio State. The other schools in contention for Curry’s commitment? Alabama … and Indiana.

In the current universe, where Curry’s No. 1 Ohio State will play No. 2 Indiana on Saturday for the Big Ten Conference championship at Lucas Oil Stadium, it might make perfect sense that native Hoosier would pick between the Buckeyes and IU in his final three. In 2021, IU had just completed a 2-10 season with a winless Big Ten record.

Then-coach Tom Allen would last 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 showdown.

“I loved coach Allen,” Curry said this week. “He was a great dude, and I definitely took a couple visits there and went to a couple 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.”

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

As a senior, often playing only partial games due to lopsided scores, Curry racked up 24 tackles for loss and seven sacks, a significant portion of his 65 total tackles. By that time, Center Grove coach Eric Moore was used to seeing the now 6-3, 260-pound Curry dominate. For 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 walked out there, and they asked, ‘Where is he?’ I go, ‘Watch, he’s batting.’ And he hits like a 500-foot home run. That’s Caden for you. They’re like, ‘What is he going to do playing pro baseball?’”

This season has been 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 TFLs and a whopping nine sacks. Curry, who also has two fumble recoveries and one forced fumble, was named the 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.

For his first three years, Curry was 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 has rocketed him up on NFL draft boards. Mel Kiper has Curry rated as the No. 7 defensive end in the draft. Fox Sports projects him “in the day 2 conversation” due to his versatility on the line as “an instinctive, passionate and productive player who ranks among the favorites for many scouts traveling through Columbus.”

“The only d-lineman to be on kickoff team two years in a row,” Moore said of Curry, who was the Mr. Football position winner for defensive line in 2021. “He got to be so important they had to take him off special teams because he’s a starter. But my biggest thing is he played through four years – he didn’t leave. He didn’t transfer. He’s still a product of the system.”

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

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’s came in, he gave us a very simple but effective defense that is 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, considering Ohio State’s success and national championship just last year, this will be the program’s first Big Ten championship game appearance since 2020. With the College Football Playoff still on the horizon, this trip to Lucas Oil Stadium will not be an endpoint to a season for Curry like it was in high school.

But it is a chance to take a detour home and see some familiar faces. His family, as far as he knows, will be cheering for the Buckeyes.

“Growing up, everybody was an Indiana basketball fan in my family,” Curry said. “Football wasn’t really something Indiana was known for, so you really didn’t have many 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 are all Ohio State fans now.”

Call Star reporter Kyle Neddenriep at (317) 444-6649.Get IndyStar's high school coverage sent directly to your inbox with the High School Sports newsletter. And be sure to subscribe to our new IndyStarTV: Preps YouTube channel.

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

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