Matt Rhule finally admits what went wrong with the Carolina Panthers

Former Carolina Panthers head coach Matt Rhule opened up on what went wrong for him during his stint with the team.

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Oct 9, 2022; Charlotte, North Carolina, USA; Carolina Panthers head coach Matt Rhule during the second half against the San Francisco 49ers at Bank of America Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jim Dedmon-USA TODAY Sports
Image via Jim Dedmon-USA TODAY Sports

Matt Rhule's run with the Carolina Panthers wasn't a long one. 

He coached the Panthers from 2020 through 2022 and lost each season while at the helm. 

Rhule recently opened up about his NFL failure during a sitdown interview with college football analyst Joel Klatt. 

“I would not be able to be the head coach at Nebraska had I not gone through that. Every decision you make is magnified at Nebraska ten times over and if you’re not really confident in who you are, I could see it really affecting you.

“I’ve had 50,000, 70,000 people in the Panthers’ stadium screaming to fire me. What I learned through all of that is, I just want to make it all about my players. It’s not about me. I came back to college football because I knew young people needed coaches that cared about them, coaches that don’t want to throw them away, coaches that don’t want to give up on them.

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“If I learned anything during my time there (at Carolina), it was Christian McCaffrey, Brian Burns, all these amazing players I had a chance to coach…they’re just people. You see them as superstars, but they’re just people. I lost a little bit of that during COVID. One of the worst things I did early on there I didn’t connect enough. In my last year, I did an amazing job, I think, of connecting with those players. And they battled for me to the very end. I came back to college now and it’s all about human connection.”

Rhule's tenure with the Panthers sat at 11-27. He never got close to the playoffs and the Panthers cycled through several quarterbacks during his run. 

Rhule was replaced by a slew of head coaches. Carolina hopes Dave Canales sticks around longer than the previous names in his same role.