Tom Talks: Panthers owner David Tepper found, pursued, landed his man in Matt Rhule
BY TOM SORENSEN CORRESPONDENT
JANUARY 10, 2020 03:18 PM
Matt Rhule comes to the Carolina Panthers from Baylor, where he coached the past three seasons. DAVID T. FOSTER III
DTFOSTER@CHARLOTTEOBSERVER.COM
Matt Rhule is neither an offensive coach nor a defensive coach, neither a college coach nor an NFL coach. He’s a coach. It’s the thing he’s supposed to do, and he’ll now do it for the Carolina Panthers.
Team owner David Tepper, general manager Marty Hurney, and vice president of communication and external affairs Steven Drummond – damn, Steve, that’s a long title – flew to Waco, Texas, Monday to interview and recruit Rhule, who was the coach at Baylor.
Tepper wanted Rhule so badly that to save time he might have built Waco Regional Airport.
Rhule had returned from a family vacation in Mexico wearing shorts and a T-shirt. Tepper might have been dressed the same way. Every team has a style. Carolina’s is unpretentious.
Rhule, 44, mesmerized Carolina, and Carolina mesmerized Rhule. The longer they talked, the more the Panthers wanted him. They believed he was their guy when they arrived. Before they left, they knew.
So they committed. They reportedly offered Rhule a 7-year, $62 million contract. The money is big for anybody, especially a starter NFL coach, but the duration is bigger. Five-year deals are standard.
The Panthers believed that what worked at Temple and at Baylor, where Rhule quickly fixed and enhanced programs, will work in the NFL. Yet coaching 19-year-olds in college and, say, 29-year-olds in the pros differs markedly.
We all know of superior college football coaches who failed in the NFL. Steve Spurrier comes to mind. But Spurrier worked for Washington owner Daniel Snyder, and Snyder dispenses with coaches the way the rest of us dispense with paper towels. I hope – man, do I hope – that Snyder realizes his style has failed and commits to new coach, and former Panthers coach, Ron Rivera.
Nick Saban went to the Miami Dolphins two years after winning a national championship at Louisiana State. He went 15-17 in two NFL seasons, although the program looked better when he left than he found it. But he lied. Alabama was looking for a coach, and Saban told media that he was not interested in the Alabama job.
Then, presumably at night, he got on Florida’s turnpike and drove north and west for about 14 hours and pulled into Tuscaloosa. He was like a high school kid sneaking out at night.
Saban’s blatant dishonesty says more about his work in the NFL than his record does.
Other college coaches, albeit with NFL experience, have succeeded, notably the Seattle Seahawks’ Pete Carroll.
Rhule will not, however, have to deal with a problem coaches typically do. On most teams, players can look at the coach who is yelling at them and think, “I’m more important than you are because I make more money than you.”
Not many Carolina players can say that to Rhule.
Tepper has no doubt angered his peers by flinging such a large and long contract at Rhule. At their next meeting, other owners, each of them successful in a field outside football, will ask Tepper what he was thinking, and blame him for lifting contracts into a new stratosphere. Tepper won’t care. He does what he believes is right, as the contract attests.
No matter how you make your living, you can’t let your peers dictate how you do our job. Tepper is too smart and too successful to be dragged down.
If you own a team, you have to trust your instincts. You have to. Despite the popularity of analytics and sports science, they provide only suggestions. You incorporate them into a larger body of thought.
Tepper, Hurney and Drummond believe that in Rhule they’ve found a coach and charismatic leader who will take them where they want to go.
So they hired him.
FORGET THOSE WILD CARD PICKS -- PLEASE
I loved my Wild Card picks. Then the games started.
I went 0-4. But I think it was less about me than about the wrong teams winning.
The Buffalo Bills appeared to have beaten the Houston Texans. Then, after a Josh Allen scramble, the Bills committed a blatant and unnecessary penalty, the play was negated, the Bills were backed up and Allen suddenly played like a young and nervous quarterback.
