NOVEMBER 27: Rhule and Nebraska have agreed to an eight-year, $72MM contract, per Rapoport (via Twitter). RapSheet says the deal will offset the “vast majority” of the ~$34MM the Panthers owed to Rhule.
NOVEMBER 26: Matt Rhule has found his next gig. NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport reports (via Twitter) that the recently fired Panthers coach will indeed be taking the Nebraska head coaching gig. Rapoport adds that the two sides have agreed to a deal.
NOVEMBER 25: The Panthers may soon have a way out of the nearly $34MM owed to Matt Rhule beyond this season. Nebraska has honed in on the former Temple and Baylor HC, according to ESPN.com’s Chris Low, who adds the sides are hoping to finalize a deal soon (Twitter link).
Rhule’s seven-year, $62MM Panthers contract includes offset language that would allow the team to avoid paying Rhule beyond 2022, should he be hired as a college HC for the 2023 season. The Cornhuskers may be close to fully clearing that path, with ESPN’s Pete Thamel adding a deal is expected. The Panthers’ part in this is not completely done, per Thamel, who adds that lofty through-2026 contract is part of the Rhule-Nebraska negotiations (Twitter links).
Nebraska fired head coach Scott Frost earlier this season. The one-time college powerhouse has not hit the 10-win benchmark since 2010 and has dipped in stature since its run at a national title in 2001. The Big Ten program is finishing out what will be its sixth straight losing season. Rhule’s status as a program-building coach would naturally be attractive for a team that has largely struggled to compete since leaving the Big 12. This would also be a new challenge for Rhule, whose previous rebuilds came in the American Athletic Conference and Big 12.
Rhule resurfaced this week, writing a piece for the33rdteam.com and appearing on NFL Network’s Good Morning Football; that re-emergence can be taken as a sign the veteran coach is ready to resume his career. The Panthers fired Rhule after a 1-4 start this season.
Once coveted by NFL teams, Rhule saw his stock around the league take hits during his time in Carolina. The Panthers went 11-27 under Rhule, but he has always been viewed as a candidate to land another college HC gig. Rhule is 47-43 as a college coach. His first years at Temple and Baylor are largely responsible for that near-.500 mark; Rhule led three 10-win seasons prior to trying his hand in the NFL. He looks set to follow several coaches who failed to make the college-to-NFL transition — Chip Kelly, Bobby Petrino, Lane Kiffin and Nick Saban among the recent examples — to return to their former level.
Should this Nebraska hire come to fruition, it will take David Tepper off the hook for the widely criticized contract he gave Rhule in 2020. The Giants were also courting Rhule that year, and the seven-year college HC wanted to return to that organization — where he previously operated as O-line coach — over accepting Tepper’s offer. But John Mara bowed out of the Rhule sweepstakes, hiring Joe Judge instead of matching Carolina’s offer.
Quarterback issues derailed Rhule in Charlotte, but the Panthers did add some pieces under Rhule — Derrick Brown, Jeremy Chinn, Jaycee Horn — that came up at the trade deadline. Panthers interim HC Steve Wilks axed Rhule’s defensive coordinator, Phil Snow, as well. Snow having worked with Rhule at Temple and Baylor would make it logical to expect he will resurface in Lincoln.
While there will be “better” jobs opening up, I like this fit.
If he can resurrect Nebby to 90s era there won’t be a better job than this one open….(I don’t believe aTm can afford to fire Jimbo)
But those days are 30 years gone now.
He can’t. Social media wouldn’t allow a current coaching staff the hide players guns from police, allow coaches to interview victims of their players before police, or allow a staff to slap their players hand when they beat a woman then drag her down the stairs by her hair. Nebraska might try though.
The pros here are obvious: Rhule will be coaching at a lower level with lower expectations (at least initially). Also, he will be without an overbearing owner shadowing him everywhere he goes. The biggest advantage though, by far, is that Oklahoma and Texas have both exited the conference. Nebraska has as good a shot as its competitors to be a front runner within the next several years, if the conference is still around.
What’s unknown is how the lack of premier status may actually help Rhule-if he wins within the conference with lower level recruits, but fails against the upper tier playoff schools, would he get the blame for falling short or be praised for even getting that far with presumptively lower level talent?
