Darshawn McClellan enters his fourth season as an assistant coach on Talvin Hester's coaching staff at Louisiana Tech.

In his latest season, McClellan was part of a 20-win campaign that included a scorching 7-0 start, the program's best in 40 years. During the streak, the Bulldogs captured the Gulf Coast Showcase championship, earning victories over Southern Illinois, Richmond, and Eastern Kentucky. The team also tallied a signature non-conference win against WAC Tournament champion Grand Canyon in the WAC/CUSA Challenge.

The Bulldogs set a program record for single-season free throw percentage, shooting 75.0 percent from the line and surpassing a mark that had stood since the 1976-77 season. The squad continued to hang their hat on defense, finishing top 50 in the nation in both field goal percentage defense (41.3) and three-point field goal percentage defense (30.9). 

Three Bulldogs garnered All-CUSA selections, highlighted by Daniel Batcho who was named CUSA Defensive Player of the Year.

In McClellan's second season with the program, he helped LA Tech register a 22-10 overall record and a 12-4 CUSA record, finishing second in the league. The Bulldogs went 8-7 in road games, including a 6-2 mark in league contests away from home which was the best winning percentage in such games since 2013. 

They ranked as the top CUSA team in both NET rankings and KenPom while sporting one of the best defenses in the country. The Bulldogs ranked seventh in the nation in field goal percentage defense, allowing teams to shoot just 39.1 percent (lowest in program history since the 1957-58 season). LA Tech held 20 teams under 40 percent shooting this season, tied for the third most in the country. They also ranked 16th in the nation in scoring defense, holding their opponents to 64.5 points per game.

Among the players McClellan helped develop were Isaiah Crawford who was voted CUSA Player of the Year and CUSA Defensive Player of the Year as well as Batcho who was selected as the CUSA Newcomer of the Year. Crawford and Batcho were joined by Tahlik Chavez and Sean Newman Jr. as All-Conference honorees, the most in program history since 1985.

In his first ever season as an assistant coach, McClellan helped the Bulldogs to a 15-win season. Three of those victories came in the Samford MTE as LA Tech swept the event with wins over Alabama A&M, Tennessee-Southern, and host Samford. Three Bulldogs ended up garnering postseason awards, including Isaiah Crawford who earned Third Team All-Conference USA honors, Keaston Willis who was voted All-Conference USA Honorable Mention, and Jordan Crawford who was selected to the C-USA All-Freshman Team. 
 
McClellan came to Ruston with Hester from Texas Tech where he served as the Director of Scouting and Recruiting for the Red Raiders who put together a 27-win season including victories over Montana State and Notre Dame to help the program make its fifth Sweet 16 appearance in program history.
 
As Director of Scouting, McClellan was responsible for preparing individual workouts and practices, scouting reports and video edits and helping coordinate and devise player development.
 
Prior to spending one season in Lubbock, he spent two seasons (2019-21) as Director of Player Development at UTEP in El Paso and three seasons (2016-19) as Video Coordinator at Illinois State.
 
Prior to his stop at Illinois State, McClellan worked as a player development assistant with the Vanderbilt Commodores during the 2015-16 season following a three-year playing career overseas in Iceland, Japan and Luxembourg and work in the private sector.
 
He also served as an assistant coach at Thomas Edison High School, his alma mater, in Fresno, California during the offseason. 
 
McClellan graduated from Vanderbilt in 2011 with a degree in Human and Organizational Development and played in 88 career games.  After graduating from Vanderbilt, he played a fifth year at UL-Lafayette as a graduate student where he averaged 9.5 points and 5.4 rebounds in his only season with the Ragin’ Cajuns.