Matt Rhule Reveals Why He Picked Panthers Over Baylor
Matt Rhule revealed why he picked the Panthers over Baylor on Tuesday.
Essentially, he felt like he had done everything he set out to do with the Bears and needed a new challenge.
“I came here with a purpose. I felt like I was called here for much more than just coming to coach football,” he said to the media.
“I felt like I was here to, more important than anything else, get the football program back in line with the university. And I know we’ve done that.
“And I felt like we did that, really, after the first year. I would’ve been at peace saying ‘Hey, it’s time for me to move on’ after the first year. So there’s a different challenge ahead for me.”
Rhule will step into one of the better NFL vacancies around. Although the quarterback situation in Carolina is still up in the air, running back Christian McCaffrey is one of the best players in the league.
Still, despite the opportunity in front of him, Rhule gave serious consideration to whether he wanted to leave Baylor.
“I wasn’t sure when it was supposed to be, I wasn’t sure what I would do,” he said.
“I prayed on it, I thought about it, I talked to people about it. And in the end, I would’ve loved to have been here and coached those kids again.
“But they’re in good hands. They’ll win and they’ll continue to do things right off the field. I just felt like my work was done and it was time to go try to turn around another program.”
Rhule’s stint at Baylor was extremely impressive. In a lot of ways it was what Texas fans had hoped would occur under Tom Herman.
With him at the helm, Baylor went from being 1-11 in his first year to an 11-victory campaign in 2019.
While it is no guarantee that he will be able to replicate his collegiate success at the professional level, there is a reason why Rhule was one of the hottest names around over the past few weeks.
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Michael Kyaw, initially a PR Manager, built up a valuable network of connections in the sports world that he then utilized to become an influential sports business reporter. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, Fansided, ESPN and the Wall Street Journal.
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Earlier in the year, when Baylor offered – and Rhule accepted – a contract extension, Matt Rhule went out of his way to emphasize he was NOT done at Baylor, pointing to his desire to win a championship there. Rhule SPECIFICALLY used the phrase “I plan to be at Baylor for a long time”, and assured recruits he would be there next season .
In short, Matt Rhule lied.
Repeatedly.
He’s not the first to do it, not the last, but he did wrong to the school and team, and this should be known.
He really didn’t do the school wrong to be honest. He was clear about his interviews with NFL teams in his first year at Baylor. He let his players know he was interviewing – which is rare and coaches almost never do that. They just bounce.
So as far as transparency, he has been the most transparent about that process of any college coach out there.
He speaks with forked tongue. You will note he was at Temple for 2yrs. Is there a pattern here? I wonder how many recruits he told that he would be here. They are the ones who I am concerned about. Hope NCAA lets them out of their commitment/