FERNANDINA BEACH, Fla. — It is not Clemson’s defensive ends that are having a hard time transitioning to a new coach, it’s the new coach having a hard time transitioning to the players.

New defensive ends coach Chris Rumph has spent the last three years coaching in the NFL, a completely different player than what he is now coaching at Clemson.

“They are trying, but it is probably hard on me because I am used to telling guys this and that and they are able to do it,” Rumph said from Fernandina Beach High School in Fernandina Beach, Fla., as the No. 22-ranked Tigers wrapped up bowl practices Wednesday in preparation for Friday’s Gator Bowl against Kentucky. “So, I am catching myself sometimes, and realizing what I am dealing with.

“I am dealing with some eighteen-year-olds instead of some thirty-year-olds.”

Rumph came back to Clemson from the Minnesota Vikings, where he coached the last two seasons before leaving there in October. He coached defensive ends at Clemson from 2006-’10, working under both Tommy Bowden and Dabo Swinney. He was a part of Swinney’s first two coaching staffs at Clemson.

“I don’t think I have changed much. I am still going to be the person that I am,” he said. “I just understand the meaning of relationships and how important it is and how important it is to be around the right kind of people.”

After leaving Clemson the first time, Rumph worked for Alabama, Texas, Florida and Tennessee in college. He then jumped over to the pro ranks and coached for Houston, Chicago and Minnesota.

“Nick was talking years ago when he was in the pros and I was in college, and he was like, ‘Man, I might come back to college.’ I said, ‘I don’t know, you got to do this.’ Then he said, ‘No, I am not coming.’ All of sudden we switched,” Rumph said. “I went to the pros and then he went to college. We then talked and he was like, ‘It is real nice over here.’ I was like, ‘Really?!’

“We have a beautiful relationship and it’s good to have both of us speaking the same language.”

Rumph says there are plusses and minuses to coaching in both college and in the NFL, but he said it was Clemson itself that sold him on wanting to come back to the college game.

“At the end of the day, to be back at this place and to be back at home, to be around the people… it just warmed me so much,” he said.

To honor Clemson’s special senior class Dear Old Clemson is selling footballs signed by 7 of Clemson’s Avengers for only $100.  These limited edition footballs are signed by Thomas, Orhorhoro, Davis, Mascoll, Henry, Murphy and Williams.  Get one while supplies last.