I always knew that Matt Rhule of Baylor was a smart feller.
Rhule has been a popular name on the latest spinning of the NFL coaching carousel. As such, the head coach held a meeting with his Baylor football players recently to openly discuss the dynamic.
“He said, if he has an opportunity to talk with an NFL team, it would be kinda dumb not to,” sophomore linebacker Terrel Bernard stated.
Which all leads to the latest Rhule update. According to ESPN.com‘s Adam Schefter, Rhule has declined the opportunity to interview for the Cleveland Browns job. Kinda smart not to, given their track record.
That doesn’t mean Baylor’s out of the woods, though, as Rhule is still a candidate for openings in New York and Washington.
Baylor HC Matt Rhule declined the chance to interview for the Cleveland Browns head coaching job, per league sources. Rhule is expected to be a leading candidate for the Giants’ and Panthers’ HC jobs.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) December 31, 2019
Previously, Rhule had interviewed for the Indianapolis Colts job in January of last year before pulling his name from consideration.
In three seasons at Baylor, Rhule has taken a team reeling from scandal to an 11-win squad that will play in the Sugar Bowl New Year’s Day. After going 1-11 in his first season, Rhule pushed the Bears to 7-6 in 2018 before this year’s team went 11-2 and earned a spot in the Big 12 championship game.
Rhule is the second college head coach to turn down an NFL opportunity this month. Northwestern’s Pat Fitzgerald reportedly declined the chance to interview for the opening at Carolina last week.