Over the last three years, Deland McCullough heard the calls and offers from various college programs as he served as running backs coach for the Kansas City Chiefs.
While the offers would have enticed many, they were lacking something for the former Miami (OH) standout -- the title associate head coach.
All that changed when McCullough recently reached out to Indiana head coach Tom Allen about his desire to return to Indiana as both the running backs coach and associate head coach.
“That was a main attraction outside of the bigger picture of IU,” McCullough told the media this week during his introductory press conference. “Since I’ve been with the Chiefs, I’ve had at least three opportunities to go back to college every year. It made no sense for me to go back and be a pure running backs coach, because I can stay where I was and do that at the highest level with the Chiefs. So the opportunity to be an associate head coach at Indiana, specifically, was very strong to me because I know Tom and the administration would support me and I could continue to grow and have an impact beyond the running back room.”
Allen obliged and McCullough returns to a program and school that he had a huge impact on from 2011 until 2016.
Prior to his arrival, it had been almost a decade since Indiana last had a running back surpass 1,000 yards in a season. In 2014, Tevin Coleman achieved the feat, rushing for 2,036 yards in 2014 before being drafted into the NFL. Jordan Howard and Devine Redding would follow suite, as both rushed for over 1,000 yards and helped lead an Indiana offense that was first in the Big Ten in scoring, total offense and passing offense and second in rushing offense.
While he had shown that he could develop running backs at both the college and pro ranks, there was still more McCullough was looking for.
He would find it in Allen.
