Logan Rudolph regarded as physical and funny. Now he’s emerging for Clemson’s defense
Mason Rudolph remembered a spatula — maybe a chair — in the hands of his younger brother Logan.
This was years before the younger Rudolph tried his hand catching passes at Rock Hill’s Northwestern High School and then switched from that path to terrorizing quarterbacks. It was well before Mason worked his way to the NFL with the Pittsburgh Steelers or Logan found himself a starting pass rusher on this year’s Clemson squad, a team one game away from a third title in four years.
It was in the midst of those brotherly battles, with incoming kitchenware, that Mason Rudolph got the essential feel for what made his brother tick on the football field.
“Whether we were fighting in the backyard or in the kitchen, he would always go over the top,” Mason Rudolph said. “He would always grab a spatula or chair and toss it at me and try to hit me, and it becomes a point where you as the older brother try to defuse the situation. As much as I tried, there were times that I couldn’t defuse it because he was taking it to another level.
“That’s when I knew he was a defensive guy.”
There was a little bit of “psycho” energy, something similar to former Houston Texan and Southern Cal linebacker Brian Cushing.
But that energy had to lie in wait at Clemson. First through a redshirt forced upon him by injury, then a year sitting behind future NFL talent. Now he’s at the forefront, a starter at a big-name program with his own name almost automatically and perhaps unfairly linked to his brother’s exploits.
But he’s not getting overexcited about finally stepping into that spotlight.
“I wanted to come to Clemson because I want to compete against the best, and I knew they had the best here,” Logan Rudolph said. “I think I’ve learned a lot, and the game has kind of slowed down for me as the season has gone on. I just think I’ve grown a lot as a player mentally and physically.”
Coming up
Brett Rudolph remembered his son, Logan, as a funny kid growing up, one who enjoyed making people laugh with his quirks.
The Rudolph brothers spent the latter part of their youths in Rock Hill as neither Clemson nor South Carolina fans. Their father played linebacker at North Carolina, which meant they were Tar Heel fans.
As the older sibling, Mason probably did everything a little earlier, his father said, as parents often push a first child a little differently. That meant things were a little slower and more low-key for Logan.
“It’s been fun to parent that kind of kid,” Brett Rudolph said. “He’s been really a fun and funny kid most of the way.”
Not that Logan himself was low-key, as evidenced by the spatula. (“There were moments when you thought they wanted to kill each other and tried,” Brett Rudolph said.)
The Logan Rudolph who showed up at Northwestern was a far cry from the one you can now see in a Clemson uniform. Back then, he was interested in catching passes rather than catching pass rushers.
“I played receiver and tight end my freshman sophomore year of high school,” Logan said.
“I was probably about 190 to 200 pounds. I was pretty lean at that time and kind of put on size as high school went on.”
That first year was a special one for Logan and Mason because it was the only time they were teammates. Brett Rudolph said that year brought them closer, sharing a squad, a senior brother welcoming a freshman to the team.
Logan was modestly productive, catching 22 balls for 168 yards and a touchdown. Mason lamented never hitting his brother for a touchdown pass (there was a 2-point conversion during one of the playoff games).
That year saw Mason throw up a dominant season with 64 touchdown passes and more than 4,300 yards. Only one game was closer than 21 points, and the Trojans rolled to a state title.
Mason moved on to Oklahoma State after that season. Logan spent one more year as a tight end/H-back type (his ability to push folks around was fully in focus). As a junior, he started playing defense, putting up 14 1/2 sacks.
The big programs came calling and Clemson won out. A shoulder injury cut short his senior season, but he’d found a home on the field, one that eventually called him back.
“That was the best fit for me and I’m glad I made that move,” Logan said.
An accidental fit and a wait
Logan Rudolph arrived at Clemson as a four-star recruit, someone who had dominated the last time he was on a high school field. He always has applied his ferocious energy and strength and gone through folks, and he figured college might be pretty similar.
There were some lessons to learn there, especially when the staff put three offensive and defensive linemen against each other and let them go.
“There’s definitely been some Paw Drill moments where I’ve come to Jesus a little bit and been like, ‘All right, well, you know, maybe I need to eat a little bit more and bulk up and get ready to do this thing,’ ” Logan said.
A complicating factor there was how the staff didn’t actually plan to keep the now-defensive end in that position.
Logan came to Clemson at around 230 pounds. His history as a tight end and receiver showed plenty of mobility, so the plan was to move him back to linebacker, a change not all that uncommon for undersized college pass rushers.
Fate had a different idea.
“There was a fella had a neck injury,” Brett Rudolph said. “So he was supposed to train and become a linebacker, which he really didn’t play in high school. They recruited him because of his size, you know, it was more in line with linebacker then it was defensive end. But they made the switch back.”
After a spring of Logan at that position, Richard Yeargin suffered a neck injury in a car accident. Logan moved back to his high school spot, still a little undersized, and then saw his freshman year end early with shoulder surgery.
Back the next year, he again found himself in a smaller role.
Clemson is a program where younger players can play early, but not as much when the team has one of the more loaded lines in recent memory. The Tigers’ starting ends went in the first (Clelin Ferrell) and fourth (Austin Bryant) rounds of the NFL Draft. One other lineman who got more snaps than him, Xavier Thomas, was the No. 1 recruit in the country.
