While it took a few days to make things official, USC has confirmed the hire of Deland McCullough as the Trojans’ new running backs coach.
“We are thrilled to welcome Deland to the Trojan Family and fortunate to have him on our staff,” head coach Clay Helton said in a statement. “He had great success recruiting and then developing prolific running backs at Indiana who were NFL ready. The Indiana run game during his time was effective, efficient and productive. He understands the running game and was himself a very skilled runner as a college and pro player.”
McCullough replaces Tommie Robinson, who was hired last month by former USC coach Ed Orgeron to fill the same position at LSU.
The trip West is a bit of a departure for McCullough as he’s spent nearly his entire coaching career -- dating back to 2010 -- at Indiana. Despite the unfamiliarity with Los Angeles, the young coach developed several quality runners with the Hoosiers, such as Tevin Coleman and Jordan Howard, and should be able to keep that impressive list of pupils growing with players like Ronald Jones II on the USC roster in 2017.