Winning in the trenches is one of the biggest keys to winning in college football and Florida Gators defensive line coach Chris Rumph is the guy tasked with building up Florida’s defensive line.
The Gators have had a lot of good defensive linemen come through the school over the years, including nine that were on NFL rosters to finish out the 2015 season. For Florida and Rumph the biggest thing is continuing that dominance and replacing those big name players that left.
Rumph, who enters his second season with the Gators, has been at other big names schools like Clemson, Alabama and most recently Texas, so he understands what it takes to win at this level.
When asked on Tuesday what the Gators need to get better on the defensive line, Rumph had one thing that he pointed to in particular.
“We got to get bigger,” he said. “We got definitely to get bigger. Sometimes when you get bigger you give up some of your athleticism, athletic ability, but I still want both of them.”
When you compare the two deep at Alabama and Florida the Crimson Tide line towers over Florida. Last Saturday when Alabama opened up against USC the Crimson Tide’s top eight defensive linemen averaged 287 pounds, while the Gators top eight averaged 273 pounds.
Some may look at that and say, well it’s only 14 pounds, but that a pretty big number on the football field in the trenches.
The comparison to Alabama was made because Rumph says that he’s not only trying to build up the Gators to win the East but he wants the top prize in January.
“I’m trying to change the room,” he said. “I want bigger, athletic guys. We’re trying to build this team. I want to build my room not only for the SEC, but I want to build it for the National Championship. I can’t say I want to build it for the East. I want to build it for the championship.”
Changing the room all starts in recruiting and Rumph has become one of the nations best on the trail over his career.
Recruiting linemen in general is tough because usually prospects are able to over match smaller, less athletic prospects in high school. Rumph must rely on his experience and his eye for talent when watching prospects and projecting how they could develop at the next level.
When Rumph watches prospects either on tape or in person, he has a few things in particular he looks for.
“It’s sort of hard, you know, there’s some critical factors that you look for as if this guys hustling, you don’t want a lazy guy,” Rumph said. “I don’t want to be chasing a guy or fussing at him about effort. I want to know does he have some natural pass rush ability, does he strike, and does he play with some toughness. Those kinds of things.”
That evaluation and scouting has already landed the Gators four defensive linemen in the class of 2017 and you guessed it, they’re bigger. The Gators 2017 defensive line class weighs in at whopping average of 304 pounds. The Gators have gotten bigger while also staying quick with defensive end commit Zach Carter weighing in at 240 and running in the low 4.8’s in the 40-yard dash.
Florida isn’t done in the class of 2017 despite the four already being in the class; Rumph still has some targets that are big boys that are also athletic.
Defensive end Jarez Parks (6-5, 255) is one of the Gators top targets at defensive end and reportedly ran a 4.6 40-yard dash this past summer. Rumph is battling Alabama and Florida State him.
Defensive end LaBryan Ray (6-5, 283) is another top target at defensive end and has been clocked in the 4.9’s in the 40 and looks like NFL player already. Ray is also considering Florida, Auburn and Alabama.
For Rumph the process is still ongoing, but with each passing day it seems the Gators defensive line gets better and helps the Florida coach get closer to his goal.
“I always said my goal is to come to work in flip flops and sipping on lemonade,” Rumph said. “Until I get those guys [bigger guys] where I can come to work in flip flops and show up, practice is at 3, show up at 3:30 when it’s time for team room I’ll be good.”