Baylor head coach Matt Rhule is reportedly still being considered for the Indianapolis Colts’ head coaching job. This comes after Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels turned down the job on Tuesday. Rhule was interviewed by the Colts last month, but eventually turned the offer down. According to Adam Schefter, the Colts may be going back to Rhule after he’s finished with National Signing Day on Wednesday.
On a recent SportsCenter hit, Schefter named new head coaches in Tennessee’s Mike Vrabel, Arizona’s Steve Wilks, and Chicago’s Matt Nagy as misses for the Colts so far, so them going back to Rhule isn’t completely illogical.
Rhule has spent one season as Baylor’s head coach. It was ugly. Baylor went 1-11, including early losses to Conference USA foe UTSA and FCS opponent Liberty. Before that, Rhule was the head coach at Temple, where he went 28-23 in four years — but 20-7 over his last two, when he reached double-digit wins twice and won the AAC in 2016. Rhule has a strong reputation in the college football community.
He took over Baylor after the Bears spent the 2016 season under an interim head coach, Jim Grobe, and went 7-6. Grobe was only in the job because Baylor fired Art Briles before that season, amid a sexual misconduct scandal that also led to the ouster of Baylor’s then-athletic director and chancellor. The program lost players and recruits after Briles’ departure, and Rhule didn’t have the same team his predecessors did.
The Colts fired coach Chuck Pagano after the regular season. We’ll see how Indy will do with Rhule in the second go-round.