I stumbled upon a free BU site and read a lot of comments about Rhule's start. I thought some might enjoy a read from a 30+ year Temple FB fanatic. In all seriousness, I can say there are probably only a couple hundred people on the planet that can lay claim to that.

Let me start by saying I like Matt Rhule as a Coach. I don't think Matt Rhule likes me as a fan. Let me explain. It was in Kent Ohio sometime around 2008. Yea, you probably wouldn't be caught dead watching a MAC game on a Wed Night but to a long suffering Temple fan playing on ESPN w a winning record was just as big to me as any game you might have vs Oklahoma. It was raining, chilly and there were less than 750 people in the stands. Really, you could hear everything in the stadium and Rhule, then our OC, certainly heard me as I thought his mishandling of our offense was gonna cost us a win vs lowly Kent (led by Julian Edelman at QB.) I was so loud one of the players actually walked over to me and told me to "STFU, you don't know what you're talking about. We got this guy's back.) It was a player I respected and up until last year when I attended Temple functions, Im pretty sure Rhule recognized me. And I was embarrassed.

Rhule came to us as part of a new staff in 2006. In 2005, we were the worst organization in college football. I could spend hours telling you just how poorly managed and inept we were. In ALL aspects, commitment, prospects, grades, arrests....and we were awful, a laughingstock playing in front of 1,500 people in an NFL Stadium. I understood Rhule was a tireless recruiter. Low man on the totem but tireless. Those first 2 years, we recruited 8 players who would go on to NFL careers, including #1 Jets Draft Choice Mo Wilkerson....our 1st #1 RD pick in 20+ years. Wilkerson didn't have any D1 offers. He had to prep, then got some attention but he stayed w Temple. Rhule and his staff were able to spot, recuit AND develop talent.

Rhule ended up w the HC job in 2013. He left for 1 year in what was likely a political thing w then HC Steve Adazzio. We were a mess in '13. We went 2-10 and everyone wanted Rhule fired. We had gradually improved and everyone blamed Rhule and his staff for the collapse. We lost on consecutive weeks to Fordham and Idaho !!! Rhule moved to younger players who seemed to buy into his system. The last game of the terrible season we went into Memphis and blew them out. I think we were 3 TD dogs but in hindsight, it was a sign.

Im not going to bore you with Temple's recent FB history but we won our first conference championship in 45 years by the time he finished with us, in just 4 years. We were playing to sellout crowds, beating teams in dramatic fashion and even played a game vs Notre Dame on a prime time sat night standing at 7-0. Earlier that day, we hosted ESPN Gameday, something I never thought I would ever experience in my lifetime. Might be funny to the reader but we were only 1 damn Western Michigan loss from playing in the Access Bowl. Temple playing on New Years Day. well almost. 8-9 more players from that 2 win team are in the Sunday League including 2016 NCAA Defensive Player of the Year Tyler Matakevich and 2017 # 1 RD pick Hassan Reddick.......neither player had a single other FBS offer. Reddick actually walked on.

I recognize the B12 is a better league than the American. I know the players are generally better, faster and the schedule is much more grueling. I don't know if Rhule will succeed. I don't know if his message will play in Texas battling all the other powerhouse schools for prospects. All I can tell you is you are getting a talented, committed coach (and staff) who greatly improved individual players and coached them up into being a great team. I would have never believed it had I not lived it. He and his staff worked miracles at Temple.

Good luck, Im watching from Philly

Good post. Appreciate you coming in to give us your perspective.

Interesting comments. Thanks

WAC

Good advise: we should be patient and see what happens.

MH55 said:

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I was so loud one of the players actually walked over to me and told me to "STFU, you don't know what you're talking about. We got this guy's back.)

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This is exactly why people on this board need to chill. You can't back the players and flame the coach at the same time. Not this early, anyway. To me, it's nearly a miracle that he hasn't lost the locker room. There is tremendous buy-in from young, talented players that haven't won a game yet this year. That, at least to me, speaks to this guy's potential. Give him the time he deserves.

Very good post and perspective.

Bearish said:

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MH55 said:

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I was so loud one of the players actually walked over to me and told me to "STFU, you don't know what you're talking about. We got this guy's back.)

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This is exactly why people on this board need to chill. You can't back the players and flame the coach at the same time. Not this early, anyway. To me, it's nearly a miracle that he hasn't lost the locker room. There is tremendous buy-in from young, talented players that haven't won a game yet this year. That, at least to me, speaks to this guy's potential. Give him the time he deserves.

