Looking Back on McCullough’s First Stint in Bloomington

Written by: TJ Inman (@TJHoosierHuddle)

Indiana University is not a program you would expect to snag the running backs coach from the Kansas City Chiefs. Tom Allen and the Hoosiers probably would not have been able to entice the Super Bowl winning assistant coach back to Bloomington had there not been a prior working relationship. The two were on the same staff in 2016 and Deland McCullough has watched from afar as Tom Allen has built IU’s football program into a different animal than it was five years ago.

“Coach Allen has done an amazing job galvanizing and advancing the program’s culture,” McCullough was quoted in an Indiana University release. “I welcome the challenges and glory of being a part of helping Indiana football win championships.”

This is, by all accounts, a home run hire for Tom Allen and the Indiana Hoosiers. Deland McCullough is not a just a big name that had success in the NFL. He has a history of big-time success at the collegiate level. He was the running backs coach for the Indiana Hoosiers from 2011 to 2016 and helped develop some of the best offenses in school history. During his time in Bloomington, Indiana set 19 program rushing records and he was named the 2014 BTN.com running backs coach of the year for his work with superstar Tevin Coleman.

McCullough recruited and worked with Devine Redding, Stephen Houston, Tevin Coleman and Jordan Howard at Indiana and Ronald Jones at USC. All five had 1,000 yard seasons and all five made it to the NFL.

The two standard bearer years that best illuminate what McCullough is capable of bringing to an attack were 2014 and 2015. In 2014, it was the Tevin Coleman show as the Illinois native ran for 2,036 yards, a school record and the sixth highest total in Big Ten history at the time. IU set a school single-season record with 3,163 rushing yards, good for ninth in the country. In 2015, UAB transfer Jordan Howard and Devine Redding stepped in and each ran for more 1,000 yards. That is the only time in program history that two runners have accomplished that in the same season.

Deland McCullough moved on for one season at the University of Southern California where he helped the Trojans win the PAC-12 and get into the Cotton Bowl. He continued his upward trajectory, landing a job with the Kansas City Chiefs. McCullough now returns to Bloomington as the Associate Head Coach and Running Backs Coach, joining a program that is on the rise. If he can bring the same level of running success the Hoosiers saw in his first tenure, the chase for championships in Bloomington could take another step forward.