IU running backs coach still confident without Coleman

BLOOMINGTON — Deland McCullough, the running backs coach who molded Tevin Coleman into Indiana’s first-ever 2,000-yard rusher, created a noticeable ripple last month with a bold declaration.

On July 23, McCullough tweeted that his current running back group, devoid of Coleman — now with the Atlanta Falcons — and graduated senior back-up D’Angelo Roberts, is his “strongest” in five years at IU.

“Hungry and confident!” McCullough wrote. “Ready to show it on the field ...”

Entering the Hoosiers’ third week of fall camp, McCullough won’t give an inch on that statement.

“I just kind of put personnel against personnel. I look at my guys top to bottom,” he said after practice Monday. “Any one of those guys, I would have no problem putting them in the game. You can make a strong case for all of them to play.”

So McCullough’s toughest job between now and IU’s opener Sept. 5 against Southern Illinois might be separating his backs.

To replace Coleman and Roberts, McCullough can select from a group that might not contain a home-run threat as dangerous as his departed 2,000-yarder.

But McCullough said that from sophomore Devine Redding to UAB transfer Jordan Howard and even to walk-on Ricky Brookins, he has “chain movers.”

Behind an experienced, deep offensive line, McCullough’s group must give Indiana an offensive platform while questions about the passing game are answered.

Redding’s 118 yards and one touchdown comprise the entire returning impact in Indiana’s running back room. The sophomore from Ohio has had to step into a leadership role sooner than expected in Bloomington, one McCullough said he has handled well.

“I really didn’t think anything of it,” Redding said. “Just kind of took it over.”

Howard, though, is Indiana’s camp curiosity.

After rushing for 1,587 yards and 13 touchdowns last season in Birmingham, Howard and his teammates were forced to find new homes when the university shut down the Blazers’ football program.

Alongside wide receiver Marqui Hawkins, Howard landed at IU, looking like a ready-made Coleman replacement. But while Redding insists the big-play ability is not gone from the running back corps, he and Howard certainly look the part of those “chain movers” McCullough boasted about.

Howard, listed at 230 pounds, averaged more than 5 1/2 yards per carry on both first and third downs last season, and 87 of his runs ended in first downs, to Coleman’s 64.

“He’s a load,” McCullough said of Howard. “Jordan Howard will bang it up in there. He’ll get up, he got four yards, when you think he got nothing.”

Beyond Howard and Redding, McCullough likes his depth, from powerful walk-ons Andrew Wilson and Ricky Brookins, to redshirt freshman Tommy Mister, who missed last season because of injury.

“He’s got some maturity from being here for a little bit. He’s making some plays,” McCullough said, describing Mister as having “some slash to him.”

With youth and uncertainty still the hallmarks of IU’s wide receiver position, the Hoosiers’ need for a reliable running game is only increased. And both Redding and McCullough mentioned pass protection as a daily focus for improvement.

McCullough needs no reminder that Coleman is gone, having spent time with his former pupil during Falcons’ offseason workouts earlier this summer.

He’s still not backing down from that tweet, or the confidence that produced it.

“The standard,” he said Monday, “remains high.”

Follow Star reporter Zach Osterman on Twitter: @ZachOsterman.