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Excellent point.

Bearish said:

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MH55 said:

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I was so loud one of the players actually walked over to me and told me to "STFU, you don't know what you're talking about. We got this guy's back.)

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This is exactly why people on this board need to chill. You can't back the players and flame the coach at the same time. Not this early, anyway. To me, it's nearly a miracle that he hasn't lost the locker room. There is tremendous buy-in from young, talented players that haven't won a game yet this year. That, at least to me, speaks to this guy's potential. Give him the time he deserves.

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Well if what he says is true, the players had a coaching staff quit on them last year. If nothing else these guys are going to go to bat for him and his staff. Thats what all that community service and meals together was all about. Some of the best policing of a team comes from other players holding each other accountable on and off the field. I see it often with the Clemson players and it goes much further than the coaches barking orders.

MH55 said:

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The last game of the terrible season we went into Memphis and blew them out. I think we were 3 TD dogs but in hindsight, it was a sign.

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I hope history repeats itself in Ft Worth this year.

I still think he is going to have to go with a balanced HUNH spread to end up as successful here as he ended up at Temple.

Nice original comments. A knowledgeable post about Rhule's capabilities is a rare site in these parts. Come back anytime.

Thanks for insights, they are helpful.

Given time hopefully Rhule will prove the trust in him, reasonable people are going to give it to him.

PartyBear said:

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I still think he is going to have to go with a balanced HUNH spread to end up as successful here as he ended up at Temple.

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His offense at Temple was way more dynamic than the stuff we have been forced to watch. In particular that UTSA game was just painful. Not sure how much he wants to be involved in play calling, but he really needs to get out the way. Our best game offensively was the one game he got of the way and let the Co-OC call the game. Why have 2 if you are just going to get in the middle of things

ImwithBU said:

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PartyBear said:

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I still think he is going to have to go with a balanced HUNH spread to end up as successful here as he ended up at Temple.

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His offense at Temple was way more dynamic than the stuff we have been forced to watch. In particular that UTSA game was just painful. Not sure how much he wants to be involved in play calling, but he really needs to get out the way. Our best game offensively was the one game he got of the way and let the Co-OC call the game. Why have 2 if you are just going to get in the middle of things

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Agree with you. I have said numerous times since the OU game that he needs to just let go of the offense and let his staff run it. The one time he let the OCs do their thing we almost knocked off number 3 at the time. I think his OCs are better than he has allowed them to look thus far.

Excellent post!

Success at Temple can't compensate for 0 data points at Baylor. Until he has some there is nothing real to feel optimistic about. But we are stuck no matter what.

Great post. Thanks for this. Very encouraging. The problem, however, for us Baylor fans the Rhule in your story is Briles in ours. I have lived though many horrible seasons and Briles made me believe... now everything has changed. I hate it. It makes the 0-5 so much harder. I like Rhule a lot. I believe in the process, I'm willing to give him a chance to succeed. I'm at every game and cheering our bears. But man, it's so hard right now. But again thanks for this post. It helps a little, as we walk with Rhule though this process...

MH55 said:

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I stumbled upon a free BU site and read a lot of comments about Rhule's start. I thought some might enjoy a read from a 30+ year Temple FB fanatic. In all seriousness, I can say there are probably only a couple hundred people on the planet that can lay claim to that.

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I quit reading right there and just thought, "I'd have a beer with that guy."

You're nuts and I admire that.

The biggest challenge Rhule is facing is adapting to the style of offenses in the Big12.

Every HS kid in Texas is groomed playing the spread.
Every HS kid in the Philly area is playing tight formation power ball and running the football.

Rhule has developed some impressive linebackers, but it''s more about nickle backs and corners in the spread game. The offenses in sunbelt states are different.

Anything can happen..

You don't get a 2nd chance after losing to Liberty. That already proves you are a horrible coach.

timetraveler said:

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You don't get a 2nd chance after losing to Liberty. That already proves you are a horrible coach.

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Enjoy the couch, Art!

graysongrundhoefer said:

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timetraveler said:

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You don't get a 2nd chance after losing to Liberty. That already proves you are a horrible coach.

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What if I told you Nick Saban lost to UL Monroe in 2006, UAB in 2000? While having Alabama and LSU talent?

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He doesn't care, the cult of personality for the disgraced former regime has him too indoctrinated to return to sanity.

graysongrundhoefer said:

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timetraveler said:

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You don't get a 2nd chance after losing to Liberty. That already proves you are a horrible coach.

