Matt Rhule has left the Baylor Bears for the NFL by becoming the next head coach of the Carolina Panthers. What does this mean for Baylor going forward?
Matt Rhule is back in the NFL.
We had a sneaking suspicion Rhule was coaching his final game with the Baylor Bears in the Sugar Bowl on New Year’s Day. Rhule was garnering too much attention from NFL teams needing a program builder for us to reasonably think he’d stay in Waco heading into the 2020s.
On Tuesday, Yahoo’s Pete Thamel reported Rhule would be the next head coach of the Carolina Panthers. He was given a seven-year deal to build the Panthers’ culture back up to something respectable. Carolina essentially quit after its former head coach Ron Rivera was fired by owner David Tepper mid-season. The Panthers are in great shape long-term, but what about Baylor?
Well, Baylor is in a better place than it was when Rhule arrived in Waco in 2017. The program was in shambles after Art Briles’ toxic culture wrecked it in 2015. Sure, Jim Grobe came in for a year in 2016 to watch over this downtrodden program, but nobody expected much out of Rhule once he left Temple for Baylor in 2017. He proved us all wrong in the last few years.
Ultimately, Baylor is in terrific position to hire a strong successor to Rhule for the 2020s. Baylor should take its time on this, but the program can land any number of great coaches, including Dino Babers of the Syracuse Orange and Bryan Harsin of the Boise State Broncos. Those are two candidates Baylor should shoot for, but there is also a chance they may promote from within.
One coach one Rhule’s staff who might become his long-term replacement is associate head coach Joey McGuire. He was hired on Rhule’s staff in 2017 as a defensive ends coach, gaining associate head coach status just last year. Before coming to Baylor, McGuire had been a long-time head coach at Cedar Hill High School in Texas, winning three state championships.
Normally, promoting from within for a college head coach is met with criticism, but it has been a popular trend during this coaching cycle. Three notable programs have promoted from within this offseason in Jimmy Lake at Washington, Ryan Silverfield at Memphis and Shawn Clark at Appalachian State. Baylor could do the same, but it should target Babers and Harsin first.
Overall, Baylor will take a step back in the Big 12 hierarchy, at least temporarily. We can’t expect the Bears to play for a conference championship again in 2020. Look for Oklahoma and Texas to clash for it all in Arlington in early December. That being said, Baylor now has the culture to re-emerge as a top-25 team as early as next season and contend for the Big 12 title in 2021.
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