Matt Rhule failed in the NFL, but now college football has one of its coaching stars back in the mix

Matt Rhule won two games at Temple during his first season as head coach in 2013. The Owls posted 10 victories in 2015 and 2016.

He won just a single game at Baylor in 2017, his first year there. The program was dealing with the fallout of sexual assault scandal, the firing of longtime coach Art Briles and the transferring of just about everybody of note. Two seasons later, they were 11-3.

Rhule would give the NFL a try after that, only to find the cruel reality that he and his style weren't built for it (let alone without a quality quarterback). On Monday, the Carolina Panthers fired him after a 1-5 start and just 11 victories across two -plus seasons.

The early-season dismissal was a gift of sorts for the 47-year-old, who can reorient himself for a month or so and then immediately become one of, if not the, most coveted college coaching candidates on the market.

NFL failure means nothing in the college ranks. Rhule’s Panthers struggled in close games and never found an offense that would work. So what? Nick Saban didn’t last in the NFL either and he certainly isn’t alone. Steve Spurrier was fired. Pete Carroll was fired. You never know.

The first two paragraphs are what have college programs salivating over Rhule. Five major programs have already fired their coaches this season and while things are lousy now, none of them are in the questionable straits that Baylor was before Rhule restored the Bears.

Nebraska? Arizona State? Colorado? Georgia Tech? Wisconsin, if interim coach John Leonhard doesn’t work out?

All of them would be lucky to get Rhule. It’s more likely he passes on some, or all, in search of an even better opportunity. Maybe Auburn. Maybe some unexpected opening.

The greatest obstacle to him returning to the college game was the timing of the NFL season. Carolina’s final game this season is on January 8, far past the college coaching carousel that spins in late November/early December ahead of the December 21 early signing period in recruiting.

To hold a job until January, a school would have to so believe in the coach, and that he would come, that they’d be willing to give up a year of a rebuild. Maybe Rhule would have been worth that. Now no one needs to find out.

A native of New York City, he was a walk-on linebacker at Penn State. He bounced through college assistant ranks until getting a shot on Tom Coughlin’s New York Giants staff. That’s where Temple hired him from.

Rhule's work with the Owls spun heads. Temple cracked the national rankings in each of his final two seasons. It chalked up consecutive bowl bids for the first time in program history. Opportunities abound, it was a matter of where and when Rhule would go to a Power 5 school, seemingly in the Big Ten.

Instead he took over the wreckage at Baylor, which was dealing with horrific scandal, negative publicity and NCAA sanctions to come. The Bears had become a national power under Briles and his wide-open offense, but the program still felt fragile, like it would regress to its longstanding spot at the bottom of the Big 12 Conference.

Rhule ignored all of that and saw the positives. A location in talent-rich Texas. A school that offered tons of support. A fan base that hadn’t given up on the good that football can bring to a program.

He shocked many when he took the job.

“These kids need a coach,” Rhule said during that first season, where the Bears would finish 1-11. He noted the players on that team had done nothing wrong.

“No matter how hard the situation,” he continued, “they need someone who is here for them, who is consistent and who believes in them. And I believed that was supposed to be me.”

It was a heck of a belief, a heck of a bet, a career hanging in the balance. They went 7-6 in year two and 11-3 after that. His confidence that it would work was unwavering throughout. He even rebuilt the program’s identity from wide-open offense to hard-nose defense and an interest in running the ball.

So, now, presumably, he is back to college football. (It’s almost impossible to see a NFL team hire him again.) The pro losses won’t hurt him. NFL experience is NFL experience. His college record shines regardless.

He could be exactly what Nebraska is looking for, an upbeat but no-nonsense combination they’ve been trying to find and embrace for decades. The Huskers have tradition and money and loads of potential.

Or maybe he'll wait to see what happens at Wisconsin, which is closer to stronger recruiting areas. Or perhaps it's letting the annual SEC bloodletting to play out, with Bryan Harsin at Auburn the obvious firing candidate.

Whatever it is, wherever it is, college football has one of its once up-and-coming coaching stars back in the mix. The NFL didn’t work out for Matt Rhule, but now there’s plenty of time for schools to plot how to get him to campus.