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What if I told you Nick Saban lost to UL Monroe in 2006, UAB in 2000? While having Alabama and LSU talent?

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What if i told you that that alabama team won 7 games and had Kevin Steele as its DC?

graysongrundhoefer said:

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Drunken hookup @ old main said:

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graysongrundhoefer said:

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timetraveler said:

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You don't get a 2nd chance after losing to Liberty. That already proves you are a horrible coach.

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What if I told you Nick Saban lost to UL Monroe in 2006, UAB in 2000? While having Alabama and LSU talent?

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What if i told you that that alabama team won 7 games and had Kevin Steele as its DC?

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Wait so Saban, the head coach at Bama, had 4 top 25 recruiting classes on his roster and lost to UL Monroe?

Recruiting rankings for 2007 team
2004- ranked 21
2005- ranked 16
2006- ranked 13
2007- ranked 3

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His entire season want a failure, just one game was a failure. That's the difference.

He'd also won a national title by then, not a single mid-major conference title and 0 bowl games.

This is a phenomenal post. Thanks for sharing. We welcome your participation anytime.

thank you for coming on here and sharing your thoughts. Reasonable Baylor fans appreciate it. Even some unreasonable fans like WAC_K_O Bear appreciate the quality of your post. There are some other miserable souls who have already closed their hearts and minds to Rhule because he did the unthinkable, lost a few games he should not have lost. Since he is the first football coach in the history of the game to do that, he gets no leeway from these football savants.

The guy is 42 years old. He is not in his coaching prime and yet he has already had more success before 42 on the college level than most of the geniuses who feel like he has no chance to succeed. He even has a stronger resume at age 42 than guys like Nick Saban had at that age.

Take this board's darling coach for example, Matt Campbell who is also very young at 37. He lost his opening game at Iowa State to Northern Iowa, an FCS team that ended up 5-6 last year. In year 2, he beat Oklahoma on the road and appears headed to a bowl game or at least has that program headed in a good direction.

But back to your original post, I think Rhule has a champion mindset. I like the steps that he is taking to build a great program. He has significant logistical advantages over a Matt Campbell at Iowa State so he should have this program competing for championships in the very near future. Come back anytime and share your perspectives with us.

Great perspective! We live in a world of immediate gratification, win now or you stink not taking into account the overwhelming challenges which were/still in front of us. Anything of value takes dedication, tenacity and will-and sometimes time. I hope Rhule can continue his record of success with us in Waco and I feel anyone who has totally written him off is not realistic to challenge he has reviving our beloved Bears.
Sic'em

Great lead post. Thanks.

Part of what's going on here is that we were very good just 2 years ago. We then did whatever the hell it is that we did. So, that makes it tougher on fans to give Rhule time than if he was coming in when we had been bottomed out for a while. The bottoming out is actually happening on his watch. That doesn't mean he can't turn it around. But it does explain the dynamic a bit.

The fact that he hasn't lost the locker room is a very good sign. Steele lost the locker room after a couple weeks and never got it back.

timetraveler said:

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You don't get a 2nd chance after losing to Liberty. That already proves you are a horrible coach.

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he lost to fordham at temple...that might be worse lol. he recovered and don't think many temple fans were talking about it when they finally were winning for the first time in 45 years.

MH55

Thank you for sharing your thoughts. In a somewhat random turn of events I received my masters degree from Temple in 15-16. So I was going to philly on weekends twice a month. Nothing to do on the weekend I went to Temple games. I agree with your assessment. If Ruhle can create a program that played like his at Temple and get our athletecism and depth back to 2015 level, we will be a good program.

I also hope Temple gets that on campus stadium. think it will go a long way to creating sustained success.

PartyBear said:

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I still think he is going to have to go with a balanced HUNH spread to end up as successful here as he ended up at Temple.

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The problem with that is an up-tempo scheme has markedly detrimental effects on the Defense. Rhule wants a Defensively focused team, and that aim is incompatible with that style of Offense. Running an up-tempo Offense might work this year and next purely as a transitionary thing, but we won't be running 85-100 offensive plays a game by year 3 if we can help it.

Rhule is the first coach in the history of Baylor to likely win zero games all year with 74 3* and 4* players. He may be the first coach in the history of NCAA football to go winless with this much talent.

Believe it or not, I appreciate positivity, but I am curious how bad does it have to get or can it ever get bad enough for some of you to really care about wining or losing. If we get kicked out of the Big 12, we can look back to this hire as the final straw.

He needs to win (with a clean program). Everything else is just talk.