Deland McCullough Breaks Down The Notre Dame Running Back Room

Notre Dame running backs coach Deland McCullough discussed his backs following today's practice

Notre Dame running backs coach Deland McCullough spent a lot of time this morning discussing his position group. The first-year Notre Dame assistant has a talented but largely unproven group of players, and his goal is clearly to get the most out of that group in the same fashion he has throughout his coaching career.

Here are many of the top comments from Coach McCullough:

On the transition to Notre Dame

"The transition’s been great. South Bend has really embraced me and, obviously, the coaching staff, players. Now I have to do what I came here to do, which is to have the running backs playing at a championship level.”

On the talent of the running back room

"I haven't been surprised by it, but it's been a welcome situation as far as these guys studying on their own, just the intellect of the guys, the attention to detail. Their hunger to be the best running back group in the nation. That's one of our goals as we go out here every day. Staying stagnant. Being average is not acceptable at this school, it's not acceptable from the running backs that I coach. These guys have embraced that and there’s been some really positive things happening out there.”

On freshman RB Jadarian Price

"I'm very high on him. I remember talking with JD maybe a little bit before spring break and challenged him to continue to gain weight and embrace the smaller details of playing football. I always remind him every couple of times we go out this is major college football. Just reminding him, you aren’t in high school anymore, this is for real. He came back after spring break, he had gained weight. I've been really impressed with his strength, burst, his demeanor He's tougher than what his body may look like. He's up close to 195 pounds now. After the first football school we did, I told all the coaches this guy, he’s legit. To go along with the other guys we have, it's been something I've been pretty excited about.”

On the RBs in the pass game

"They fit in real good. We have a bunch of guys that have multiple skill sets, and the ability to pick up the blitz, obviously run with velocity, attention to detail. Really like how the guys out on the perimeter are catching the ball. Audric (Estime) is a guy who you wouldn't look at on the surface as a guy who has great foot fire, attention to detail, burst into routes, to get in and out of breaks really good, but he does. Same thing with JD, just trying to get him under control with that and obviously we know what Chris Tyree bring to the table, and Logan Diggs too. Excited to have a well-rounded group that's competitive and supportive of each other.”

On Chris Tyree's ability to be a lead back

"That's what the plan is. We're going to continue to ask all these guys, every guy in that room is being trained to be the starter. That's what the mentality is. All of the guys are being trained to the starter. How it shakes out as thing goes on, we’ll see. I think Chris has the attributes to be a starter at Notre Dame.”

On sophomore RB Audric Estime

"He shows it every day. It's been exciting to watch him, a guy with high expectations work super hard. He embraces the attention to detail. For him to be of his stature, I think I was surprised at how good his feet are, change of direction, his burst, his hands, his ability to catch the ball, obviously a strong guy in pass protection. Student of the game, just a guy you like to be around in general. Like all the guys, he's very hungry to show what he can do. I'm going to give him every opportunity to show it."

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