Matt Rhule believes NFL stint better prepared him as a college coach

After turning Temple and Baylor around in short order, Matt Rhule headed to the next level as the Carolina Panthers head coach. His time in the NFL didn’t go as planned, though, as the Panthers fired him five games into his third season.

Now, he’s back in the college game at Nebraska. But even though he didn’t get the results on the field in Carolina, he learned some things about his coaching style — and he thinks it’ll translate in his return to college.

“I think my time in the NFL really prepared me to do this better,” Rhule said Friday.

Now that Rhule has spent some time at the next level, he thinks he can have the Nebraska players more ready to compete in the NFL. While he’s still maintaining a practice schedule similar to the one he had at Baylor, he pointed out the difference between the two levels of the game and how he can teach the Cornhuskers about that during his time in Lincoln.

“I think if we’re playing for our staff or if they’re being recruited by our staff, they’re probably better prepared for things at the next level than maybe before,” Rhule said. “I’ve adopted probably more walk-throughs and things like that than meetings after my time there because I just see the value of getting out there and feeling it and doing it.

“Football’s so different. At that level, you’re preparing for outside zone and duo and then you get here and it’s like, ‘How are we gonna handle this RPO, that RPO? Football is way more, in some ways, complex or different, varied. We’re kind of going with the same schedule we used at Baylor. It’s a unique practice schedule, but it’s something we believe in. So excited to do it with the guys.”

Matt Rhule at Big Ten Media Days: ‘I was meant to work’ at the college level

At Big Ten Media Days, Rhule talked about how he learned he belonged at the collegiate level when asked by On3 about what took him back. He spoke about his love for college football, specifically recruiting and the family aspect.

That’s how he found his “purpose.”

“I think we’re all meant to do something,” Rhule said. “We all have a purpose with our lives. I was meant to work with this age group. … For me and my purpose working with young people, I just enjoy the college game. I enjoy recruiting, I enjoy getting to know the parents, I enjoy watching guys graduate, I enjoy watching guys get jobs, have kids. I’m now starting to get to the point where guys I coached, their kids are starting to come up. Scary, but true. … And part of my NFL experience was also COVID, so that was kind of off, too.

“But I just like being around young people in these formative years and watching them becomes things that, maybe, they didn’t know they were going to be.”

Rhule will make his Nebraska debut Aug. 31 when the Cornhuskers take on Minnesota.