Did Matt Rhule even really want to be coach of the Panthers?

[Snake]

1 minute ago, LinvilleGorge said:

I don't let Tepper off the hook and put all the blame on Hurney. Tepper bought in fully too. I honestly think he still believes... or at least can't believe that he got this so terribly wrong. Either way, the end result is another year of Rhule.

Oh I'm not. I could have if he fired Rhule this year but as you said he's holding onto a dog with fleas. I now question our entire operation if this type of accountability is allowed. 

[TLGPanthersFan]

2 hours ago, jayboogieman said:

Four years. Everybody thinking Rhule is a lame duck unless he gets the team into the playoffs is setting themselves up for disappointment next year too.

So Tepper is just going to keep Rhule around even if he sucks. That is fugging stupid. 

[Cdparr7]

I’ve said this on here before and somebody always comes out with some article from 10 years ago saying this was Rhule’s goal.

I don’t think so. It was rumored he was making 4-5 million at Baylor. He’s making 7-8 million now. Who wouldn’t take a job for that kind of money? I really think he’s soaking up what money he can while he’s in the NFL if he wins, he wins, if he don’t he don’t. I think he’s waiting for an opening with the right school to come up and if Tepper fires him next season he will have his pick of a number of colleges so he won’t be jobless.

Also the contract isn’t as tight as everyone makes it out. The way I understand it, it’s 30 mil guaranteed. His salary counts towards that guaranteed. So if he makes 7.5. Per year he’s already at 15 and will be at 22.5 after year 3. 

[Brooklyn 3.0]

I mean, the contract length was Rhule's idea, not Tepper's. He bought into whatever Rhule was selling. That's why Tepper hasn't fired him yet. He was promised something with an understanding. That's what we're going through. Do I think Rhule will come through with the promise? Nope.

[Khyber53]

42 minutes ago, Sgt Schultz said:

True, all of it.

Did Rhule want to be the HC of the Panthers?  Yes.  It was a shot at proving himself at the NFL level.  We are not talking about a guy coaching Bama, Ohio State, Michigan, or some other pinnacle in college football that a coach would really have to weigh whether they want to give up "all this" to risk going to the next level.  This was "his shot."

We have seen other college coaches with bigger names and resumes than Rhule get to the NFL and flame out.  At some point, it is almost like they give up and go through the motions.  It happened to Spurrier, Saban, Petrino, Holtz, etc and it happened pretty quickly.  It happened to Chip Kelly, it just took longer due to some initial success.  It happened to Meyer almost on day one, it seems.

There is no set of proven characteristics for whether or not a college coach will make it in the NFL.  It is almost completely random. 

The only place I differ with Khyber is I don't think we will know in a couple of weeks.  I think Rhule is here for 2022, at least the first 10-12 games, barring some complete meltdown.  I honestly hope Kyber is right.

Unlike most of this board, I don't think Tepper is an idiot.  I also don't think he is some oracle who knows what the right answer to these situations is.  I do think he is more patient and deliberate than most of this board seems to understand. 

[jayboogieman]

2 hours ago, TLGPanthersFan said:

So Tepper is just going to keep Rhule around even if he sucks. That is fugging stupid. 

Just because he's a billionaire doesn't excuse Tepper from doing what someone else thinks are stupid.

[Basbear]

Holy fug, this is week 9 of the the Rhule pissy party...... 

[mickeye76]

17 hours ago, FuFuLamePoo said:

I think he always wanted to try the NFL, but I think even at this point he realizes he's in over his head. We already know he looked into a few college jobs again already.

Our situation has not been ideal.  Coaching is easy when ya winning.  Everybody feels good and playing well. Handling adversity builds strength. Take for instance Joe "wonder bread" Brady.   Captain of top record setting offense at LSU and when hired thought to give us similar results in the NFL.   I don't think it was a failure of coaching more Sam was not Burrow.  Then instead of being daring and trusting your offense Joe had to play it safe and figuratively play with one hand tied behind his back. The oline sux. Therefore quick passes to alleviate pressure instead of deep passes that break the defense.  Same with Rhule. I feel like he has been bailing water out of sinking ship and coaching scared instead of being aggressive.   Have you never been in a situation where everything you do is not working and then you change your plan to not fail.  Guess what you playing scared and the fear of failure is handicapping any chance of success.  