The negatives are pretty obvious. Rhule has never really stuck around any coaching gig for long. This is the second long contract that he’s signed in a row, but we haven’t seen even his college programs win for three years or more. Rhule seems to have little desire to stay put for long. I am also concerned at how quickly he got/sought another job. Will Rhule try too hard and attempt to restore his reputatiinmu
Actually it was Nebraska leaving the Big 12 for the Big Ten. Hasn’t helped (so far) in football but it has in volleyball.
Oops, you’re totally right. My mistake. I was falling asleep when I wrote that, if you can’t tell by my trail off lol
Guy failed so miserably at his last job that he didn’t even last three full seasons, so now a state’s going to make him its highest paid public employee by leaps and bounds.
He didn’t fail on the college level.
I didn’t say his last college job, did I? He’s still going to get a ridiculously bloated coaching contract from a public school right after acquitting himself horribly at his last coaching job.
So did that coach at Alabama….how’d that work out for him and the school?
One of Saban’s two NFL seasons was a winning season. He wasn’t as much a fit for the NFL, but he didn’t look completely feckless.
Also that coach at ucla
The problem with that statement is he made a name for him self in college that why anyone wanted him in the nfl. So because he failed on the nfl doesn’t mean he can’t do well in college again
He made a name in the AAC, then brought one very good season (a second place finish and a bowl loss) to Baylor in a second tier conference, then bailed the second he found a big enough sucker to give him everything he asked to be a “culture builder” in the NFL. He didn’t show well in any area of coaching in the NFL, and now he’s going to get paid even more money in college. It won’t be hard to improve on Scott Frost, but that doesn’t mean Matt Rhule is a rare talent worth the mega-contract he’s going to get.
Belichek was awful his first few times around as well, yet he turned out pretty good. If Rhule takes his NFL experience and learns from it to be better, then he will be on his way to being a better coach.
“Belichek was awful in his first few times around”? Where? His only other head coaching gig was with Cleveland, taking over a poor program and getting them going in the right direction until they announced the move to Baltimore and everything fell apart.
That “second tier conference” includes Oklahoma and Texas. Rhule had to redeem Baylor from the stench of a gang rape that brought down not only the previous coach but also the school’s president.
As well, Rhule wanted to coach the Giants in 2020 but they weren’t willing to match the money or terms offered by Carolina.
The Giants don’t look wrong for that. And Texas wasn’t exactly a powerhouse while Rhule was at Baylor. Yes, Oklahoma is in that conference. They won it all three years and beat Baylor all three years.
The Giants settled for Joe Judge and his reign ended with a famous QB sneak against his own goal line.
Yep, they hired a lousy head coach, but by the time the Panthers were fitting bait on Rhule with four and a half contract years left, the Giants had a much better coach.
He is going where coaches go to guy. The only people who think Nebraska football is relevant is Nebraska fans. Can’t ever see any big time recruits saying “ can’t wait to get to Lincoln.”
Nebraska apparently doesn’t think it’s spiraled into oblivion far enough. As for Carolina, if this happens they should absolutely send something to the Cornhuskers as a thank you, and a fruit basket won’t cut it.
Rhule has had success at the college level. He just doesn’t belong in the NFL. Even Saban couldn’t cut it in the pros. Rhule just hit his ceiling. He’s a college football level guy, and that’s it.
Unless Nebraska gets into the NFL, they’ll be fine.
Rhule just looks like a complete slug. Why the heck would Nebraska want to hire this thing? I
“Should this Nebraska hire come to fruition, it will take David Tepper off the hook for the widely criticized contract he gave Rhule in 2020”.
Tepper appears to be one of those owners who like to double down on stupidity. He’ll jump on the hook again by extending Darnold.
I’m surprised Rhule would jump to a new job when it means he doesn’t get the $34 mil from the Panthers
Common Nebraska L
EIGHT YEARS??!!??
It’s highly doubtful that this NFL failure can get Nebraska back to powerhouse program they were between 1962-04 It will be interesting to watch in the coming years
He struggled with Carolina and couldn’t quite figure it out in the NFL. Doesn’t help he couldn’t get a real QB to win games. Bridgewater, Newton, Darnold, Mayfield, and some others whom hit the long list of QBs after Rivera era. Rhule just couldn’t get 2 things right, OL and QB. He got the defense right and receiving corps with CMC. Most of that was carry overs from Rivera era though. I wish Rhule better luck back at the college level and maybe bring the Cornhuskers a national title. It’s been a very long time since they seen a title
how does he keep landing 8 year deals i don’t get it