What has taken so long, Carolina? After another bad loss, the Carolina Panthers have put their fans ire to rest as they have finally fired Matt Rhule and ended his disastrous reign as head coach.
How Matt Rhule lasted two years and five games is beyond me. Actually, what is beyond my humble intellect is why Panthers owner Dave Tepper gave Matt Rhule, who was an unexperienced college coach, a SEVEN YEAR, $62 MILLION contract. What was Tepper thinking?!?!
Now, if Matt Rhule was this genius, all-conquering, undefeated college coach who had just won the National Championship three years in a row and was recruiting all of the best high school recruits around the country, I might understand such a massive commitment. Though, as we’ve seen with great college coaches like Nick Saban, Chip Kelly, Bobby Petrino, and Urban Meyer, the transition and differences from college to the NFL is enormous.
But Matt Rhule was not even a ‘great college coach’. In his seven-year career split between Temple and Baylor, Rhule only had four winning seasons, one season with at most 11 wins, and one bowl win (even though he coached in four) to his name. Sure, he rebuilt these organizations from utter despair into bowl hopefuls, but how does that justify a seven year, $62M contract?
It didn’t and the Panthers organization suffered for it.
In Rhule’s two years and five games in charge of the Panthers, he went 11-27, his offenses finished 30th and below twice in total yards gained, and his offenses finished in the Bottom-10 of the NFL in points scored every single year. Simply put, Matt Rhule’s Panthers not only couldn’t score, but were also painful to watch as they couldn’t move the ball down the field either.
And that is reflected with the Panthers using SIX different starting QBs in Rhule’s time in charge. Teddy Bridgewater, PJ Walker, Sam Darnold, Cam Newton, and now Baker Mayfield have all come and gone (well, except for Walker and Mayfield, but Mayfield is now injured, and Walker is a journeyman backup) in the schemes Rhule and his offensive assistants assembled.
Having 1-2 of these quarterbacks fail could have been put down to those players not fitting the system, but having all six of them fail has to mean that the system itself was broken to begin with. Plus, a 1-4 record to start this season sure makes it seem that way.
Nonetheless, Matt Rhule is now ancient history, as is the GM who brought him on board, his defensive coordinator, his special teams coordinator, as the secondary coach Steve Wilks has taken his place as the interim head coach.
Don’t worry, Matt Rhule fans, I’m sure he’s going to be just fine with his $40M buyout, while some desperate college program will bring him onboard to change its fortunes. A program like…Nebraska? They did just fire their head coach.
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