Texas Football: Former OC target Joe Brady will join Carolina Panthers

A hotly contested offensive coordinator target for the Texas football program was Joe Brady, who will now be going back to the NFL coaching ranks.

Two very prominent names relating to the Texas football program recently took their coaching talents to the NFL, in the same landing spot with the Carolina Panthers in the NFC South. Former Baylor Bears head coach Matt Rhule will be in the same position with the Panthers this year. And former LSU Tigers Broyles Award winner and passing game coordinator Joe Brady will also join the Panthers coaching staff under Rhule’s direction.

The Texas Longhorns football program had Brady as one of their two most coveted candidates during their initial offensive coordinator search. But head coach Ed Orgeron managed to retain Brady through that initial waive of interest from other suitors. That didn’t for long as the allure of returning to the NFL in a bigger role than he had previously with the New Orleans Saints under head coach Sean Payton ultimately won Brady over.

The first reports that Brady could be joining Rhule’s staff in the NFL with the Panthers came from ESPN’s NFL insider Adam Schefter on Twitter. There is no confirmed role yet or official announcement that Brady will be joining the Panthers coaching staff, but the reports of him taking his coaching talents to the next level is obviously drawing a whole lot of buzz already.

Brady already took on the Longhorns this season, and showed what he can do with a star behind center like senior National Championship winning LSU quarterback Joe Burrow. He might’ve helped develop the No. 1 overall pick in the 2020 NFL Draft just two years after he had to transfer out from the Ohio State Buckeyes when he was buried in the depth chart as a former three-star recruit.

When Brady and the Tigers took on the Longhorns back on Sep. 7, they put up more than 470 passing yards (573 total yards) and 45 points in the seven point win in Austin. They averaged a whopping 12.1 yards per passing attempt in that September battle between the Longhorns and Tigers.

This record-breaking LSU offense involves concepts that Brady already brought from the NFL during his assistant coaching tenure with the Saints. Those concepts could’ve developed over time, which helped lead LSU to beat the Clemson Tigers in the College Football Playoff National Championship Game on Jan. 13.

Meanwhile, Rhule joined the Panthers coaching staff after the firing of former head coach Ron Rivera (who is now the head coach of the Washington Redskins). Rhule was the head coach of the Baylor program during a huge three-year turnaround after they were hit with scandal in 2015 and 2016.

Rhule took the Bears all the way to the Big 12 Championship Game and an appearance in the Sugar Bowl, which resulted in a loss to the No. 5 ranked Georgia Bulldogs. That rise to national prominence with Baylor landed Rhule with a lot of interviews for job openings in the NFL this offseason.

Prior to taking this job with the Panthers and his role as passing game coordinator with LSU, Brady held positions with one other NFL team and two other college football programs. His was an offensive analyst with the Saints and and graduate assistant with the Penn State Nittany Lions. The entire college football coaching career of his started at his alma mater, the William & Mary Tribe, where he was the linebackers coach back in 2013-2014.