The Philadelphia Eagles might have beaten the Seattle Seahawks if Jadeveon Clowney had not knocked quarterback Carson Wentz out of the game after two series. We don’t know. We don’t know what Wentz would have accomplished. We also don’t know how, if Wentz had led the Eagles to more points, the Seahawks would have reacted. They could have scored more, too.
I picked against the favorite in both games. In the other two games, I picked the favorite. At least I was consistent.
This week’s picks, with the home team in CAPS:
Minnesota 2 over SAN FRANCISCO
If you can beat New Orleans in New Orleans, you can beat anybody anywhere. I love the 49ers defense. But Minnesota’s weakest components, its offensive line and defensive backfield, were strong against the Saints.
And, no, the game-ending touchdown pass Kirk Cousins threw to tight end Kyle Rudolph was clean. Rudolph and New Orleans cornerback P.J. Williams had a little slap fight before Rudolph grabbed the pass.
If you’re going to penalize Rudolph, then the penalty will be for being big. Rudolph is 6-foot-6 and 265 pounds, Williams 6-0 and 194. The only reason Rudolph looked culpable is because he’s big. Throwing a flag would be like ticketing a driver of an SUV because of the size of his vehicle.
The game could be a catalyst for Cousins. He won the big one, in the playoffs, in a place he was not supposed to win.
BALTIMORE 6 over Tennessee
I love what the Titans have accomplished. That’s a well-coached and confident team. The more success they have passing, the more Derrick Henry is free to run through and over opponents. Henry is 6-3 and about 240 pounds, but seems to grow as the game goes on.
The Ravens have been the best team in football this season, passing and running and accomplishing what they want against whomever they wanted it. They won’t lose, at home, to Tennessee.
KANSAS CITY 8 over Houston
Houston stayed poised last week, didn’t panic as it fell further behind. The Texans trusted their outstanding quarterback, Deshaun Watson, to lead them. Buffalo defenders hit him high and low and simultaneously, and Watson shook them off and proceeded. Man, he is good.
The Texans did beat the Chiefs by a touchdown earlier this season. But Kansas City quarterback Patrick Mahomes made little more than a guest appearance in that one. The Chiefs are loaded, and there’s nothing the Texans do that the Chiefs don’t do better.
GREEN BAY 2 over Seattle
I like this Seattle team, like the coach, the quarterback, and the manner in which it overcomes its weaknesses and emphasizes its strengths. In Seattle, or at a neutral site, I pick the Seahawks. But, when in doubt, go with the frozen tundra. The Seahawks will be without their two best running backs, and Aaron Rodgers has more to work with than Russell Wilson.
JOSH MCCOWN’S LONG JOURNEY
I pulled for the Philadelphia Eagles to beat the Seattle Seahawks last week because I picked them to win.
When starting quarterback Carson Wentz went down and out of the game after only two series with a concussion, I had a stronger reason to pull for the Eagles. Josh McCown was in the game.
McCown played two seasons for the Carolina Panthers. He backed up Jake Delhomme.
He’s an interesting guy, McCown. He’s 40, and has played for nine teams, 10 if you count the Hartford Colonials of the U.S. Football League. He had the talent to be a starting NFL quarterback, but those jobs are tough to come by, and there usually was somebody else. So he bounced around, a talented temp.
McCown is a guy teams wanted on their roster and in their locker room because he was neither a distraction nor a complainer. He played well with others. If he could help a teammate off the field, he did. If he could offer advice to the young quarterback who would knock him off the roster, he did. When he was given the opportunity to help his team on the field, he did that, too. He did some especially fine work for the Chicago Bears.
McCown, the quarterbacks coach at Myers Park High, where his sons play the position, retired from the NFL before the season. And then the Eagles called and asked him if he’d play for them. You imagine telling a team, “Nah, I’m busy and I don’t want to do this anymore.”
So McCown did it. He’d work with the Eagles during the week, fly back to Charlotte on football Friday nights, and then return to the Eagles.
