Kaimon Rucker shares how he handles changing landscape of college football

Few players in college football history will have dealt with as much change as North Carolina edge rusher Kaimon Rucker by the time he finishes his playing days and leaves school.

A 2020 enrollee, it’s been a whirlwind since Day 1. Somehow he has managed.

“Honestly just for me it’s just control what you can control,” Rucker said on the Andy Staples On3 show. “That’s the same motto that I used back in high school. Because I feel like when I came into college I was very much aware of the situation that I was going to step into.”

That situation? A complete rollercoaster as COVID-19 hit globally and threw everything into chaos.

“Like of course COVID is coming around, and I was very aware,” Rucker said. “It didn’t waver me too much. I was just head down, keep on working and whatever happened outside of that happened. So COVID, like you said, I came in the COVID class, that was definitely a weird time. Felt like a fever dream. Playing in empty stadiums on Saturdays it felt like essentially a scrimmage that you would have in high school.”

Eventually Rucker and the sport would get to a place where COVID-19 fears abated and full stadiums were once again allowed. But COVID-19 was far from the only monumental change that Rucker had to deal with.

The entire landscape of the sport was about to shift even more dramatically.

“Then of course NIL came the second year and now it’s taking over,” Kaimon Rucker said. “Then like you said, my third year, former defensive coordinator was released and coach (Gene) Chizik came in. So it definitely was a lot of changes.”

Rucker has gotten through them all without missing a beat. He’s earned himself a cool nickname, dubbed ‘The Butcher’ by his coaches and teammates.

He’s one of the most productive players in the country, having racked up 112 career tackles, 23.0 tackles for a loss, 11.5 sacks, three forced fumbles and a pass defended in four years of action.

How did he do it all?

“Like I said, like I did my high school years when I did my recruitment, I stayed in my faith, prayed to God about everything that I was dealing with, talked to my parents about everything that I was dealing with and just controlled anything that I could control in my own space,” Kaimon Rucker said.