WATCH: Tom Allen Introduces Deland McCullough

Below are partial transcriptions of Zoom press conferences with Indiana head football coach Tom Allen and associate head coach/running backs Deland McCullough on Tuesday, Feb. 9.

Head Coach Tom Allen
ALLEN: I want to welcome everyone this afternoon. I appreciate you guys being here and joining us. I am very excited about an important announcement for our program. I could not be more thrilled to welcome Deland McCullough back to Indiana. Individually, I worked with him my first year here as defensive coordinator. I have so much respect for him as a man, as a football coach, a leader of the running back room, a leader of his family, and I think he is a complete fit with who we are here. He was a big part of this place when he was here before and the role that he played as running backs coach. I am excited to bring him back in an expanded role as associate head coach, which is not just a title in our program. It is a spot that has a lot of responsibilities to really impact this team. This was a role I was very aggressive about with Mike Hart and allowed him to have a big impact on this team. I feel that made us better. I expect that to grow even more with Deland's experience. We know where he is coming from and what he has been a part of recently. He had such a tremendous opportunity in the NFL to win a Super Bowl, to be in the last three AFC Championship Games, and he has done an amazing job of connecting with his players everywhere he has been. I think that is the common theme. He is such a great teacher, a great model of how you live your life, and does things with a high degree of detail, effort and focus. I am excited for him to bring that leadership to our team, the culture we have built and the environment that we have established. I know that our players are very excited to get to know him, get to work with him, and have him here with us. He will help us continue to grow our program and compete for championships here in the Big Ten.

Q. On getting the text message from McCullough…
ALLEN: First of all, there was a lot going on during the time in which he reached out. The defensive coordinator spot was the top priority and the one that I knew about first. But I was getting bombarded with a lot of interest in that position, the running backs job. I got that text message from him, we have stayed in touch and I am a big supporter in where he has been and what he has done, even through the recruitment of his sons. They came on a game day visit a couple of seasons ago. That was a text that I was not expecting, to be honest with you. I was surprised. When I read it, I was like 'seriously?' But immediately it was obvious to me that he was everything that we wanted in this position and more. Basically, I responded and that began this process. We went back and forth quite a bit and talked. I set up my vision for what I thought the associate head coach role would look like. I had him talk to Mike Hart about how I would use him in that role, what it looked like and what it really was on a consistent basis. I felt like he needed to hear from the person that just did it. I felt that this was a great fit because I knew him, I had coached with him… the football part aside, because that is a given. He is obviously a good football coach. I am big on the fit with the whole staff and that is what I care about. That is what I knew because I had been with him. I knew how he would relate with our players and represent me in front of them or the administration if the situation required it as the associate head coach. The compliance staff, academics staff, those are the roles I really see him being able to play a big-time role in. All of the things that I am trying to do with our program, meet with players, be involved defensively, all of those types of things. I was excited that he was interested. At that point, it became pretty obvious that he was going to be the focus. We just had to get things worked out once the interest was mutual. We have known about this for a little bit, but we had to keep it quiet until after the Super Bowl.

Q. On getting SEC, NFL coaches to come to Indiana…
ALLEN: I think it says a lot about where we are. Speaking to both Charlton Warren and Deland about the way our program is viewed from the staffs they came from, they are different conferences, different levels, geographically further away, but we saw a consistent theme that people saw the change. They have seen the culture shift. They have seen the performance on the field as a team, a team that plays together with a purpose, plays with passion. When I first came here as defensive coordinator, we changed the culture on that side of the football. It is no different, I am just doing those things with the whole team that we did with the defense. I think that is the beauty of it all, I am just being who I am. I believe in what we are doing and it is neat to see others join that belief. It is neat to see other coaches that want to be a part of it. We have a lot of special young men in this program that I love dearly and respect so much because of what they have come here to do. They have worked so hard. The coaching staff has sacrificed for this program, this team and for each other. Being able to have guys like this that perform at such a high level at other conferences and other levels that want to be here, that is pretty special. Especially a guy like Deland, who has been here before, understands and has been a part of the creating of change. He was part of a really good offense. They year before I got here, 2015, was a historic offense here at Indiana. He was part of that. He saw that growth and we have been able to take that to an entire team. We want to bring guys in that believe in us, guys that fit with us, and guys that can make us better. We are thrilled to have both of these fine men and their families join us on this journey.

