Rumph celebrates recruiting win after helping bring Williams to UM

CORAL GABLES — For Mike

Rumph, joining the coaching staff at Miami was personal.

A member of the 2001 Hurricanes national championship team, Rumph has stated — more than once since taking over as Miami’s cornerbacks coach in

2016 — that helping his alma mater return to college football prominence is one of his longstanding goals.

During the first three years of his college coaching career, Rumph has helped players like Adrian Colbert, Michael Jackson and Trajan Bandy become forces in the backfield. But on the recruiting trail, where Rumph — the former coach at American Heritage in Plantation — didn’t have much experience, things have been a bit tougher.

Several players Rumph had hoped to bring to Coral Gables — including two of his former players, former Heritage star cornerbacks Patrick Surtain Jr. and Tyson Campbell — signed elsewhere. Miami fans became increasingly critical of Rumph on message boards and on social media. But their frustration was nothing compared to what Rumph himself felt.

“Every Signing Day I’ve had, I’m not saying they were disappointing, but they weren’t at the level of what a Hurricane coach should be,” Rumph said.

Then Wednesday happened. Christian Williams happened.

Williams, a four-star cornerback out of Daphne, Alabama, had been committed to his home state Crimson Tide since last spring. But on National Signing Day, the All-American signed with Miami, thanks in large part to Rumph’s recruiting.

And not long after, Rumph’s boss had plenty of high praise for both Rumph and Williams, who had 52 tackles and eight interceptions last season.

“Got to give the credit to Mike Rumph. [He] did an amazing job finishing on Christian,” coach Manny Diaz said. “We think Christian has unlimited potential in terms of the way he can factor into our defense. … Christian’s a highly competitive guy, he’s got great length, great ability to play the ball in the air, a great young man and a very intelligent football player. Again a very highly competitive kid who we felt like fit in this culture. His family had a great visit down here and we think he has a great future in our secondary.”

It was, for both Rumph and the Hurricanes a victory, but one the coach acknowledges didn’t come easy.

The Hurricanes didn’t really start recruiting Williams in earnest until recently. And when Rumph made his first visit to Daphne, everyone he encountered — from the front desk agent at his hotel to the servers and guests at the local Waffle House — told him there was no chance Miami would be able to pull Williams out from Southeastern Conference territory.

For Rumph, there was also the matter of working through some of the challenges he’d endured as a recruiter. He sought encouragement and advice from his wife, Veronica. He had multiple conversations with Diaz about recruiting. He even met with Dr. Eric Goldstein, UM’s sports psychologist who last season was credited by Hurricanes running back DeeJay Dallas with helping him overcome fumbling issues.

“So many people have been supporting me to help me do my job as a recruiter,” Rumph said. “To see all of that coming together and seeing a kid trust my alma mater is huge for us. Huge. [He’s] right along the line with [ChaminadeMadonna cornerback] T’Cory Couch. … Those two kids wanted to be Hurricanes and I hadn’t seen that in a while, where we weren’t second choices. This is where they want to be.”

For Rumph and Miami, the next step is developing Williams and the rest of the Hurricanes’ recruiting class into the kinds of players that will make a difference next season and beyond.

That challenge the coach is confident he can handle.

Now, he feels even more prepared to continue bringing more top-notch prospects to Coral Gables, too.

“I can honestly say this is probably one of the best days I’ve had,” Rumph said Wednesday. “And I want to continue to get better, me as a recruiter.”

Rumph