News broke Wednesday morning that Deland McCullough will replace DeMarco Murray as the Oklahoma Sooners' new running backs coach, but FootballScoop's Zach Barnett reported that OU head coach Brent Venables almost hired someone else instead.
Barnett didn't reveal a specific name, but according to him, the Sooners almost had a deal done with a running backs coach from another SEC program, but the expensive buyout that was reportedly more than $500,000 apparently wasn't worth it for OU. With a coaching change at McCullough's previous stop with the Las Vegas Raiders, there was no buyout for the Sooners to bring him in.
Although Barnett didn't report who exactly the Sooners almost hired, Missouri running backs coach Curtis Luper was reportedly a top target during OU's search and fits the profile.
Brent Venables almost hired someone other than Deland McCullough
Mizzou head coach Eli Drinkwitz recently signed a new extension, and within his contract was also an increase of $4 million to the assistant coach salary pool. With other programs trying to swipe Luper, Mizzou would certainly use that extra cash to give him more money to keep him around.
Luper was one of the highest-paid RB coaches in college football in 2025 with a salary of $605,000, but he likely got a recent raise that numbers haven't been revealed for yet. For comparison, Murray's 2025 salary as OU's running backs coach was $863k after getting a raise last year, so the Sooners definitely aren't pinching pennies.
Luper has been Mizzou's running backs coach since 2020 and has had three Doak Walker Award finalists for the best running back in college football over the last six seasons, including Ahmad Hardy, who was second in the country in 2025 with 1,649 rushing yards. Luper has also coached running backs at TCU, Auburn, Oklahoma State and New Mexico.
Although the Sooners seemingly went with the cheaper option, that doesn't mean they ended up with the lesser coach. McCullough has 15 years of proven coaching experience between big-time college football programs and the NFL, plus had a prior relationship already with most of OU's coaching staff.