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Notre Dame Football

Game Wrecker | Chris Rumph II

September 9, 2020
3,145

Two tackles. No tackles for loss. No sacks.

Chris Rumph II’s stat line didn’t exactly jump off the screen when looking at the box score after Duke played Notre Dame last season. But put on the film and it tells a different story.

Rumph was Duke’s best player on either side of the ball and was a disruptive presence as a pass rusher. He consistently won lining up in a two-point stance attacking the interior against Aaron Banks and Trevor Ruhland. Ruhland had a miserable day, giving up four pressures. One of those led to an Ian Book interception.

PFF had him as an All-American last season. He lived rent-free in ACC backfields. No one in the country had a higher pressure rate or pass-rush win rate than Rumph last season. For some reason he was voted only third team All-ACC, but that wouldn’t have been the case if he played for a bigger program.

He’s a contender to win Defensive Player of the Year in the ACC in 2020.

He’s going to be a problem for Notre Dame. Whenever Ian Book comes up to the line of scrimmage, the protection is going to have to be on alert to find where Rumph is lined up.

Though he’s a defensive end in name, he’s a hybrid player who the Duke staff moves around in order to get him favorable matchups. He starts this play against North Carolina lined up over the B gap. The edge defender slants inside, though, and this essentially becomes a stunt where Rumph is able to come free to knock down this pass.

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Watch him move around pre-snap here. He starts stacked behind the nose guard as the quarterback begins his cadence. He then moves back over the B gap and shoots inside of the tackle to make the play.

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He’s so quick that you’d assume that teams would want to cut block him here, but he uses his hands well to play the cut. He’s an extremely difficult player to block.

Once again in a stand up position on 3rd down against Miami, Duke overloads the right side of the offensive line and runs a game with him and a linebacker. He’s a very effective blitzer who explodes laterally and many guards struggle with how twitchy he is.

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It’s not just him getting matched up with guards, though. He can win off the edge with an arm over move that seems to be a go-to for him. He wins here with it against the right tackle and ends up forcing a fumble.

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Undersized at 235 pounds, Rumph has a great get off and can turn the corner with speed as well like he does on this sack.

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In two seasons, he has 21.5 tackles for loss. Last fall he totalled 17.5 Havoc plays.

Rumph is a game wrecker. Probably the only one on the Duke roster. He’s the primary reason why they were able to beat a much more talented Miami team in the final game of their season.

Duke’s offense averaged 3.93 yards per play in that game, but they won in large part due to Rumph’s 3.5 sacks.

Notre Dame is a three score favorite on Saturday and they should be, but that doesn’t mean it will be an easy game for the offensive line. Tommy Kraemer and Aaron Banks are going to have to deal with Rumph all game rushing from the interior. Robert Hainsey and Liam Eichenberg will have their first big test of the season trying to block Rumph as an edge rusher.

If Notre Dame contains him and doesn’t allow him to disrupt their offense, that will be a big win up front for the Irish and should lead to a big win on the scoreboard as well.

 
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