Mike Rumph – one of South Florida’s top high school football coaches – is headed to his alma mater.
The former Hurricane, who helped lead American Heritage to back-to-back state titles in 2013 and 2014, is joining Mark Richt’s staff at Miami where he will coach cornerbacks, Patriots athletic director Karen Stearns told the Sun Sentinel on Monday.
Rumph’s impending hire wasn’t the only news on the Hurricanes’ coaching front. Later Monday, Tennessee announced it had hired former interim Miami coach Larry Scott to coach its tight ends. And on Sunday night, Georgia announced it had hired former Hurricanes offensive coordinator James Coley as its new receivers coach.
Rumph, meanwhile, started on Miami’s 2001 national championship team and was the Sun Sentinel Class 5A-4A-3A-2A Coach of the Year after leading the Patriots to a 10-2 record and a berth in the regional finals this past season. He amassed a 39-6 record in three years at Heritage, where several of his former players including running back Sony Michel, were recruited by Georgia while Richt was in Athens.
And Rumph had high praise for Richt last month when Miami announced him as its new coach.
“He’s a choice where they hit the nail on the head,” Rumph said in December of Richt. “He’s a coach that’s been so successful, a South Florida guy that’s going to recruit well and Miami’s been waiting for that name, that guy that’s going to come out and change the culture back to what we had in the past. It’s a tremendous move.”
Now, Rumph, a former first-round draft pick of the 49ers, will be a part of that change moving forward.
An Atlantic High alum with deep ties to South Florida, Rumph is expected to make an impact on the recruiting trail for the Hurricanes, whose 2016 class is currently rated 18th in the nation by 247Sports.com
At Heritage, where Rumph met with Patriots players on Monday to tell them of his move, news of his departure was bittersweet.
“We’re all pretty excited for him. He’s a big part of our family and we tell everybody that’s what it’s like here. We’re a family,” Stearns said. “And it’s a big deal for Mike. He was my first hire when I took over here and it was definitely a great one. … Everybody’s so excited for him, he’s excited to go back and being an alum is huge. The exciting part for us is he’s in our backyard.”
Stearns said she spoke with Rumph on Sunday about his move to Miami and said the search for a new coach will begin soon.
“We’re going to look for what is best for our kids. That’s always been my focus,” she said. “If we keep our standard of what best fits for our kids and American Heritage, we’ll be fine. [Rumph] put together a really great program and built a foundation and we want that foundation to continue. If we go along those lines of what over the last three years we’ve built here, we’ll find the right fit.
