Former Kansas City Chiefs running backs coach Deland McCullough has earned some major attention this offseason as a talented mentor of younger players at his position. However, he’s setting his sights much higher, and for that reason, he’s turned down a chance to return to the NFL for a role at the University of Notre Dame.
McCullough has drawn attention this offseason after getting offers from both the New York Giants and Notre Dame to be their respective running backs coach.
The Giants are remaking their staff under new head coach Brian Daboll. He tapped former Chiefs quarterbacks coach Mike Kafka to be the team’s offensive coordinator and Kafka clearly sold the idea of McCullough upstairs, because reports say the Giants made a very aggressive offer to McCullough to come back to the NFL.
SOURCE: Deland McCullough had an opportunity to become a top-paid RB coach in the NFL w/ the Giants, and working with Brian Daboll was tempting but he's staying at Notre Dame. He came back to college to position himself to be a head coach and believes success at ND will do that.
— Bruce Feldman (@BruceFeldmanCFB) February 6, 2022
Instead of working back at the pro level, McCullough will not only stay in the college ranks but he’ll remain in the state of Indiana. Notre Dame is in its first season after losing Brian Kelly to LSU and hopes that McCullough can help on the offensive side under new head coach Marcus Freeman.
This past season, McCullough had returned to the college ranks after serving as the Chiefs’ running backs coach for three previous seasons. The University of Indiana was the first college to give him an assistant coaching job in the first place as running backs coach from 2011-16. He’d returned there in 2020 to take over the same role with the added responsibility of being the assistant head coach.
McCullough took over for Eric Bieniemy for the Chiefs when E.B. was promoted to offensive coordinator for the Chiefs. As a side note, Bieniemy has a job interview himself on Sunday with the New Orleans Saints.