Teammates watched Logan Rudolph approach that situation with patience. He attacked all the prep as if he’d start and didn’t get antsy as many players do when filling smaller roles on a team.
“He’s always been a very physical person,” defensive tackle Nyles Pinckney said. “Like a very physical player. Just wants to put his head in everything. So he just had to learn how to channel that into like making play calls and everything like that. And knowing when to be physical when sometimes it’d be like a little bit of finesse and everything like that. But he’s showed a lot of growth.”
He went from 10 snaps a game in 2018 to 26 each week this season, and the rotation up front is more balanced than it was a year ago. He’s got 23 tackles, five for loss and a sack, with three pressures.
And he took on a different role in his third year on campus, modeling himself after how now-departed team leaders helped him.
“Now as the older guy, he’s kind of himself doing the same thing for the younger players,” Mason Rudolph said. “Organizing film sessions in the offseason and getting those extra workouts in. Whether it be with a pass-rush specialist or just working with the guys while they’re on campus.”
He’ll have two more years in college after this. He’s still playing defensive line a little small (245 pounds), but that motor is carrying him. And getting to this point has been worth the wait.
“I think I’ve learned a lot and the game has kind of slowed down for me as the season has gone on,” Logan Rudolph said. “I just think I’ve grown a lot as a player mentally and physically.
“Come in, your true freshman year and you got arguably the best defensive line in the history of college football in front of you, but it’s also a great opportunity to learn from those guys, which I did.”
The brothers’ bond
Each Saturday, Mason Rudolph tries to carve out the time to watch his brother’s games. This isn’t easy for the Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback, with game prep always looming that day.
“They’ve played in a lot of prime-time games this year,” Mason said. “So we usually have meetings start Saturday around 7:30. Mostly catch the second half of the evening prime times and then usually the afternoon games, I’ll be able to either watch on my phone or at the house for home games. I tape the games, too, and I’m able to go back and check it out after the fact.”
From brothers who might have tried to end each other in sibling fights to sharing a team for that one year, they remain incredibly close. Mason estimated they talk three or four times a day, often on video, checking in.
As a quarterback, Mason can’t really pass along much wisdom about his little brother’s position, as he’s obviously never played it. But Logan is out to bother passers, and Mason certainly knows a little about what keeps them uncomfortable.
“Just relating to him that even if you’re not getting home and getting a sack on the quarterback, just bull rush or push the tackle back into his feet or make him feel your presence,” Mason said. “Get your hands up. ... Knowing when to play the quarterback’s eyes, knowing when to try to bat the ball down.”
He picked up tips on that front from his Pro Bowl teammate T.J. Watt.
The pair has certainly kept their family busy as Mason got a chance to start eight games this season. The parents tried to get to every game they could, including every preseason game (it helped working around Logan’s schedule) and all but one of Clemson’s games (they didn’t get to Syracuse).
The total: 25 football games for the Rudolphs before Monday’s title game agains LSU.
“We’re excited, but a little road weary,” Brett Rudolph said. “But it’s all good.”
One might imagine there could be a bit of a “Mason’s brother” situation around Logan. It happens at high schools all the time, when every teacher notes they taught the older sibling to the younger one.
But if there is any of that, Logan doesn’t seem to feel it too much. He’s proud of his brother, and his brother is proud of him. The NFL is something he aims for, and he’s building a good college career as well.
For Logan, it only gives him focus and brings out his best.
“Whether or not is casts a shadow, I don’t know,” Logan said. “But I think we both have tremendous success, and I’m happy and proud for him.”
A character through and through
Before Mason Rudolph gets off the phone, he wants to share one other element of his brother.
“He’s got a really great sense of humor, sarcastic and he does great impersonations,” Mason Rudolph said. “And so basically he kind of did a little rendition of the stereotypical college coaches, telling the kid everything he wants to hear.”
In one video, Logan dons glasses and promises a player he’s a “six-star” recruit in that staff’s book, but in the same breath tells him to not take his recruitment too quickly. It had teammates laughing and even earned plaudits from Clemson coach Dabo Swinney.
Multiple teammates saw him as a personality who could bring a smile to the locker room. The weeks before the title game, he spoke like a person who was all business.
But Xavier Thomas called him one of the funnier players on the team, someone who might break into a dance to get other Tigers laughing.
“He’s funny,” guard Gage Cervenka said. “He’s a jokester. He likes to have a good time. That’s all I can say.”
The quirkiness his father saw from him as a child and that over-the-top nature his brother recalled, that didn’t really leave.
His Clemson journey is very much at a middle. He came through injury, a position change, the need to be a little patient. He’s already got one national title ring, his sights set on another this Monday, likely with aspirations higher still after that.
“I think I’ve grown a lot as a man, mentally and physically,” Logan Rudolph said. “Just knowing how to play college football. Showing up as a high school kid, you just kind of think you can show up and play like you did in high school and everything will be fine. But you really have to prepare in a different way, if you’re going to compete, you know, at the highest level.”
When is the Clemson LSU national championship game?
Who: Clemson vs. LSU
When: 8 p.m. Monday
Location: Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans
TV channel: ESPN
Betting line: LSU by 6
This story was originally published January 11, 2020 at 7:45 AM.
