Keith Rucker enters his third season as Defensive Coordinator for the Denison University football team in 2023.
Denison finished its 2022 season 8-2 overall and 6-2 in the North Coast Athletic Conference, which was good for a tie for second place, while senior defensive end Clay Denstorff and junior cornerback Roshaune Downie were both named first-team all-conference and were named second-team all-region and third-team all-region, respectively, by D3football.com.
In Coach Rucker's first season at Denison in 2021, the Big Red finished 6-4 overall and 6-3 in the NCAC, which was tied for fourth place. On the defensive side of the ball, sophomore linebacker Jeff Moore, senior safety Ryan Hallinan and fifth-year cornerback Cory Swartzmiller were named First-Team All-NCAC while Moore was also named second-team all-region and Swartzmiller was third-team all-region by D3football.com.
A seven-year veteran of the National Football League with 20 years of coaching experience, Rucker joins the Denison coaching staff in January of 2021 after spending the last three years as an assistant coach at Capital University.
Rucker is no stranger to the NCAC. One of the most decorated players in league history, he was a three-sport star in football, track and field and basketball at Ohio Wesleyan University from 1989-92. Rucker totaled 14 All-American awards across both sports, the most of any student-athlete in Ohio Wesleyan history, and is a member of the NCAC’s 10th Anniversary All-Decade Team in football, indoor, and outdoor track & field.
After graduating from Ohio Wesleyan in 1992, he signed as a free agent with the NFL’s Arizona Cardinals. In 1994 he signed with the Cincinnati Bengals and started 28 games over the next two seasons totaling 99 tackles and four sacks. Rucker’s NFL career ended in 1997 with the Washington Redskins.
Rucker’s coaching career began in 2000 at Ohio Wesleyan where he spent one season as the defensive line coach. Since that time, he has remained in coaching at the high school and college levels. He was the head coach at Mount Healthy High School in Cincinnati for three seasons. He returned to his alma mater in 2012 as the defensive line coach and the director of football operations.
In 2018, Rucker moved across town accepting a position on the Capital University coaching staff as the defensive line coach and the director of football operations.
Looking back on Rucker’s career at Ohio Wesleyan stands as the most successful three-year run in that program’s 120+ year history. The Battling Bishops went 25-4-1 and he was named the NCAC’s Defensive Player of the Year and was a first-team All-American selection by Kodak, the Associated Press and the Football Gazette. Rucker capped off his collegiate career by becoming the first Division III player invited to compete in the Hula Bowl Senior All-Star Game.
In addition to his accomplishments on the football field, Rucker’s dominance as a thrower on the track and field team can’t be denied. He was a four-time NCAA Division III national champion, capturing three national titles in the shot put and one in the discus. As a senior, Rucker spent one season as a member of the men’s basketball team.
In 2003, Rucker was inducted into the Ohio Wesleyan Athletic Hall of Fame. He holds a bachelor’s degree in physical education from Ohio Wesleyan and a master’s degree in athletic administration from Endicott College. Rucker is the founder and president of Reach 4 The Sky Foundation, a non-profit foundation that provides six to 14-year-old boys and girls opportunities to build character through sport.
