Yetur Gross-Matos is officially a member of the Carolina Panthers. Lucky for him, he’s already got a few things in common with his new head coach.

First-year NFL head coach Matt Rhule is a State College native and walked ran onto Penn State football a while back. He played linebacker for the Nittany Lions for four years and even earned Academic All-Big Ten Honors in 1997.

Rhule worked his way up the college football coaching ladder after his Nittany Lion career and earned his first head coaching gig with Temple in 2013. During a post-draft interview, Gross-Matos learned he actually crossed paths with Rhule when he was at Temple but had no idea.

Omg. Matt Rhule – according to Gross-Matos – offered him during the recruiting process while Rhule was at Temple. He laughs.
“And I didn’t even know!”

— Jourdan Rodrigue (@JourdanRodrigue) April 25, 2020

Yikes. Gross-Matos explained that he “didn’t even know” Temple offered him during his recruiting process back in 2016.

It’s honestly hard to blame Gross-Matos that Rhule’s offer didn’t quite register on his radar as a high school student. The Virgina native was a four-star recruit and ranked as the fifth-best strong-side defensive end in the nation. He eventually received 20 offers from programs across the country. According to 247Sports, Gross-Matos did, in fact, receive an offer from Temple on January 26, 2016.

To Rhule’s credit, the Owls were coming off a 10-4 overall record in 2015 when they offered to Gross-Matos — including a 27-10 victory over Penn State. Despite that, you can’t argue against the facts, and those aren’t really on Temple’s side, as the Nittany Lions lead the all-time series by a margin of 40-4-1.

Ever since Gross-Matos turned down Rhule, the defensive end recorded 19 career sacks and 37 tackles-for-loss as a Nittany Lion. Rhule eventually ended up at Baylor for three seasons and led the Bears to an 11-3 overall record and Sugar Bowl appearance last season. His success at the collegiate level was enough to upgrade to the Panthers this past January.

Now, the pair of Nittany Lions can join forces in Charlotte. In fact, it seems Gross-Matos will fit in just fine on the Panthers, as he really, really wants to sack Tom Brady. Welcome to the big leagues, kid.