Deland McCullough Is Promoted To Associate Head Coach
Notre Dame has had a very busy offseason, and one of the moves has been to promote running backs coach Deland McCullough to the position of Associate Head Coach. This will be on top of his duties as the team's running backs coach. This is the second straight year that McCullough has been promoted after he was promoted to run game coordinator a season ago.
McCullough has been impactful in a very short period of time at Notre Dame as both a coach and recruiter. Notre Dame rushed for just 144.0 yards per game the season prior to his arrival, and the Irish needed to replace standout running back Kyren Williams. In his first season, McCullough's inexperienced running backs broke out, with Audric Estime rushing for 920 yards and 11 touchdowns, Logan Diggs rushing for 822 yards and four touchdowns, and Chris Tyree rushing for 444 yards and three touchdowns. The Irish run game improved to 189.1 yards per game in 2022 while rushing for 4.6 yards per attempt.
Diggs transferred out and Tyree moved to wide receiver prior to the 2023 season, but the run game didn't miss a beat. Estime broke out as one of the nation's best running backs, racking up 1,341 yards and a program record 18 touchdowns under McCullough's tutelage. Even with that success, the rest of Notre Dame's backfield - Jeremiyah Love, Jadarian Price, Gi'Bran Payne and Devyn Ford - accounted for 1,103 total yards and 11 touchdowns.
On the recruiting trail, McCullough also landed a Top 100 running back in each of his first two seasons at Notre Dame, with Love signing a year ago and Kedren Young signing in the 2024 class. Notre Dame also landed Payne and talented back Aneyas Williams during McCullough's tenure.
McCullough has proven to be a strong technical coach for the Irish, and his backs have thrived with an all-around game. He's also noted by sources as being heavily involved in working with his players off the field, focusing on developing players from a wholistic standpoint.
Keeping McCullough and adding offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock and wide receivers coach Mike Brown gives the Irish a chance to have a much improved offensive staff in 2024.
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