Q. On selling Indiana to get SEC and NFL coaches to come to Indiana…
ALLEN: I do not know what that says about me. It is a culture. When we talk about LEO, the next two things I always say are that I want a coaching staff and a team that does not care who gets the credit and it is not about them. That goes for me, too. This is not about me. It takes all of us. I am only as good as the coaches I have on staff and I understand that. We are only as good as the players that we have representing us on the field. That is recruiting, that is development and all of the relationships that go into that. It is about people. Those guys have shown a desire to want to come here and that is a special thing. People questioned why Aaron Wellman came here. I have been asked that so many times. He left a great opportunity with the New York Giants. To me, it has been about building something I believe in. I have been building this in a way that I believe you build something special that has value way beyond the game. I think people want to be part of that. You have to find people that fit with you. You cannot lose sight of that. These guys are highly talented individuals in their area of expertise, but they fit with us. The things that they care about, I care about. The things that they value, I value and we value as a program. When I talk about fit, that is what I am talking about in both recruiting players and recruiting coaches. There are a lot of highly talented players and coaches that may not fit here. The things that are important to me might not be the same for them. That does not mean that it is right or wrong, it is just different. You have to find those that align with you. A lot of times you know that by hiring people that you have worked with and that you know. Sometimes that is the case, others it is not. I have hired coaches here that I have never worked with before, like Charlton and others on our staff. Then you have guys like Deland, who I have worked with before. To me, this does speak to our program. It speaks to what we are building and it speaks to what we have done the last few years. It also speaks to what we are about to do, in my opinion. I do believe that the best is yet to come for Indiana Football. I do not just say that. It does not mean that we will be better just because we are a year older. I am having player meetings right now with a lot of our guys and we are talking about that every single day. We have to work. We have not done anything. We have not won the Big Ten East and we have not won the Big Ten. We have gotten better and finished higher. We have not won a bowl game. There are a lot of things we have not done. To me, there is a lot of fire and passion inside of me to keep building this thing. That is what I keep telling our coaches and our players. We have to keep building this thing. We have to keep developing, keep recruiting, keep believing, and that does not stop. Attracting guys like this, that is part of it. Bringing in guys that can help us get better, we got better when Deland McCullough decided to become an Indiana Hoosier, we got better when Charlton Warren decided to come be an Indiana Hoosier, and we got better when Aaron Wellman decided he wanted to move his family back to Indiana and be an Indiana Hoosier. Two of those three guys have been here before. To me, you surround yourself with people that want to be great. Our one word for 2021 is 'chase'. I have talked about that a little bit. We are chasing greatness at Indiana and these guys are going to help us do that.

Associate Head Coach/Running Backs Deland McCullough
McCULLOUGH: I want to say how honored I am to have the opportunity to rejoin the Indiana Football family. Everything has been a blessing up to this point. I was asked about my experience at Indiana all last week leading up to the Super Bowl and I said I was forever indebted to Indiana for the foundation that they gave me get as a coach. I think things come full circle. I have always continued to track Indiana and have been a huge fan from afar. When the opportunity came and where I was at the point in my career, to marry back up with Indiana is something that I jumped at. I was the one who reached out to head coach Tom Allen and I think he was slightly blown away. I sent him a text that said I wanted to come back to Indiana. All the details made perfect sense but more importantly it was about what Tom is doing here. Just the effort to the university, the commitment to the university that he has made, they continue to invest in a program and the whole world sees it. I saw it coming and I am not going to act surprised that Tom got them to this point. I am excited that I am in the situation where I could come back and make a positive impact on Indiana as a whole, specifically working with the football program, working with the running backs, and with Tom's blessing being able to have a wider range impact on the football program. I have seen some good things over these last few years. When I left Indiana, I went to USC and we won the Pac-12 championship. Then I came to the Chiefs. Should have went to the Super Bowl three-straight years to be completely honest, but we went to the AFC Championship the first year, then we won the Super Bowl the second year, and this year we got kind of tripped up a couple days ago. Just been around some great things, had opportunities to grow, and just like I told Tom I wanted to bring those things that I have done and have been a part of to Indiana to help take this program to the next level.

