Baylor head coach Matt Rhule was close to becoming Jets head coach Matt Rhule earlier this year, but talks with the team never got over the finish line because of a disagreement about the makeup of Rhule’s coaching staff.
Rhule spoke with Peter King last week and said that the experience of interviewing will make him a better coach because it “refines your own philosophy when you go back to your job.” He also said that he wasn’t left with any regrets about how things wound up.
“No, not at all,” Rhule said, via Football Morning in America. “I’m great. I have a great job. That’s been the one thing ... I wasn’t out trying to get a job. We’re building a football program that was in a bad place. I’ll look back someday and say, ‘Hey, we did something good from a human perspective. We’ve made a change in the world for the better.’ And we have a chance to win. I’m in a great place for football. It was really cool being a guy who spent his childhood in New York, huge sports fan, used to go to Knicks and Mets games all the time, to go through that process with the Jets. Good people. Very cool experience.”
Rhule’s name came up in conjunction with the Colts job in 2018, so there’s a good chance he’ll get other looks if he can win at Baylor. Even if he doesn’t, Kliff Kingsbury showed this year that failing to win in college isn’t guaranteed to disqualify you from taking the next step up the coaching ladder.