Quick Facts
Biography
Matthew Kenneth Rhule (born January 31, 1975) is an American football coach and former player. He is currently the head football coach at Baylor University. He was previously the coach of Temple University where he led them to back-to-back 10-win seasons for the first time in school history.
Early years
Rhule grew up in New York City before his family moved to State College, Pennsylvania as a teenager. Rhule played linebacker at State College High School before walking on as a linebacker to Penn State. At Penn State, Rhule played four years underneath Joe Paterno and was a three-time Penn State Scholar-Athlete and an Academic All-Big Ten honoree in 1997.
Coaching career
Assistant coaching
Following the end of his playing career, Rhule was hired as the linebackers coach for Albright College. After one year at Albright, Rhule had stops at Buffalo, UCLA and Western Carolina before being hired at Temple as a defensive line coach in 2006. Rhule would switch to quarterbacks coach in 2007 before being named Temple's offensive coordinator in 2008.
New York Giants
After six years at Temple, Rhule joined Tom Coughlin's New York Giants as the assistant offensive line coach. With the Giants, Rhule coached Super Bowl champions like David Diehl, Kevin Boothe and Chris Snee.
Temple
On December 17, 2012, Rhule was named the 26th head football coach at Temple, succeeding Steve Addazio who left to become the head coach at Boston College.
In July 2015, Rhule signed a four-year extension with Temple that extended him through the 2021 season. After a tremendous third year with the Owls, this deal was re-negotiated to keep Rhule at the university. He was the target of Mizzou and Syracuse, but chose to remain at Temple.
On September 5, 2015, in front of 69,741 fans, Rhule defeated his Alma Mater, Penn State, 27-10 - the Owls' first win over the Lions since 1941.
In his third year as Temple's head coach, Rhule's Temple team went 10-2 in the regular season, winning the American's East Division and took part in the conference's inaugural championship game. The next season, he took the Owls to their second consecutive championship game, where they won their first conference championship since 1967.
Baylor
On December 6, 2016, Rhule was named the head football coach at Baylor University, replacing interim head coach Jim Grobe.
NFL players coached
Throughout his time as a head coach, Rhule has coached a number of players that would go on to play in the National Football League.
Temple
| Draft Year | Player Name | Position | Round | Pick | Team |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | Kenneth Harper | RB | N/A | N/A | Undrafted (signed with New York Giants) |
| 2016 | Tavon Young | CB | 4th round | 104th overall | Baltimore Ravens |
| 2016 | Matt Ioannidis | DE | 5th round | 152nd overall | Washington Redskins |
| 2016 | Tyler Matakevich | LB | 7th round | 246th overall | Pittsburgh Steelers |
| 2016 | Robby Anderson | WR | N/A | N/A | Undrafted (signed with New York Jets) |
| 2016 | Kyle Friend | C | N/A | N/A | Undrafted (signed with New York Jets) |
| 2016 | Shahbaz Ahmed | OG | N/A | N/A | Undrafted (signed with Atlanta Falcons) |
| 2016 | Brandon Shippen | WR | N/A | N/A | Undrafted (signed with Miami Dolphins) |
Head coaching record
| Year | Team | Overall | Conference | Standing | Bowl/playoffs | Coaches# | AP° | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Temple Owls (American Athletic Conference) (2013–2016) | |||||||||
| 2013 | Temple | 2–10 | 1–7 | T–9th | |||||
| 2014 | Temple | 6–6 | 4–4 | 6th | |||||
| 2015 | Temple | 10–4 | 7–1 | 1st (East) | L Boca Raton | ||||
| 2016 | Temple | 10–3 | 7–1 | 1st (East) | Military* | ||||
| Temple: | 28–23 | 19–13 | * Departed Temple for Baylor before bowl game | ||||||
| Baylor Bears (Big 12 Conference) (2017–present) | |||||||||
| 2017 | Baylor | ||||||||
| Baylor: | |||||||||
| Total: | 28–23 | ||||||||
| National championship Conference title Conference division title | |||||||||
| #Rankings from final Coaches Poll. °Rankings from final AP Poll. | |||||||||