Matt Rhule Opens Up About Failed Stint with Panthers

The former Carolina Panthers head coach talks about his stint with the Panthers.

Matt Rhule's stint with the Carolina Panthers was a short one, but he was still able to take something away from his experience as an NFL head coach. He's stated on numerous occasions over the last year how the adversity he and his family went through in Carolina made them stronger as a unit, but it also made him stronger as a coach.

In a recent sit down with college football analyst Joel Klatt, Rhule opened up about how he grew through his failure in the NFL.

“I would not be able to be the head coach at Nebraska had I not gone through that. Every decision you make is magnified at Nebraska ten times over and if you’re not really confident in who you are, I could see it really affecting you.

“I’ve had 50,000, 70,000 people in the Panthers’ stadium screaming to fire me. What I learned through all of that is, I just want to make it all about my players. It’s not about me. I came back to college football because I knew young people needed coaches that cared about them, coaches that don’t want to throw them away, coaches that don’t want to give up on them.

“If I learned anything during my time there (at Carolina), it was Christian McCaffrey, Brian Burns, all these amazing players I had a chance to coach…they’re just people. You see them as superstars, but they’re just people. I lost a little bit of that during COVID. One of the worst things I did early on there I didn’t connect enough. In my last year, I did an amazing job, I think, of connecting with those players. And they battled for me to the very end. I came back to college now and it’s all about human connection.”

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