Report: Former Indiana coach turns down NFL for college coaching opportunity

Deland McCullough had an opportunity to become a highest-paid running backs coach in the NFL, holding an offer with the New York Giants, and working with Brian Daboll was tempting but he’s staying at Notre Dame, according to The Athletics Bruce Feldman.

He came back to college to position himself to be a head coach and believes success at Notre Dame will do that, according to the same report.

Back on Feb. 1, Irish Illustrated reported that Notre Dame was set to hire McCullough as its next running backs coach. Three days later, it was reported that the New York Giants had offered him a job to return to the NFL.

According to John Brice of Football Scoop, the New York Giants were “making a run” at McCullough to join their staff. Brice said Notre Dame was working to keep him on board, which if reports are true, it looks as though they have. The Irish have not formally announced his arrival to the program yet. 

“Sources tell FootballScoop that Notre Dame officials are optimistic that McCullough will remain with the Irish, despite at least a second offer within the past month to return to the NFL,” Brice had said.

The 2021 season was McCullough’s second stint at Indiana; he was the running backs coach for the Hoosiers from 2011-16. In between the two coaching jobs in Bloomington, McCullough was the running backs coach at USC and for the Kansas City Chiefs. He won a Super Bowl with the Chiefs for the 2019 season.

In both 2018 and 2020, McCullough helped oversee a Chiefs’ offense that led the NFL in total yardage. While at USC in 2017, he coached running back Ronald Jones II to a rushing performance of 1,550 yards, which was second in the Pac-12 and eighth nationally.

McCullough produced a collection of standout running backs during his first tenure at Indiana as well. Tevin Coleman rushed for 2,036 yards in 2014, which was second in the nation. In 2015, both Jordan Howard and Devine Redding rushed for at least 1,000 yards. Redding posted 1,122 yards the following year as well.

McCullough had an offer to join new USC head coach Lincoln Riley in Los Angeles during this coaching cycle. In other words, he was highly coveted. This is a huge win for Irish head coach Marcus Freeman as he builds an offensive staff for his first year at the helm.