The Story Behind Kaimon Rucker's Number Change
CHAPEL HILL – The strangest thing that happened to North Carolina’s football program this offseason hasn’t actually been anything that will affect the product on the field this fall.
It will, however, be strange to watch. At least at first.
Kaimon Rucker has worn jersey number 25 for each of the 2,132 snaps he’s played on defense for the Tar Heels. No more. Rucker has switched to number 7 for this upcoming season, his last in Chapel Hill.
“It’s something that I’ve been kind of wanting to do, but as me being an underclassman, I didn’t have that opportunity just yet,” he recently said after one of UNC’s spring practices. “But when the opportunity showed itself, I wanted to change my number.”
Known for wearing 25 and as one of Carolina’s best defensive players in recent years, it’s an unusual move in the NIL era. He’s known as “25” and likely has some deals and merch tied into the old number.
So, why the change?
“The reason why is because I had this my junior year of high school and I wanted to keep it up,” Rucker explained. “But we had a tradition where it’s the coaches choose a very significant person on the team to wear number one at the time. And my coaches chose me to wear it my senior year, so I wore number one. If that wasn’t the case, I would have kept it (seven).”
In his early days, Rucker was an offensive lineman. So, it was easy to honor his father at the time, as o-linemen get the “big” numbers.
“It started off with me, once upon a time I was an offensive lineman at one point in my life, and my dad wore 75 his first year playing football, so I was like, ‘I want to wear that number,’” he said. “So, I wore 75 as an offensive lineman. And obviously I got faster, I got stronger, I got a lot leaner. So, I wanted to play outside linebacker.
“I wanted to give my honor to my dad for pushing me and driving me to play the sport that I’m still playing today. So, I decided to take the five off and play with number seven.”
Rucker had a sensational season last fall earning second-team All-ACC honors. He was in on 61 tackles, 15 of which were TFLs, and among them 8.5 were sacks. He racked up 41 pressures, ranking him seventh nationally in that department.
The 6-foot-2, 265-pounder from Hart County High School in Hartwell, GA, has 149 tackles in his UNC career, 30.5 TFLs, 16 sacks, and four forced fumbles.
Whatever career Carolina numbers he adds to those totals will be as number 7. And if Rucker appears a tad quicker and faster, could it be the single-digit number playing tricks on those watching?
“I’ve always been a quick guy,” he said, smiling. “Lighter I guess you could say.”
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