‘The best thing ever.’ What it’s like to play for the Panthers’ Matt Rhule, Joe Brady
The 2020 Panthers are going to have an entirely new look. The team won’t resemble the squad that ended the 2019 season on an eight-game losing streak, and it all starts at the top.
The Panthers hired head coach Matt Rhule to lead the team after Ron Rivera was let go following nine seasons in Carolina. The Observer asked a few of Rhule’s former players at Baylor and Temple to describe their former coach and share what Panthers players should expect:
Temple OL Matt Hennessy
“I was recruited by him and played for him my freshman year. He’s the guy who actually found me at a recruiting camp my junior year of high school and offered me a scholarship.
“He’s an incredible leader, an incredible organizational manager and an extremely intelligent football guy. All of those things come together to make him who he is.”
Baylor WR Denzel Mims
“I’d tell (Panthers players) it will be the best thing ever. Rhule is all about his business. He’s all about football, and he’s going to do whatever he can to make sure his players are in a great situation and they’ve got a good chance to win and be better players.
“He’s very loving outside of football, coach Rhule is very loving. You might hear him yell a lot during football, but outside of football he’s loving and he’s nice.”
Baylor RB JaMycal Hasty
“I would say (he’s) a guy that definitely knows a lot about the game, a guy that definitely knows how to run a college program, an organization. He surrounds himself with a great coaching staff. Carolina got the one.”
Another big name that the Panthers brought is offensive coordinator Joe Brady from LSU. His former tight end Stephen Sullivan shared some insight into what he was able to accomplish in a year with the program.
“It’s amazing everything he came and did. Joe Brady’s a cool coach, he’s a player’s coach. He came in, he got the job done. When he first came he wanted to get to know us as players first; he didn’t even start coaching us. He wanted to know us as players, he wanted to know our backgrounds, what we like to do and things of that nature. That shows you right there how he cares about his players. I feel like once a coach cares about more than football, the players that he coaches are going to put way more effort toward him. He’s just a guy that likes to execute everything. He likes to throw the ball a lot. He just finds a way to get playmakers the ball.”
“We were installing plays and some of our run plays became pass plays. All we had done (previously) is give the ball to (former LSU running backs) Leonard (Fournette) and (Derrius) Guice, so we were like, ‘Whoah, what’s going on?’ When we first saw that RPO, we were like, we’ve got something special for sure.”
— Alaina Getzenberg
Required reading
+ Carolina Panthers 7-round NFL mock draft 1.0: Prioritizing defense entering combine
+ Panthers debate: If they move on from Cam Newton, who should start at quarterback for Carolina?
+ Panthers quarterback Will Grier’s rookie year didn’t go as expected. What did he learn?
+ With puppies and autographs, Ron Rivera and Panthers fans said goodbye one last time
+ Former Carolina Panthers tight end Greg Olsen signs with new NFC team
