Notre Dame Reportedly Adds Another Outstanding Assistant to Staff in Deland McCullough
Notre Dame’s coaching staff took a hit on Monday when Boston College hired Irish TE coach John McNulty their next offensive coordinator, but they ended the night adding another outstanding assistant to their staff. According to reports, Deland McCullough will replace Lance Taylor as the running backs coach for the Irish.
A vacancy opened on Notre Dame’s staff at running back when Louisville tabbed Taylor as their offensive coordinator – the first of now two Irish assistants from a year ago who have become offensive coordinators for Power 5 programs. Marcus Freeman and Notre Dame have replaced Taylor with another running backs coach on the rise.
Deland McCullough comes to Notre Dame after a year at Indiana as their running backs coach and assistant head coach – his second stint with the Hoosiers after he coached running backs from 2011-16. Before his second run with Indiana, he spent three years with the Kansas City Chiefs, coaching running backs on the team that won the Super Bowl in the 2019 season. Before joining Andy Reid’s staff in 2018, he coached running backs at USC for a year in 2017.
McCullough played running back in college at Miami of Ohio from 1992-1995, where he ran for 4,368 yards and 36 touchdowns.
In terms of coaching and developing running backs, McCullough has an impressive resume, and it would have been hard for Notre Dame to land anyone more experienced or qualified. He was seen as one of the strengths of the Indiana staff, and the news has folks in Bloomington upset.
Losing Taylor was a blow for the Notre Dame staff – power five programs don’t usually hire away assistants for coordinator roles that aren’t qualified. Freeman and Tommy Rees, however, did a great job by luring McCullough out of Bloomington and to South Bend.
McCullough’s Sons All D1 Talents
Deland McCullough has three sons who are either current or future D1 football players. This off-season, Deland McCullough Jr transferred to Indiana after starting his career at his father’s alma mater, Miami of Ohio. Dasan McCullough, an edge rusher, is a class of 2022 recruit who enrolled at Indiana on January 10. He is the #74 overall player in the country in the 247 Composite Rankings. Daeh McCullough is currently ranked #154 overall in the country on the 247 Composite rankings and the 13th rated safety in the country.
Because Dasan already enrolled at Indiana as a class of 2022 recruit, even if he were to want to follow his father to Notre Dame, he couldn’t do so until after the 2022 season. Whether or not Notre Dame pursues Daeh McCullough with Adon Shuler and Peyton Bowen already committed for the class of 2023.
Two Openings Remain
Notre Dame still has two positions open on its coaching staff, with the most notable being the defensive coordinator position that opened when Marcus Freeman was promoted in December. The other open position for Notre Dame is at tight end, and it’s not even been open for 24 hours.
Frank Vitovitch has been Co-Owner and Editor in Chief of UHND.com since joining forces with Kyle Flavin in 1999. Since that time, he has written over 2,000 articles covering Notre Dame football, recruiting, and basketball. He also works with all staff and external writers on all articles published on UHND.com. Frank's love for Notre Dame football started at a young age watching Rocket Ismail give opposing coaches ulcers in the late 1980's. By day Frank works in marketing and holds a degree in Digital Media from Drexel University. Frank's work has been cited by online/print editions of NBC Sports, ESPN, and Sports Illustrated and has been quoted on air by ESPN's Collin Cowherd. He's conducted interviews with Notre Dame legends Rocket Ismail, Randy Kinder, Lee Becton, Reggie Brooks, Michael Stonebreaker, and Ned Bolcar among others over his 20+ years of covering Notre Dame football. He's also been published in the print edition of USA Today Sports Weekly and the USA Today College Football Preview multiple times. Other Published Works/Citations for Frank Three Reasons Notre Dame Will Beat Alabama - USA Today Notre Dame Suspends WR Kevin Stepherson, RB C.J. Holmes Indefinitely - Bleacher Report Notre Dame / Ohio State Fiesta Bowl Preview - Eleven Warriors Brace Yourself: The Fighting Irish are Relevant Again - Sports on Earth Interviews with the Enemy: A Q&A with Frank Vitovitch of UHND - Yahoo! Sports Five Good Minutes: Notre Dame Football Preview With UHND.com - BC Interruption Vicious Electronic Questioning with UHND - MGO Blog
With the top 3 recruiting classes this year…..including the top-rated class of all-time, and 16 5-star kids between the three teams (to ND’s one)……maybe there’s a chance the SEC could be pretty good in a few years.
But I digress….who cares about what goes on down there, right ?!
Irrelevant conference of overrated losers !!
Enjoy these outstanding coaches while you can. I like the addition of seasoned experience of Washington &McCullough and, of course, Hiestand to this young staff. Most will likely be moving on as well to OCs for power 5 schools sooner than later, a sign of their success and notoriety.
Taylor did a nice job coaching up the running backs. His recruiting has been very good. Tyree, Diggs, Estemene,Sedric Ervin, Price were all offered by the big boys. Lsu,Ohio State, Florida,Miami to name a few. Unlike this hire.
I mean I like this hire.