Indiana’s coaching staff continues to change this offseason as head coach Tom Allen hires Deland McCullough as associate head coach and running backs coach.
The university made the announcement of the decision on Monday — 26 days after former running backs coach Mike Hart left IU to become the new running backs coach at Michigan.
McCullough has spent the past three years in the NFL as the running backs coach for the Kansas City Chiefs. During that time, the Chiefs played in three-consecutive AFC championship games, appeared in back-to-back Super Bowls and won Super Bowl LIV.
The 2021 season will begin McCullough’s second stretch with Indiana after being a part of the Hoosiers’ staff from 2011 to 2016. Prior to IU, he spent two years at Miami (Ohio) University serving as an offense and special teams intern in 2010 and running backs coach in 2011.
He coached former IU players Stephen Houston, Tevin Coleman, Jordan Howard and Devine Redding — all those players have gone to the NFL. McCullough and Allen were a part of the same staff in 2016 when Allen was IU’s defensive coordinator.
“The opportunity to return to IU in this role is very special to me and my family for a host of reasons,” McCullough said. “Coach Allen has done an amazing job of galvanizing and advancing the program’s culture, which has been displayed by success on the field.”
During McCullough’s tenure at Indiana, the Hoosiers set 19 program rushing records and he earned the 2014 BTN.com running backs coach of the year honors.
After IU, the Youngstown, Ohio, native spent one year at the University of Southern California as its run game coordinator/running backs coach. In his collegiate coaching career (2010-2017), McCullough has coached seven 1,000-yard running backs, including five from 2014 to 2017. He has coached two All-Americans and nine all-conference players.
While at Kansas City, McCullough coached Anthony Sherman to the 2018 Pro Bowl and mentored rookie Clyde Edwards-Helaire to exceed 1,000 yards from scrimmage this past season. McCullough has coached other talented professional running backs such as Kareem Hunt, Damien Williams, LeSean McCoy and Le’Veon Bell.
