Matt Rhule


Matthew Kenneth Rhule is an American football coach and former player who is the head coach of the Carolina Panthers of the National Football League. He was formerly the head coach at Baylor University and Temple University.

Early years

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. 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.

Coaching career

College

Assistant coaching

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.

Temple

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.
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.
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's East Division and took part in the conference's inaugural championship game. The next season, he took the Owls to their second consecutive championship game, where they won their first conference championship since 1967.

Baylor

On December 6, 2016, Rhule was named the head football coach at Baylor University, replacing interim head coach Jim Grobe. 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 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.

NFL players coached

Throughout his time as a college head coach, Rhule has coached a number of players that would go on to play in the National Football League.

Temple

Baylor

National Football League

New York Giants

After six years as an assistant at Temple, Rhule joined Tom Coughlin's New York Giants in 2012 as the assistant offensive line coach. With the Giants, Rhule coached Super Bowl champions like David Diehl, Kevin Boothe, and Chris Snee.

Carolina Panthers

On January 7, 2020, Rhule was hired to become the fifth head coach of the Carolina Panthers.

Head coaching record

College