Deland McCullough Has Proven To Be An Outstanding Hire For Notre Dame
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Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman made several outstanding hires after being hired as the program's leader, and one of the best has proven to be running backs coach Deland McCullough. In just over a year, McCullough has shown himself to be an outstanding position coach - which we knew he would be - but he's also proven to be an outstanding recruiter.
It wasn't that long ago - 2019-20 in fact - that Notre Dame went into the season with major question marks at running back, and the depth at the position was a major question mark. Since arriving at Notre Dame, McCullough has developed one of the nation's best backfields, and some incredibly talented reinforcements are on their way.
McCullough's first season on the field was impressive enough, as Irish running back Audric Estime and Logan Diggs went from lightly used backups in 2021 to one of the best one-two punches in college football last season. The sophomore duo combined for 2,117 total yards and 18 touchdowns. Notre Dame's running backs (including Chris Tyree) had 14 games with at least 100 yards of all-purpose yards.
McCullough did that with players that were recruited by other coaches, but he's worked hard to make sure that when the roster is filled with players he's recruited it will be every bit as talented, if not more so.
His first pickup was actually rising sophomore Gi'Bran Payne, who McCullough originally landed when he was the coach at Indiana. After McCullough left for Notre Dame, Payne got out of his letter of intent and eventually signed with the Irish. The presence of Payne, and his strong play in the spring, is a big reason Notre Dame was in position to move Tyree to wide receiver this offseason.
In his first class, McCullough landed dynamic St. Louis running back Jeremiyah Love. He ranked as a Top 100 recruit by On3, ESPN and 247Sports, graded out as a Top 50 back with five-star upside on the Irish Breakdown board. Landing Love was a home run for Notre Dame, and his game is about just that, hitting home runs as a runner and pass catcher.
His second class is outstanding as well.
McCullough's first pickup in the 2024 class was Hannibal (Mo.) High School all-around star Aneyas Williams. A consensus four-star back, Williams had over 1,000 yards as a runner and pass catcher as a sophomore and went for over 1,000 yards on the ground again as a junior. Williams was the top all-purpose back on the board for Notre Dame.
Notre Dame wanted a second back in the class, and after Diggs transferred it needed a second back. For months the top target on the board was Lufkin (Texas) High School running back Kedren Young, and today the Irish landed a commitment from him as well.
That means McCullough landed a dynamic Top 100 running back in his first class, and his top all-purpose back and top runner in his second class. That goes with landing Payne, who was also a four-star running back.
That's quite a 16-month stretch for McCullough, who has shown he is without question one of the best running back coaches in all of college football as both a coach and recruiter. Notre Dame is poised to put big time talent on the field at running back for years to come.
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