Oklahoma reportedly closing in on RB coach hire to replace DeMarco Murray
By Luke Greco
Published:
Brent Venables and the Oklahoma Sooners are expected to hire Deland McCullough as their next running back coach, following DeMarco Murray’s exit.
McCullough spent the past year working in the NFL as the Las Vegas Raiders’ running backs coach. Before that, McCullough coached at Notre Dame from 2022 to 2024 as the running backs coach and in 2024 as the associate head coach. He’s coached players like Jeremiyah Love, Ashton Jeanty and Audric Estime.
McCullough was also the 2020 Running Backs Coach of the Year during his time with the Kansas City Chiefs.
He joins the Sooners as Murray’s replacement, who left the Sooners earlier in February to become the Kansas City Chiefs’ running backs coach.
Unlike Murray, McCullough is not an alum of Oklahoma. In college, he played his ball at Miami of Ohio before going undrafted in the 1996 NFL Draft. He would then play for the Cincinnati Bengals in 1996 before joining the Winnipeg Blue Bombers of the Canadian Football League in 1998.
McCullough has been coaching running backs since 2011, when he was a part of Indiana’s coaching staff. He would then join Southern California in 2017, where he spent just 1 season. After his time at USC, he joined Andy Reid’s staff and stayed until 2020. McCullough then went back to Indiana before joining Notre Dame in 2022.
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