Rhule from afar: How Carolina Panthers coach has influenced Beamer, other USC coaches
In the middle of last week, despite the NFL regular season only just ending, Carolina Panthers head coach Matt Rhule reached out to Shane Beamer.
At that point, Rhule had heard the news about offensive coordinator Mike Bobo and offensive line coach Will Friend leaving Beamer’s first staff as South Carolina’s head coach — only weeks after both had been announced as hires.
Rhule told Beamer stories about when he was first hired as a head coach at Temple in 2013 and at Baylor in 2017. At both stops, Rhule’s choice for offensive coordinator ended up leaving before spring practice even began. Even though Rhule and Beamer have never coached on the same staff, they’ve coached against each other in the Big 12, they’ve run in similar circles, and Rhule could empathize with Beamer’s situation.
Rhule told Beamer, “take your time and get this staff right,” and the two coaches continued to exchange texts throughout the last few days. Their talks intensified as Rhule’s assistant offensive line coach on the Panthers, Marcus Satterfield, emerged as Bobo’s replacement on Beamer’s staff.
“(Rhule) reached out towards the middle of last week when all this stuff was going on with Mike, and he was great,” Beamer said during his Monday news conference with reporters. “And then since then, we’ve talked a few more times about Marcus and about me putting together the staff, and he’s somebody that I will continue to lean on, I’m sure.”
Rhule’s imprint is apparent on Beamer’s staff. On Monday, Beamer introduced Satterfield as offensive coordinator and Clayton White as defensive coordinator. In the early 2000s, both Satterfield and White coached with Rhule under current Georgia Tech head coach Geoff Collins at Western Carolina.
Beamer didn’t merely follow Rhule’s recommendations, though. Beamer has been friends with Satterfield for some time, dating back 20 years to when they both served as graduate assistants at Tennessee. Beamer said he used to hear Satterfield rave about Rhule during his Western Carolina days.
When Rhule lost his offensive coordinator at Temple, Satterfield was the one promoted. And Satterfield followed Rhule to coaching roles at both Baylor and with the Panthers.
“He’s invested in my career early on,” Satterfield said Monday about Rhule. “Matt invested in me in 2013 as his offensive coordinator at Temple ... so just watching how he invested in his guys, and how 24/7, he’s there for them, the players know he’s there for them, I think that’s something I’ll always take with me.”
Rhule, 45, led the Panthers to a 5-11 season in his first year as an NFL head coach, losing star running back Christian McCaffrey to injury for a significant chunk of his season. With the Panthers still hunting for a new general manager, Beamer knows he can’t lean on Rhule too heavily at the moment, but expect the two coaches to remain in contact.
“I don’t want to wear him out right now, but I’m going to be relying on him,” Beamer said. “And there’s a lot of guys that are head coaches that I have a lot of respect for, but what he did at Baylor, what he did at Temple, I saw it up close and personal being in the Big 12. We (Oklahoma) played him in the Big 12 championship last year.
“Phenomenal coach and phenomenal program builder. I’m excited about having Satt in the building to lean on him about some of the things they did, but also excited about being able to have (Rhule) 90 miles up the road.”
This story was originally published January 11, 2021 at 4:13 PM.
