CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Jeff Nixon was a star running back at State College (Pa.) High School in 1991 when an undersized center named Matt Rhule moved there from New York City before his junior season.
They’ve been almost inseparable since. They were best friends in high school, college roommates at Penn State after Nixon made a brief detour to West Virginia, assistant coaches on the 2006 Temple football team and in 2017 reunited at Baylor, where Rhule made Nixon one of the few black offensive coordinators at an FBS school to call plays.
One of Rhule’s first moves after becoming the head coach of the Carolina Panthers on Jan.