Why Matt Rhule will have the Carolina Panthers back in the playoffs within three years

 

The biggest thing to know about the Carolina Panthers Head Coach Matt Rhule, is that he has been one of the best coaches in football at any level over the past six years, but no one talks about him. Which is why when Rhule signed a 7 year 60 million dollar contract to become the Panthers new head coach back in January, it was met with outrage and skepticism. Many members of the media wanted to criticize Panthers owner David Tepper for hiring a coach with almost no NFL coaching experience and for giving him such a lengthy contract. What members of the media did not consider is Rhules track record of building great team cultures, while also developing talent, and taking teams to new heights in a relatively quick time span. Tepper was a former minority owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers and understands sustained success takes time to develop and the contract reflects his faith in the Matt Rhule process. 

Success at Temple: 

To highlight how good of a coach Matt Rhule is, observing his last two head coaching stops is a good place to start. In the 73 year history of Temple football, there have only been 3 ten win seasons and Rhule has two of them coming in 2015 and 2016, the only other being in 1979. Temple had not been ranked since the 79 season in the AP poll, but received their highest ranking in the polls at 20 in 2015 and 23 in 2016. In fact Temple played in the first two conference championship games in AAC conference history losing in 2015, but winning in 2016. Since Rhule has left, Temple has not gone above 8 wins. 

Rhule also had this success at Temple with very little recruiting prowess. In his four years at Temple he had a total of three four star recruits, according to ESPN. This success shows how Rhule can not only develop talent, but get players to buy into his philosophy which has helped some players get to the NFL. Tavon Young, Matt Ioannidis, Tyler Matakevich, Hasson Reddick, and Dion Dawkins were all signed and developed by Rhule, with all of them still playing in the league now. Reddick, a former walk-on runningback/safety at Temple with the help of Rhule turned into a First Team All-AAC as a pass rusher and later became a first round pick in 2017. This again shows that Rhule understands how to get the most out of his players and he almost always seems to find the right players for his teams.

Success at Baylor: 

What Rhule did when taking the Baylor Head Coaching job was even more incredible. Matt Rhule inherited a program that was being heavily scrutinized for a sexual assault scandal that involved many former Baylor football players dating back to 2012. Peter Thamel of Sports Illustrated, highlighted what Rhule had to endure his first year on the job. He recruited 27 players in less than two months when many Baylor officials worried number of scholarship players would dip into the 50s for the 2017 season. Baylor ended up fielding a team near the maximum 85 scholarships. This speaks to Rhules character due to his ability to adapt to the tragic scandal, not hide from it and turn the program around. Many Baylor players transferred or ended up leaving the program, but Rhule was able to sell himself and his vision to prospects and their families which allowed him to field an almost complete team. The growing pains were evident as Baylor went 1-11 in 2017, but improvement was evident as Baylor nearly knocked off eventual Big 12 Champion and the second seed in the College Football Playoff in Oklahoma. In 2017, Baylor lost five conference games by 14 points or less, in 2018 that number dropped to three and the wins increased to seven with a bowl win. His third season at Baylor they started 9-0, played in the Big 12 Championship game against Oklahoma and were a few plays away from making the playoff. 

Like Temple, Baylor did not recruit at an elite level signing only 14 four star recruits in his three years. Despite recruiting in a talent rich state like Texas competing against Texas, Texas A&M, TCU, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and several other national powers is difficult for a non historical power like Baylor. Also, just like Temple Rhule had success at Baylor that only Art Briles had in the 115 year history of the program. There had been only three 11 win seasons in the history of the program and Rhule had one of the three while Briles had the other two. The rapid development of players also followed Rhule to Baylor. He turned former three star DT James Lynch into a unanimous All American and Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year by hus junior year and was eventually drafted in the fourth round by the Minnesota Vikings in this past draft and helped turn Denzel Mims into a second round pick by the New York Jets. 

Panthers going in the right direction:

Unlike at Temple and Baylor Rhule finally has the resources and talent to really build a championship culture. He has a top three running back in Christian McCaffrey, a rising star wide receiver in DJ Moore, a solid number 2 wide receiver in Robby Anderson and a quarterback in Teddy Bridgewater that does not put up the sexy stats but is 25-17 in his career as a starter with a 66.5 career completion percentage, and has not had a double digit interception season since his rookie year in 2014. While Bridgewater may not be the long term answer at quarterback he is good enough to win games now and help ease the transition of the rebuild. The Panthers also spent all of their draft picks in the 2020 draft on defense with 4 rookies starting and all seven in the rotation. The Panthers are 3-5 and they lose by an average of 7.2 points with two of those losses coming to two future Hall of Famers in Tom Brady and Drew Brees, a loss to a  top five defense in the Chicago Bears, a loss to Julio Jones and Matt Ryan, and loss to a Raiders team with lots of young talent. Despite having less talent and experience than the Saints and Bucs, for the Panthers to be as competitive as they were and to push until the end speaks to the coaching ability of Rhule and the future success this team will have. There are still questions about the offensive line, depth in the trenches, and if Bridgewater will eventually be replaced, but the culture is changing and it is evident this team buys into Rhule and his vision for the franchise. 

No one expected the Panthers to be this competitive in year one under Matt Rhule, but yet here they are and not one of the critics has been heard from so far this season. It does not matter where you are coaching, if as a coach you can establish a culture and get players to buy into that culture that is half of the fight. If players believe in what a coach is saying they are not only going to work harder and play with more effort but that will be reflective in film study, taking care of their bodies, and continuing to improve during the offseason. The Panthers had lots of success with Ron Rivera including three NFC South Division Championships, four trips to the playoffs, and a trip to Super Bowl 50, but it was time for a change. Many of the Vets had either moved on or were released from the 2015 Super Bowl team including an ownership change and it was time to go in another direction. While some owners try to rush the process and become impatient with a slow rebuild, Tepper is going in the opposite direction because he has seen it work. The Cam Newton era has ended, but the Matt Rhule era has only just begun and if the past six years are any indication the Panthers have their man.