Matt Rhule Enjoys Unemployment
So the Matt Rhule era is finally over. Honestly, good riddance. What a waste.
Rhule was probably the hottest coaching candidate of the 2020 offseason. I’m not sure why. I don’t follow college ball so my knowledge of Rhule was basically that he apparently turned around two teams, one being Baylor after the school had been rocked by the awful sexual assault scandal. I remember him being talked about as a guy who knew how to motivate a team, even a bad roster, into competing. I remember the Giants were probably the #1 candidate to land him until the Panthers swooped in with a frankly absurd contract that the Giants wouldn’t match. The Panthers got the biggest name of the coaching pool and the Giants ended up with some guy named Joe Judge who they tried to pretend was the pick all along.
Funny how things work out. If the Giants had hired Rhule he’d probably still be employed, and the team would still suck. Joe Judge was such a disaster that the front office got cleaned out for good last year and we ended up with the hottest candidate of the 2022 coaching pool, and the team appears to be starting on the right track. The Panthers were not so lucky. Rhule was not as awful a coach as Judge. The Panthers in that first year actually improved under Rhule, not to good levels but mediocre ones and for a first-year guy taking over a mess that’s acceptable.
Unfortunately, the cracks began to show the instant they traded for Sam Darnold. Sam Darnold? Did they give up that much for Sam Darnold? They did. That was our clue that Matt Rhule and the Panthers FO did not actually have a plan. The upcoming draft was full of QBs but they instead decide to take a flyer on the former first-round bust. Why? It did not get better from there. The Panthers came out of the gate in 2021 with 3 straight wins and then they’d only win 2 more games all year. By that point, fans were mad. Rhule was not popular. The team did not seem well run. A lot of people wanted Rhule out. They were paying like 5 QBs.
Unfortunately, that massive contract stuck David Tepper in the Sunk Coach Fallacy. Cut the guy now, so early in, owing so much money, or give him one more shot? I think they handled it quite possibly as bad as they could have in the end. They gave him one more shot, traded for one more washout QB, and came out of the gate looking like a pile of crap, firing Rhule after 5 games. 5 games in seems…too early. Not that I believe the Panthers were on the right track or would turn it around, but firing a guy that early solves basically nothing. Now you have a ton of players on a roster that know the season is a complete waste of time, why would any of them even try? I sure wouldn’t. Why risk getting hurt for an interim coach you know is toast (and it’s Steve Wilks, a guy who sucked so bad as a HC he got fired after one year). At least give Rhule 10 games to figure it out. Stick the hottest fire under him. If the season is a waste, make him do his job. Maybe the locker room situation was far more toxic than we know and he had to go.
Anyway, Rhule is still owed something like 40 million dollars, so he’ll be just fine. The David Tepper era is off to a horrible start.
I have read several commentaries that he was fired early in hopes of him being able to get hired on in college, which salary would offset what he is still owed.
Given the rapid churns at QB lately with the Panthers and the Colts, if you’re looking for a comic during the dead of Late Spring can we get mini-hydras a la the classic Browns one?
THANK GOD HE IS GONE WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
The other college was *TEMPLE*. Anyone managing to get good results there, at any time, is a note-worthy accomplishment in itself.
They Just lost 70 to 13 yesterday to UCF.
While I can’t really recommend seeking it out and listening to it, Bill Cosby had a comedy record with a whole bit about his time playing on the Temple football team… mostly about how badly they would lose to Hoftsra of all teams every year.
I actually went and saw Bill Cosby live a decade before we found out he was scum, and his bit about losing scrimmages at Temple is the one bit I still remember from that show
And Greg Schiano made Rutgers competitive. As a USF Bulls fan, I despise Rutgers
Kind of. Temple was built up by Al Golden and had them winning them 8+ games in 09/10 before leaving for Miami. Addazio started dipping by the second season and Rhule gets all the credit for “building up” a team that was already talented but needed coaching. Addazio’s stick is he can recruit but is not a great coach. Even then Rhule did a good job getting them to 10 wins but that program wasn’t a dumpster fire when he took over.
Fast forward to Baylor and you get the same problem. Art Briles built up the Baylor program and they won 10+ games 3 years running (13-15) before the whole scandal rocked things and cost him his job. Even then Jim Grobe got them to 7 wins that year before Rhule took over. Rhule didn’t build up Baylor….he inherited a good program and lost 11 games before all the talent from the previous regime developed and he got them to 7 and 11 wins. Had Rhule stayed and continued winning 11 games in 2020 I’d have been more impressed, but that senior led team in 2019 graduated lots of players and Rhule bolted to the NFL
I hate the narrative that Rhule “Built up” programs. Rhule took over programs that had been built and just fixed the little errors. Can’t wait to see him
I was clued in this team didn’t have a plan (or were misguided in it) when they shipped off bridgewater after a “fine” season the year after giving him 3 years at 20 mil per I think. I am still not ready to give up on baker, our WR corps is back to being pretty bad outside of DJ moore and it can take time to learn a new system, but baker has been a part of the problem too. But in hindsight I would hope the FO regrets moving bridgewater.
I think Baker is better than he looks this year. However the Panthers aren’t far enough along in the rebuild to be bringing a guy like him in. He’s a big cap hit, and he’s not good enough to elevate a bad receiving corps.
I’ll admit that I was kind of sold on Rhule after 2020. It seemed like he had made Carolina into a scrappy team that could at least stay competitive with better teams until the talent difference became too much, and his body of work in college was very impressive. Once he started up on the whole two-QB system BS, however, I realized I was a terribly wrong and an idiot for thinking like that.
One of the more interesting tidbits to come out of this is the fact that he was apparently super hands on. So much so that he was even trying to control the Panthers’ social media team. Knowing that alone, it’s no surprise he didn’t even make it halfway into his contract.
Rhule did a good job installing offensive and defensive schemes and identity at his college stops, especially at Baylor, and was creative in finding ways to patch holes in his teams’ weaker units (OL, in particular). But even then, he was indecisive and had questionable judgement when it came to QBs. He found his best QB at Baylor (the limited but very game Charlie Brewer) after in-game results basically forced him to bench his original starter. Make that starters… it happened twice!
This came up back when I was doing a weekly Baylor football comic for a small website.
http://billytheskink.com/2018picks/Comic1.jpg
“why would any of them even try?” Because if they don’t they’ll get the reputation of not caring and then they won’t get any money. According to former players who’ve been on lost seasons, that’s when players play their hardest because they know they need to impress whoever comes next (or the 31 other teams, especially the ones in their schedule)
The Dolphins are frauds without Tua. McDaniel could be fired if bad stuff keeps going on. If the dolphins lose again next week, make an entry of the Dolphins choking and getting beached.
Bills managed to prevent endgame Chiefs magic from occurring with an interception.
Worst week for U so far…
The lions will make it a battle next week when they’re down by 14.
COUNTLESS WAR CRIMES by Russia against Ukraine again… why hasn’t USA or UN or others recognize Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism? I believe neutrality on the unlawful Russian invasion of Ukraine shall end and such countries should support Ukraine throughout the war.
Jets have been revitalized!
Tennessee fans removed the goal frame from Neyland Stadium and carried it into the streets. Here comes the SEC sanctions…
ViKINGS!!!!!!! They have a significant division lead!
Tropical weather committed die.
Stagnant Air?!?!?!?
Giants are superb, beating out the ravens! It all relies on the PHI Eagles now, Gritty or Slapshot?
FCC still won’t act on defamation…
Cobras Varsity FB freaking stinks…
Who’s gonna win the Handegg World Championship next year???