For many years, it took getting mad for Carter Miculka to find that nasty side of his personality as an offensive lineman.
The Owosso lineman has come to understand it’s part of the job when he steps on the field on Friday nights.
And Miculka is now thriving in that area.
It is why Miculka enters his senior season this fall with his college future decided after he made a verbal commitment June 10 to continue his football career at Eastern Michigan.
The 6-foot-6, 270-pound Miculka also owned offers from Central Michigan, Western Michigan, Miami (Ohio) and Dartmouth and has received interest from Big Ten programs. He is the third player from Greater Lansing in the 2026 class to make a verbal commitment to a Division I program, joining DeWitt’s Trav Moore (Central Michigan) and Haslett’s Kory Amachree (Kansas).
“I’m really happy with the decision that I’ve made,” said Miculka, who was a Michigan Sports Writers Division 3-4 second team all-state selection in 2024. “I think that official visit was my fifth or sixth time out (at Eastern) between visits and camps. It always kind of felt like home.
“The big thing for me was always commit early so that way there’s no threat of losing that spot at the program that I wanted. With these (official visits) coming up, they were expecting a lot of kids to commit so I wanted to get my spot. To be honest, that’s just the place. They have great people over there and that’s what it’s all about to me.”
Miculka is rated by 247Sports as a three-star prospect and the No. 43 player in the 2026 class in Michigan. Miculka said one of the keys to his rise into a Division I recruit and one of the state’s top prospects outside his work in the weight room and with agility and conditioning has been finding that nasty side on the field.
“Everybody talks about it and you can be a nice guy off the field, but you’ve got to be physical on the field,” Miculka said. “It really wasn’t until this year that I really was able to just cut loose and go out and dominate the way that I did. That is something that every coach I talked to touched on, and the physicality they saw in my tape was something that they don’t usually see. That’s become a big point of pride for me.”
One of the other points of pride for Miculka has been being one the highest-ranked prospects from Owosso since Brad Van Pelt, who went on to star at Michigan State and in the NFL. Miculka has also been proud to be part of the progress Owosso has made as a team with the 5-4 finish in 2024 marking the program’s first winning season since 2012.
Miculka, who is heading into his fourth year as a starter, hopes to help the Trojans take another step this fall.
“We want to go out and win as many games as possible,” Micula said. “If we make the playoffs, that’s another huge accomplishment for this school and this program. It’s been 13 years since they last went to the playoffs so it would be huge.
“I think it would help get a lot of kids to come back out, which I think is a huge thing to get that draw for our program and to get everybody bought in. That’s the big thing for me.”
Contact Brian Calloway at bcalloway@lsj.com. Follow him on X @brian_calloway.
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Eastern Michigan commit Carter Miculka found nasty side on field for Owosso football
Reporting by Brian Calloway, Lansing State Journal / Lansing State Journal
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