Duke's Chris Rumph II: No Time to Panic

Defensive end knows team has to fix mistakes but wants to keep perspective

Duke’s defensive line had to go up against a Notre Dame line that had five returning starters and likely features several future pros. Chris Rumph II was pleased with how he and his teammates performed against the Irish in the trenches.

“They have an experienced offensive line,” he said. “Our defensive line did a great job today. (Tackles) Derrick Tangelo, Ben Frye, DeWayne Carter, Gary Smith III did an incredible job coming in and helping us stop the run, which we had trouble with last year. Those guys playing as well as they did—I couldn’t have been more proud. Overall, as a defensive line, we were getting after them. We got there a couple times. We’ve just got to finish.”

Rumph emphasized that the Blue Devils did well against one of the country’s top teams.

“There’s a lot of things we can be proud of,” he said. “The secondary did an incredible job today, giving us time to get to the quarterback. You’ve got to give them credit for the plays they made. We’ve got to roll with the punches. It was (close) at the half, and they were the No. 10 team in the nation. I’m proud of our guys. We were fighting, scratching and clawing the whole time—all 60 minutes. … It’s week one. It’s no time to panic. That was the number 10 team a great team. You’ve got to give them credit. We’re going to be better from now on. We’ll learn from our mistakes. We’re going to prove a lot of people wrong this year.”

Two key plays were a fake punt Notre Dame converted early in the second quarter, leading to the Irish’s first touchdown, and a late fourth-and-one they converted, scoring a touchdown on the play.

“The recap is we’ve got to be locked in better,” Rumph said. “Those conversions were big in the game, especially a close game like it was. … It was on us. Credit to them for making that call and converting, but at end of the day, we have to be locked in mentally. We’re the defense. We’re supposed to stop the offense. That’s our job. Doesn’t matter if there’s two seconds left or they just got the ball back, we have to stop them. That’s on us. You can’t say anything else about that.”