[hepcat]

15 hours ago, Basbear said:

Holy fug, this is week 9 of the the Rhule pissy party...... 

it's gonna be another 12 months of this until he gets fired

[Sgt Schultz]

6 hours ago, mickeye76 said:

Our situation has not been ideal.  Coaching is easy when ya winning.  Everybody feels good and playing well. Handling adversity builds strength. Take for instance Joe "wonder bread" Brady.   Captain of top record setting offense at LSU and when hired thought to give us similar results in the NFL.   I don't think it was a failure of coaching more Sam was not Burrow.  Then instead of being daring and trusting your offense Joe had to play it safe and figuratively play with one hand tied behind his back. The oline sux. Therefore quick passes to alleviate pressure instead of deep passes that break the defense.  Same with Rhule. I feel like he has been bailing water out of sinking ship and coaching scared instead of being aggressive.   Have you never been in a situation where everything you do is not working and then you change your plan to not fail.  Guess what you playing scared and the fear of failure is handicapping any chance of success.  

It could be that the worst thing that happened was there was hope after last year.  The defense looked like it was starting to come together, the WR corps looked good even with the potential (and eventual) loss of Samuel, and while we only posted 5 wins, we were expecting 0-4 and we looked prepared to increase that total this year.  Especially with our primary offensive weapon out for most of that 5-11 season.  Our draft picks and their progress was part of that.

That led to people talking about a run at a playoff spot this year.  Instead, the 2020 draft choices collectively did not seem to take the next step (I won't get into why), the 2021 draft choices mostly didn't play, our WRs regressed in production (maybe on them, maybe on the QB, maybe both), we did not address the OL issues early (and the vets we brought in did very little), we essentially traded transition QBs and went from a conservative, ball protection guy to a gunslinger sort who has PTSD from the Jets, and then we added to it with our OL woes. 

We left 2021 with more question marks than we entered it with.  And that is probably my main disappointment right now, and my main concern about Rhule.  I have serious doubts that his philosophy/program translates to the NFL. 

Maybe my main concern is that his emphasis on "versatility" makes him deaf to the fact that the NFL is largely comprised of extremely good specialists.  A great LT is a great LT.  He does not need to be a good RG, TE, K, or anything else at the expense of his mastering of his real position.  If the RT can play decently at LT in a pinch, great.  If you have OGs that can snap when the primary C is out, great. 

But, when it comes to the NFL, I would rather have 8 of my 22 starters that are in the top tier of their positions, than 22 who can come out of the huddle in line up in any position.

[CPcavedweller]

On 1/18/2022 at 11:34 PM, hepcat said:

I really wonder if Matt Rhule even really wanted to be head coach of the Panthers in the first place. Everyone should know it’s basic job interview 101 to not be to eager or act too desperate to take a job. I mean if you gotta offer a guy a top 10 coaching salary before he’s coached a single NFL game, maybe that’s not a good fit?

Tepper guaranteed Rhule so much money that he would be eating tens of millions to rip up his contact, after he basically begged Matt to uproot his family from a comfortable gig in Waco and move to Charlotte. He hand picked Rhule to come save his shiny new franchise from “mediocrity” and now it’s not working out, but damn, I do wonder if Tepper just feels bad booting the guy he begged to coach his team out of town. 

No wonder he hasn’t said a word to the fans. It’s legitimately embarrassing and I doubt David has ever been in a situation in his life where he’s made such an expensive, public mistake. I doubt Matt really wanted this job in the first place. 

Zac Taylor is in year 3 with the Bengals. He had six wins combined the first two seasons.

 

Can we give this crap a rest?

[Cuttinedge]

On 1/18/2022 at 11:34 PM, hepcat said:

I really wonder if Matt Rhule even really wanted to be head coach of the Panthers in the first place. Everyone should know it’s basic job interview 101 to not be to eager or act too desperate to take a job. I mean if you gotta offer a guy a top 10 coaching salary before he’s coached a single NFL game, maybe that’s not a good fit?

Tepper guaranteed Rhule so much money that he would be eating tens of millions to rip up his contact, after he basically begged Matt to uproot his family from a comfortable gig in Waco and move to Charlotte. He hand picked Rhule to come save his shiny new franchise from “mediocrity” and now it’s not working out, but damn, I do wonder if Tepper just feels bad booting the guy he begged to coach his team out of town. 

No wonder he hasn’t said a word to the fans. It’s legitimately embarrassing and I doubt David has ever been in a situation in his life where he’s made such an expensive, public mistake. I doubt Matt really wanted this job in the first place. 

Well seeing as he took our offer to the giants for them to match I’d say yeah he didn’t wanna coach at Carolina he would have rather been with the giants. 

[hepcat]

8 minutes ago, CPcavedweller said:

Zac Taylor is in year 3 with the Bengals. He had six wins combined the first two seasons.

 

Can we give this crap a rest?

are you f*cking serious with this comparison? 

[Move the Panthers to Raleigh]

On 1/18/2022 at 11:35 PM, OneBadCat said:

I'm not understanding why he was so highly coveted at the time. His record isn't that good.

I never understood it myself