Rhule has a reputation for turning programs around and belongs on a college sideline and not in the NFL.
Rhule rose to prominence after taking over a historically awful Temple program in 2013, and in a few short years, transformed them into an American Athletic Conference power. After going 2-10 in his first season, the Owls improved to 6-6 the following year.
The team then made a huge jump in Year 3. The Owls won their division and reached the 10-win mark, something it had accomplished only once before (1979) in school history, which dates back to 1930. They subsequently earned an invitation to just their fifth-ever bowl game, and the first since 2011. Temple spent a program-record seven weeks in the AP Top 25 during the 2015 season, the first time they had been ranked since 1979. The only other instances where the Owls had been in the AP Top 25 were in 1974, 1941 and 1936.
Temple followed up with another 10-win campaign and won the AAC championship in 2016, the program's first conference title since 1967. The Owls finished the regular season ranked No. 23 in the AP Top 25. Over the course of his last two seasons, Rhule coached 19 All-AAC players, including nine first-team selections, as well as the 2015 AAC Defensive Player of the Year.
Three days after Temple defeated No. 19 Navy 34-10 in the AAC championship game, Rhule left to take the job at Baylor. He replaced interim head coach Jim Grobe, who came out of semi-retirement to help navigate Baylor through a tumultuous 2016 season. Art Briles had been fired the previous May after a report alleging he and other coaches botched numerous sexual assault accusations levied against several football players.
Rhule took over the embattled Baylor football program, and like he did at Temple, turned it into a contender in a short amount of time. After going 1-11 in his first season, the Bears improved to 7-6 the following year, which included a bowl victory.
The big jump came again in Year 3. Rhule was named the 2019 Big 12 Coach of the Year after Baylor went 11-3, won their division and finished ranked No. 13 in the AP Top 25. Two of their three losses came to an Oklahoma team that played in the College Football Playoff; 34-31 during the regular season, and 30-23(OT) in the Big 12 Championship Game. They lost in the Sugar Bowl to the Georgia Bulldogs, who finished the season No. 4.
After his second expedited program rebuild, Rhule was a hot commodity and NFL franchises came calling. The New York Giants and Carolina Panthers both pursued him heavily, with the Panthers offering him a seven-year, $62 million contract the day he interviewed. Three years later, he is still the seventh-highest-paid coach in the NFL.
Because he is such a well regarded coach and program builder, if and when Rhule is let go by the Panthers, he will be a very popular target for every college athletic director looking for a head coach. That should also include Trev Alberts.
“Right now, where we are, we need a leader who understands the infinite details of everything about football,” Alberts said late last month. “And that's why it's really complicated. People just think it's X's and O's and schemes. That's not what builds a great program. It's the foundational stuff and it’s the culture stuff.” Alberts may as well have been holding up an 8x10 glossy of Matt Rhule while he said that.
Alberts wants a program builder? Here he is. Rhule has proven he can build a winner in different conferences at schools located over 1500 miles from each other. His process and blueprint is portable and it fits what Alberts is looking for and what will work in Lincoln.
The formula to win at Nebraska starts with an organized, detail-oriented head coach and a staff of established, proven assistants who develop talent. A staff that grinds on the recruiting trail and assembles a team with a core made up of Midwest players and supplemented nationally.
Despite having a background as an offensive coordinator, Matt Rhule's teams at Temple and Baylor emphasized and won with defense. He's coached both the offensive and defensive lines, so he knows the value of winning the line of scrimmage, something his teams have done at every stop. His teams in the AAC and Big 12 were built like a Big Ten team. I think Matt Rhule will thrive again at the college level.
The only sticking point with him is the timing. Nebraska certainly isn't waiting until the end of the NFL regular season in January to hire its coach. Alberts is going to want his coach - no matter who it is - in place by the first week of December. What happens if Carolina is sitting at 3-8 heading into Thanksgiving week? The writing would be on the wall regarding his future at that point.
If Rhule's fired by the Panthers, the franchise would owe him the balance of his contract, roughly $35 million. If, hypothetically, Alberts decides Rhule is his guy, you have to assume Panthers owner David Tepper would be willing to negotiate his early release with the Husker brass. After all, if Nebraska was willing to pay $7.5 million to flush Scott Frost three weeks early, I'm sure there is an amicable dollar amount that would appease all parties to get Rhule to Lincoln by Monday following the end of the regular season.
That way, Rhule could get to work assembling his staff and preparing for the early signing period (Dec. 21-23). Also keep in mind the first day players can enter the transfer portal is Dec. 5, with a 45-day window ensuing. Whoever it ends up being, Nebraska's next coach will want to be ready to hit the ground running on both fronts.
For sure there will be many against hiring rhule, he's not scotty boy, hiphip huray mike, physco bo, no defence callahan, or one dimentional solich. but after 5 attemps to hire a stable coach with a winning record of program rebuilding...people with sense see the golden rhule as the tried and true sure fire path forward.
Coaches Matt Rhule, Dave Aranda and Luke Fickell have the program-building chops that would serve Nebraska well
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