Matthew Kenneth Rhule (born January 31, 1975) is an American football coach and former player who was most recently the head coach of the Carolina Panthers of the National Football League (NFL) from 2020 to 2022. He was previously the head coach at Baylor University and Temple University.
![]() Rhule in 2021 | |
Personal information | |
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Born: | (1975-01-31) January 31, 1975 (age 47) New York, New York |
Career information | |
High school: | State College Area (State College, Pennsylvania) |
College: | Penn State (1994–1997) |
Career history | |
As a coach: | |
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Career highlights and awards | |
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Head coaching record | |
Regular season: | 11–27 (.289) |
Career: | NFL: 11–27 (.289) NCAA: 47–43 (.522) Bowls: 1–2 (.333) |
Coaching stats at PFR | |
Rhule grew up in New York City before his family moved to State College, Pennsylvania as a teenager. Rhule played linebacker at State College Area High School before walking on as a linebacker to Penn State. At Penn State, Rhule played four years under Joe Paterno and was a three-time Penn State Scholar-Athlete and an Academic All-Big Ten honoree in 1997.[1] While at Penn State, Rhule earned his Bachelor's of Arts in Political Science. He earned a Master's in Educational Psychology from the University at Buffalo in 2003.[2]
Following the end of his playing career, Rhule was hired as the linebackers coach for Albright College. After one year at Albright, Rhule had stops at Buffalo, UCLA and Western Carolina before being hired at Temple as a defensive line coach in 2006. Rhule would switch to quarterbacks coach in 2007 before being named Temple's offensive coordinator in 2008.[1]
After six years as an assistant at Temple, Rhule joined Tom Coughlin's New York Giants in 2012 as the assistant offensive line coach, a season after the Giants won their 4th Super Bowl title. With the Giants, Rhule coached Super Bowl champions like David Diehl, Kevin Boothe, and Chris Snee.[1]
On December 17, 2012, Rhule was named the 26th head football coach at Temple, succeeding Steve Addazio who left to become the head coach at Boston College.[3]
In July 2015, Rhule signed a four-year extension with Temple that extended him through the 2021 season. After a tremendous third year with the Owls, this deal was re-negotiated to keep Rhule at the university. He was the target of Mizzou and Syracuse, but chose to remain at Temple.[4][5]
On September 5, 2015, in front of 69,741 fans, Rhule defeated his alma mater, Penn State, 27–10 for the Owls' first win over the Nittany Lions since 1941.
In his third year as Temple's head coach, Rhule's Temple team went 10–2 in the regular season, winning the American Athletic Conference's East Division and took part in the conference's inaugural championship game.[6] The next season, he took the Owls to their second consecutive championship game, where they won their first conference championship since 1967.
On December 6, 2016, Rhule was named the head football coach at Baylor University, replacing interim head coach Jim Grobe.[7] The Bears finished the 2017 season with a disappointing 1–11 record, which meant Baylor would not qualify for a bowl for the first time since 2009. Baylor finished the 2018 regular season 6–6 and received an invite to the 2018 Texas Bowl, where he led the Bears to a 45–38 victory over the Vanderbilt Commodores[8] to finish the season with a 7–6 record. The Baylor Bears, under Rhule's leadership, finished the 2019 regular season at 11–1, and ultimately fell to Oklahoma in the Big 12 Championship game and Georgia in the Sugar Bowl. During his tenure at Baylor, Rhule's teams never defeated a ranked team.
On January 7, 2020, Rhule was hired to become the fifth head coach of the Carolina Panthers.[9] Under Rhule's watch, the Panthers defense improved significantly going from allowing the 2nd-most points in 2019 to being #15 in the league in that category. Bleacher Report stated that Rhule's first year "hasn't gotten off to a perfect start in Carolina, but the Panthers appear to be trending in the right direction."[10]
On September 13, 2020, Rhule lost his NFL head coaching debut against the Las Vegas Raiders by a score of 30–34.[11] On September 27, 2020, Rhule received his first career win as an NFL head coach against the Los Angeles Chargers by a score of 21–16.[12] In his first season as head coach, Rhule led the Panthers to a 5–11 record, finishing 3rd in the NFC South.
On September 12, 2021, Rhule led the Panthers to win their first game of the 2021 NFL season by defeating the New York Jets by a score of 19–14. The Panthers started the season 3–0, but ultimately finished with a disappointing 5–12 record. After being just 10–23 in his first two seasons at the helm in Carolina, his job began to be called into question by fans, media, and former Panthers players. Panthers owner David Tepper remained confident that Rhule was laying the foundation for the future.
After a 37–15 loss to the San Francisco 49ers and dropping the team to a 1–4 record, Rhule was fired as head coach on October 10, 2022. He finished his tenure with an 11–27 record in two and a half seasons.[13]
Year | Team | Overall | Conference | Standing | Bowl/playoffs | Coaches# | AP° | ||
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Temple Owls (American Athletic Conference) (2013–2016) | |||||||||
2013 | Temple | 2–10 | 1–7 | T–9th | |||||
2014 | Temple | 6–6 | 4–4 | 6th | |||||
2015 | Temple | 10–4 | 7–1 | 1st (East) | L Boca Raton | ||||
2016 | Temple | 10–3 | 7–1 | 1st (East) | Military* | 24 | |||
Temple: | 28–23 | 19–13 | * Departed Temple for Baylor before bowl game | ||||||
Baylor Bears (Big 12 Conference) (2017–2019) | |||||||||
2017 | Baylor | 1–11 | 1–8 | 9th | |||||
2018 | Baylor | 7–6 | 4–5 | T–5th | W Texas | ||||
2019 | Baylor | 11–3 | 8–1 | 2nd | L Sugar† | 12 | 13 | ||
Baylor: | 19–20 | 13–14 | |||||||
Total: | 47–43 | ||||||||
National championship Conference title Conference division title or championship game berth | |||||||||
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Team | Year | Regular season | Postseason | |||||||
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Won | Lost | Ties | Win % | Finish | Won | Lost | Win % | Result | ||
CAR | 2020 | 5 | 11 | 0 | .313 | 3rd in NFC South | — | — | — | — |
CAR | 2021 | 5 | 12 | 0 | .294 | 4th in NFC South | — | — | — | — |
CAR | 2022 | 1 | 4 | 0 | .200 | Fired | — | — | — | — |
Total | 11 | 27 | 0 | .289 | 0 | 0 | .000 |
Rhule is married with three children.[14]
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