Q. On coming back to Indiana…
McCULLOUGH: To me everything happens in God's timing. I think just the timing of everything fit where I was at this point in my career. The thing with going to the NFL was to earn and learn respect but the learning part for me was to come back to college and to make me a better coach. That was my goal in the NFL and I think as a position coach and some of the things we accomplished as a team, I accomplished what I wanted to accomplish by going there. There have been opportunities when I was in the NFL to come back to college but none that I ever sought out. Indiana was the first one where I saw it and immediately texted Tom. I was sitting down getting the game plan ready and had sent Tom a text. Everything just fit for me. Coach Allen, the program, the direction that it is headed in, and I just felt it in my spirit that I wanted to be a part of the next step that Indiana Football takes. My family and I really enjoyed Bloomington. The move to Kansas City was so we could put ourselves in the same situation as Bloomington as far as the neighborhoods and all the different things that Bloomington has to offer. Moving to California was like moving to a whole new world for us. Everything just matches philosophically, with Coach Allen and his view for the what the program is and what it will be. I just want to be a part of that.

Q. On what has moved this team forward…
McCULLOUGH: It is the culture that Coach Allen has created here. When I talked to Coach Reid about the opportunity to come back to Indiana, he started talking about Tom like he knew him. I asked if he knew him and he said no I can just see his energy and see what he is doing. Everybody, even from the NFL vantage point, talks about Tom Allen and the commitment to the university that he has made. That is clearly starting to show and has paid dividends so that was further confirmation for me. The more I articulated the fact that I wanted to come to Indiana and the reason why, the stronger I felt about it. Then to get feedback that I have gotten just really confirms it across the board for me.

Q. On the relationship he has with Coach Allen…
McCULLOUGH: Watching him do what he did on the defensive side of the ball, the culture that he created, the bond he created with the players, the accountability and the responsibly to these guys. Once he got moved into the complete leadership role as the head coach, that month or so that I spent with him was strong. Even as I left to go on to USC, I always said that Coach Allen was going to get them rolling at Indiana. He is going to take it to the next level, so I continued to just watch that and just saw how things progressed with that. Everything has come full circle. I just really feel it in my spirit for what opportunity there is not only to work with Tom but the rest of the coaching staff as well. Where I see myself going in the future, Indiana University was the place that I wanted to be.

Q. On being more multiple in the running game…
McCULLOUGH: There is talent here for sure. The schematics part of it, those will be things once I get in the building and get chance to get with offensive coordinator Nick Sheridan and offensive line coach Daren Hiller that we will put together. A great scheme is going to be effective for sure. Obviously, the places I have been have been successful but more importantly when I get in with those guys, that will be when we are going to mix it up. Everywhere that I have been, including the few years working with Le'Veon Bell, LeSean McCoy, Kareem Hunt and all of those guys, when you come in and give these guys a definite plan, definite eye discipline and different things that they can look at, it changes everything in your running game. I am excited to get in there and start working with the guys because I know that they are highly talented players. I was texting back and forth with them last night, messing around with them, and sent them a couple things about me that might have been a little more behind the scenes. Excited to get in there and help those guys because there are some talented guys in that room. Sometimes they just need to hear things in a different way or have a different focus to take their talent to the next level.

Indiana University Athletics

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