Matt Rhule isn’t an ‘offensive genius.’ He’s a fixer, and the Panthers need fixing
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Panthers hire Matt Rhule
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For a Carolina Panthers team that desperately needs a booster shot of boldness, Matt Rhule is a bold choice.
The Panthers hired Rhule as their new head coach Tuesday. In doing so, the Panthers have reached into the collegiate ranks for a 44-year-old son of a minister who somehow converted both Temple and Baylor into college football forces.
Rhule’s ability to turn a program around had to be the primary appeal for Panthers owner David Tepper, who is taking a big risk here — a good risk.
The Panthers went 5-11 last season and 7-9 the year before during Tepper’s first two years of ownership. The status quo wasn’t working. Tepper, the hedge-fund manager, is betting on himself again, believing that his instincts have led him to someone better than beloved former coach Ron Rivera in the same way those instincts led him to 12 billion dollars.
Let’s not kid ourselves. No one knows how this is going to go. We’ve all seen successful college football coaches both succeed (Pete Carroll, Bill Walsh) and fail (Nick Saban, Steve Spurrier) in the pros before.
But if the Panthers’ final two choices really were New England offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels and Rhule, as NFL Network reported, then give me Rhule every time.
McDaniels carries enough baggage to require a separate 18-wheeler. He lost 17 of his final 22 games during his first NFL head-coaching stint in with the Broncos and didn’t last through two full NFL seasons. In Denver, he was tarnished by the “Spygate II” scandal and traded up to draft Tim Tebow in the first round. He returned to New England after getting fired by the Broncos and threw a number of lives into turmoil by first accepting the Indianapolis head-coaching job in early 2018, then hiring several assistants, then squirming out of it and going back to New England.
Compared to all that, Rhule looks safe.
Compared to most any of the other choices, in fact, Rhule looks like a good move.
This is a New Yorker who went down to Texas, to a program embroiled in a sexual assault scandal, and made it work. He did it smartly.
For his staff, Rhule hired several excellent Texas high school football coaches who knew the Lone Star State backward and forward and could help brush away the “He ain’t from ‘round here” stigma from Rhule. He bought a big truck. He asked a lot of his players, but also played ping-pong with them. He lost 11 games in his first season (2017) and won 11 games in his third, when Baylor got to the Sugar Bowl. All of that is remarkable. What he did at Temple, before he got to Baylor, was similar.
‘It’s not about money or fame’
Rhule did an interview with ESPN 1660, a radio station in Central Texas, on Tuesday. He said he met with Tepper and general manager Marty Hurney on Monday night in Waco, Texas, and things happened “very fast” after that. Although ESPN and NFL Network reported Rhule had signed a seven-year contract worth somewhere around $60 million with the Panthers, Rhule said it wasn’t about the money.
“It’s about trying to go and compete at the highest level,” Rhule said. “It’s really about nothing else. It’s not about money or fame ... It’s about everyone having the same rules, everyone having the same players, being at the highest level … seeing what you can do. I’m excited about that.”
Rhule also said that while Carolina felt like “the right fit” that fans shouldn’t expect immediate miracles. At Temple, his first team was 2-10. At Baylor, his first team was 1-11. In both cases, those teams won at least 10 games in Year 3.
“Just like (Baylor) took time, just like Temple took time, it’s going to take some time,” Rhule said. “But I’m excited to get to Carolina and really excited about the people that are there.”
Rhule said he, Tepper and general manager Marty Hurney were “in alignment.” He spoke a lot about “process.” He demurred when asked about Carolina’s personnel, other than to agree with interviewer David Smoak that Christian McCaffrey should get the ball a lot.
Guys who can successfully manage multiple resurrection projects don’t come around very often, making Rhule a hot commodity in the NFL for awhile. According to multiple reports, he could be the New York Jets’ head coach already, except there were some disagreements a year ago about whether he could hire exactly the staff he wanted.
Rhule has little NFL experience, though — a single year with the New York Giants, in 2012, as an assistant offensive line coach. The pros will be different. He’s dealing with adults now, not kids. He’s never had The Cam Newton Experience or, for that matter, The Christian McCaffrey Experience. It’s all going to be new.
Tepper takes unexpected step
The expected thing for the Panthers would have been to hire an established NFL offensive coordinator. That’s where it looked like it was headed when David Tepper met with reporters following his dismissal of Ron Rivera on Dec. 3. Tepper hinted to us then that he was leaning toward an offensive-minded coach with deep NFL roots.
Instead, Tepper has gone with a fixer. A builder. A college guy who sounds like he will be very receptive to analytics and sports science as they apply to the NFL. Tepper is going to write a lot of checks before this is over.
What Rhule doesn’t have is the “offensive genius” label that so many potential head coaches get. He’s coached on both sides of the ball in roughly equal amounts. He was a walk-on linebacker under Joe Paterno at Penn State.
Now Rhule will get to be in on some huge decisions — none bigger than what to do at quarterback: To Cam Newton or not to Cam Newton? That is the question.
But there are so many more questions after that. Rhule has a slew of challenges in front of him.
But give the Panthers this: Hiring Rhule is a bold step.
And if Rhule can do in Charlotte what he did in Waco and in Philadelphia, today will be remembered as one of the most significant in Panthers history.
This story was originally published January 7, 2020 at 1:02 PM.
