Former Baylor head coach Matt Rhule, a hot name on the NFL coaching carousel these past few weeks, is leaning on one of his former mentors is his new gig as the head coach of the Carolina Panthers.
Tom Coughlin, who coached the New York Giants from 2004-2015, has had a long list of assistants who have gone on to become NFL head coaches themselves. Rhule served on Coughlin’s staff here for one season, 2012, as the assistant defensive line coach.
Now, Rhule is turning back to Coughlin, who was dismissed last month as the Jacksonville Jaguars’ EVP of football operations, for guidance.
Rhule has an established relationship with Coughlin, having worked under him for one season in New York with the Giants. He said during his appearance on this week’s RapSheet and Friends Podcast he gained a whole lot from watching how Coughlin interacted with key members of his roster.
“Yeah, I think I took a lot,” Rhule said. “I think what was really key is that year was right before I was head coach. And so as I went to be head coach at Temple, I tried to apply all the things that I had learned from Tom. I thought coach Coughlin was amazing at his ability to get his message across to the entire team by visiting with one guy at a time. We had some personalities, some great players on that team — [Jason Pierre-Paul], Justin Tuck, Eli Manning, Ahmad Bradshaw. I thought Tom did a great job of going to those guys and understanding that they were probably influencers on the team and making sure the message was getting out there.”
Rhule was heavily linked to the Giants’ head coaching position this offseason but that went to Joe Judge, while the Panthers inked Rhule to a seven-year deal that could be with up to $70 million.
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