Oklahoma LB Dasan McCullough Excited About Transition to SEC
NORMAN — Dasan McCullough can’t wait to get to the SEC.
Following practice on Monday, Oklahoma’s sophomore linebacker met the press to discuss a number of topics, including Brent Venables' defense and the Sooners coming jump to the SEC.
A freshman All-American at Indiana in 2022, McCullough transferred to Oklahoma after playing his first year of college football in the Big Ten. Now in Norman, the Bloomington, IN, native will get the chance to compete in the Big 12 for one season as OU attempts to rebound from a disappointing first season under Venables.
Prior to former head coach Lincoln Riley's final season at the helm, the Sooners had won six consecutive Big 12 titles and served as the conference's flagship program. Until 2022-23, no Big 12 team other than Oklahoma had never made the College Football Playoff.
TCU broke that streak last year, becoming the first team from the conference to win a playoff game.
In year two under Venables, however, OU seems poised to return to its winning ways, with McCullough likely playing a big part in the Sooners’ defense. The 6-foot-5, 227-pound athletic linebacker will seemingly be the team's primary cheetah, a linebacker-safety hybrid position that was a staple of Venables' defenses at Clemson.
Since he is only a sophomore in 2023, McCullough will also get the chance to play in the SEC next season when Oklahoma enters the conference in 2024. This will give the former Indiana standout experience playing in three different conferences in three years.
"I think it's crazy," the star defender said. "I like it though, I mean I like how, obviously we're going to the SEC. I like how these teams are moving around. ... I love the fact that I have the chance to highly perform in three different conferences before I declare for the draft. I got to play in the Big Ten, which I loved, now I get to play this year Big 12 and then next year the SEC. I'm just really glad I get to stack on all these different types of conferences because they do have different types of play styles, really. So I just want to prove I can flourish, basically, in all three of them."
If the rangy linebacker is able to have two more solid seasons on top of his impressive outing as a freshman, he will likely hear his name called in the NFL Draft. With the high-powered offenses that the Sooners are set to face in the SEC, OU will need its athletic, versatile defenders like McCullough to perform well for the team to stay competitive in their new conference.
In his lone year at Indiana, McCullough recorded 49 tackles, 6.5 tackles for loss, four sacks and three pass deflections. The gifted athlete's versatile skill set and size should make him an ideal fit for Venables' cheetah position, in theory filling a similar role to that of Isaiah Simmons at Clemson
Coming out of high school, McCullough was a 4-star prospect, rated one of the top 75 players in the nation, according to 247Sports. The stellar class of 2022 recruit was an edge rusher at Bloomington South (IN), once again proving his versatility.
McCullough is also the older brother of Daeh McCullough, a former 4-star safety prospect and current freshman on OU's football team. The talented sibling duo are the sons of Notre Dame running backs coach Deland McCullough.
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