Wrighster or Wrong-Matt Rhule

George Wrighster has no sympathy for recently fired Carolina Panthers Head Coach, Matt Rhule considering he’s getting a $40M buyout from his contract. While the lack of a strong quarterback probably has more to do with the Panthers’ struggles than Rhule’s coaching, it is clear his future lies in the college ranks. George speculates on that future, and which of the many college program reclamation projects he should consider. #fsrweekends

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
You're ready to check your feelings at the door. This
is am I Rice stir or am I Row. We're
bringing new facts and only the truth. Now, am I
Rice there or am I Row? We need to talk
about what's next for recently fired Carolina Panthers head coach
Matt Rule. And nobody feels sorry for Matt Rule right now.

(00:23):
His contractual will buy out his over forty million dollars
despite an absolutely putrid record of eleven and twenty seven,
wasting an awesome defense in due to a bottom three offense,
making three different quarterbacks look absolutely washed. And the biggest
crime is emptying Bank of America Stadium without any trace
of Panthers fans over the last two weeks. And now

(00:46):
he's somehow the hottest name in college football coaching market
for next season. And yes, Matt Rule, he turned around Temple,
he and he brought Baylor back to life. And it
was those efforts that made Carolina Panthers or David Tepper
personally recruit them to the Carolina Panthers like he was
the Lebron James of coaches. And maybe that goes to

(01:07):
show that David Tepper didn't truly understand the nature in
the history of his own team. Matt Rule is a
proven commodity as a rebuilder. The Carolina Panthers, they didn't
need a rebuild. Though the Panthers have historically bounced back,
they've been a bounced back franchise. Despite two Super Bowl
runs over the last twenty years and two other NFC

(01:28):
Championship appearances in the franchises short history, the Panthers have
never had back to back winning seasons, not even in
the run of making the playoffs four times in five
years under Ron Rivera. But what have The Carolina Panthers
traditionally always had stability at quarterback, whether it was Carrie Colin,
Steve Burlin, Jake Delone, or Cam Newton. For the franchisees history,

(01:54):
they've had the right piece under center that allowed them
to tinker everywhere else until until the team was capable
of making a playoff run. Now, the Panthers worst years
have always come when it was obvious that they didn't
have somebody who should be an NFL quarterback under center.
And in fact, you can thank Chris Winky in two

(02:14):
thousand and one for going one in fourteen for the
Carolina Panthers ending up with Julius Peppers, and you can
think a combination of Jimmy Clauson and Matt Moore for
going one in fourteen in twos for the Panthers to
end up with Cam Newton. Now, Matt Rule didn't walk
into a situation where the Carolina Panthers where they needed
a complete overhaul. They just needed a competent quarterback to

(02:36):
take over what was, you know, a washed at that
point in time, Cam Newton. And even if you did
need a complete overhaul, they never went in that direction anyway.
And instead of looking for a quarterback to chase in
the draft, big name free agent to trade for, they
kept Uh. Instead of starting from scratch, they went in
the scratching dent been consistently reclamation project x cast offs

(03:01):
and they still throughout that whole time, same primary running back,
same primary wide receiver as they did when Matt Rule
took over. Guys that Matt Rule inherited on defense were
like Dante Jackson, Shack Thompson, Brian Burns, and they're still
all at the heart of what the Panthers currently do defensively.

(03:23):
He didn't even make a symbolic change at long snapper,
like barely anything is done to overhaul this roster. A
lot of people are going to ignore his time in
Carolina and only look at his collegiate experience. But I
think Matt Rule's time in Carolina is exactly why he's
a higher risk than most other pundits think. People are

(03:43):
quick to point at Steve Spurrier, Nick Saban, or Chips
Kelly's time in the NFL as a reason that pro
experience need not to be taken into account, But people
forget that those three, while they might not have been
a perfect fit in the NFL, looked competent in a
way that Matt Rule has a isn't in the NFL.
But let's say everybody is right, and a trip back

(04:03):
to college football will show the world wide an NFL
team was willing to drop seventy million dollars on Matt
Rule in the first place, Well, where does he best fit?
We don't know if Matt Rule is capable of sustained success.
He left Temple, left Baylor, and it seems that we
do know that Matt Rule may not be the best
coach for a team that is just one or two
pieces away from being competitive. The only thing that we

(04:26):
do know is that Matt Rule can create something from nothing,
which college football programs will actually give him nothing to
work with. Well, there are two options in the Pac
twelve that are potentially future members of a conference where
he's already coached before the Big twelve, and they might
offer him to blank slate that he needs to work

(04:47):
his magic. Arizona State has about seventy players on scholarship
and ten of those are probably former walk ons and
another six to seven quarterbacks that don't play. And beyond that,
they're facing sanctions from the time under Herm Edwards and
rumors that someone on staff was leaking information to quicken
herms firing. And in order to take the job, any

(05:09):
head coach, Matt Rule or anybody else is going to
get rid of everybody the stateum window washers, the cooks,
the video people, everybody the way that they have trust
in the building over there at Arizona State. Well, what
about Colorado? They're in the opposite boat, too many kids
on scholarship, But under n C double A rules, a

(05:29):
new head coach can get in there and start chopping
away to roster and Colorado's best years, though they came
from recruiting connections established in Texas, and Matt Rule did
that over two and a half years ago when he
was still at Baylor in order to resurrect Baylor. Now,
Colorado doesn't or isn't willing to have the same financial

(05:49):
considerations that you need to typically attract the top level coach.
But Matt Rule is sitting on more unearned cash right
now than a January one game stop investor, so that
shouldn't be an issue. Now. Some people might say that
Nebraska needs to rebuild, but if I'm Matt Rule, I'm
looking at Lincoln, Nebraska like it's the Charlotte of the Plains.

(06:10):
Nebraska seems to have plenty of talent, and unless you
attract the quarterback that's either transcended as a runner or
a passer, you're gonna fall into the same trap that
Mike Riley Scott Frost did. And the one thing that
Nebraska fans can't afford Matt Rule in a way that
Arizona State or Colorado can is lowered expectations. And if

(06:32):
the Huskers aren't on the verge of ten wins by four,
then we're gonna be right back here talking about the
next reclamation project for Matt Rule. But he won't have
at that point in time the same shine as he
has right now, and instead of Temper or Boulder, we
might be talking about Troy, Alabama, or Reno, Nevada. Let

(06:52):
that sink in