Former Carolina Panthers head coach Matt Rhule has already found a new job, however, he has some thoughts about what was the cause of his failings in his first attempt at being an NFL head coach.
After a successful run turning Baylor into a college football powerhouse, Rhule made the jump that many NCAA coaches before him have and took his talents to the NFL. And just like many of those team leaders who preceded him, he also did not deliver the same results on the professional level as he did in the collegiate.
Unsurprisingly, he continued the trend of failed college-to-NFL head coaches and returned to his roots this week as he landed the top job for the legendary Nebraska Cornhuskers program. After Rhule was the first head coach fired in the league this season, little has been heard from him in the close to two months since.
Related: NFL games today – Get watch times and odds for all the Week 13 NFL action
Well, that changed during a recent appearance on “The Season with Peter Schrager” podcast.
Matt Rhule claims the Carolina Panthers didn’t give him the success time originally promised
During his guest spot, Matt Rhule was asked about his final thoughts on is two and half year run in the NFL, and if he would have done anything differently. And the 47-year-old was honest when he said he wished he would have taken the same job, but elsewhere because the team didn’t live up to their original claims of giving him four or five seasons to turn the team into a consistent winner.
“I think I would just probably [have] taken another job. It’s a great place. Wonderful people. But I just don’t know if I was a fit there. You know, at the end of the day, we talked about, ‘Hey, we’re gonna have a four-year plan, a five-year plan.’ You know, if you tell me, ‘Hey, we got a two-year plan,’ then I’m gonna go sign a bunch of free agents and do it. So what was a four-year plan became a two-year-and-five-game plan real quick.”
– Matt Rhule on Panthers tenure (h/t Pro Football Talk)
While Rhule claims he doesn’t hold any grudges with the organization, he wishes there had been better communication between team brass and himself, so he could have made different offseason choices knowing his success timeline was growing shorter.
“I’m not angry about it. At the end of the day, I understand. But if it’s gonna be that quick, then we’re gonna sign some more free agents, we’re gonna go make the blockbuster trade, we’re gonna do those things. I think the trajectory we were on was correct.”
– Matt Rhule on Panthers tenure (h/t Pro Football Talk)
Rhule finished with am 11-27 records during his two-plus seasons with the Carolina Panthers.