Although this season was his 17th, he’d never played in a playoff game. The Panthers played Arizona in the divisional round in 2008, but the backed up Delhomme.
Last Sunday, in the weekend’s final NFL playoff game, McCown replaced Wentz. No pressure. Playing at home, the Eagles were missing their best running back and top three receivers. So the backup quarterback primarily handed the ball to a backup and threw the ball to backups. On two.
McCown was 18 of 28 for 174 yards and a 94.8 passer rating. He scrambled, too, picking up 23 yards on five carries. He was a good runner when he was young, and 40 he’s a willing runner, willing to get smacked around if it helps the cause.
There were scrambles in which you knew, knew, that McCown would escape. But the holes closed quickly, and defenders closed on him quickly, and Seattle won 17-9.
After the game, McCown allowed his emotions to run free. He choked up as he thanked his wife and family for their support, and for moving with him. He played in more states than most people have visited.
After all those years, in all those places, he finally got to lead a team into the playoffs. To put McCown’s career in perspective, he was drafted in 2002, the same year in which Carolina took Julius Peppers. Arizona took McCown with the next to last pick in the third round. Eight picks earlier the Panthers took Will Witherspoon, a good linebacker out of Georgia.
I got to know McCown a little when he played for Carolina. He’s just a good guy, with great perspective on who he is and what he has, and an appreciation for the career he’s created and sustained.
Not sure what happens next. At some point, he’ll become an excellent coach at whatever level he choses.
But if he’s not ready to begin that facet of his career, there are 23 NFL teams for which he has yet to play.
SHORT TAKES: PANTHERS’ PERSONABLE COACHES
▪ Watching new coach Matt Rhule’s introduction to Charlotte and the Carolinas, I thought about Rhule’s predecessor, Ron Rivera, and Rivera’s predecessor, John Fox.
I like the Rhule hire. But I like the Rivera and Fox hires, too. If there’s a trait they appear to share, it’s this. Rivera and Fox enjoy being around people. I’ve seen them with co-workers, with fans, and with the media. They’re good guys, fun to be around. Based on everything people who have spent time with Rhule tell me, he will be, too…
The one area in which I disagree with many Carolina fans is that the team was loaded this season. At no point have I seen what they see. I thought the Panthers had the talent to be pretty good. But beyond that, I didn’t see world-beating talent. I figured before the season they were a .500 team, and that was with a reasonably healthy Cam Newton.
In the NFL, windows close quickly. Some seasons, it’s as if everybody on a team gets old the same day. Carolina’s infrastructure was weak. The offensive line was perpetually injured, and struggled even when it was not. The defensive line was great at getting to the quarterback, poor at getting the guy to whom the quarterback handed off. The defensive backfield was often shaky.
That said, I wouldn’t classify 2020 as a wholesale rebuild. There will be a new philosophy, a new staff and many new players.
In Dom Capers’ first season as Carolina’s coach (and the franchise’s first season, as well), the Panthers went 7-9. In George Seifert’s first season, they went 8-8. In Fox’s first season, they went 7-9 (a six-game improvement from the previous season). In Rivera’s first season, they went 6-10 (a four-game improvement from the previous season).
So much will depend on who takes the snaps…
▪ Christy Martin was named the North Carolina boxing promoter of the year for the third straight year, and Gardner Payne the manager of the year for the third straight year. Both, I assure you, earned the accolades.
Martin recently moved from Charlotte to Texas, and her next promotion is Feb. 8 at the Hard Rock Hotel in Daytona Beach, Fla. She will return to promote a fight in Charlotte.
It’s a tough sell, pro boxing here. But word slowly got out, and the crowds grew. If you like the sport, and you are true to the local boxers, Martin’s shows were a great opportunity, and I hope they will continue to be…
▪ I struggle to envision the Louisiana State offense being stopped. I also struggle to envision Clemson losing. This is what makes Monday’s national championship compelling.
