Pitt names Whipple OC
Pat Narduzzi taps former Steelers quarterback coach Mark Whipple.
It’s been more than a decade, but the name Mark Whipple is one to know again in the Pittsburgh football scene. Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi tapped Whipple, former Steelers quarterback coach, to replace Shawn Watson as Panthers offensive coordinator. Narduzzi announced the hire Monday night.
“Mark Whipple is truly one of the best teachers of offensive football in the country — college and pro,” Narduzzi said in a statement. “His track record working with quarterbacks is simply outstanding and I know that positional group will really grow under his influence.”
Whipple, who also will serve as quarterbacks coach, most recently was head coach at University of Massachusetts but stepped down after this past season. He was there for five years, compiling a 6570 mark, and now he’s back in an assistant role at Pitt.
A veteran coordinator and quarterbacks coach, Whipple, who turns 62 in April, spent 2004-06 in Pittsburgh with the Steelers under head coach Bill Cowher. His time here coincided with the first three seasons of Ben Roethlisberger’s NFL career, and Roethlisberger told the Massachusetts Daily Collegian in 2014 that Whipple “really taught me how to be a pro when it comes to doing the football side of things.”
Throughout his almost four-decade coaching career, Whipple has bounced back and forth between college and pro football. A few years after his stint with the Steelers, he made his first stop in the ACC, taking over as offensive coordinator at Miami. His Hurricanes teams averaged 30.3 and 26.7 points per game for two years until head coach Randy Shannon’s staff was fired.
A former quarterback at Brown University, Whipple coached that position again for two more seasons with the Cleveland Browns in 2011 and 2012, then made his way back to Massachusetts for a second go-round from 1998-2003. Whipple won a national championship in Division IAA with his Massachusetts team in 1998, and Super Bowl XL with the Steelers in 2006.
His Minutemen went 4-8 this past season, but with Whipple also serving as offensive coordinator, they scored 40 or more points five times while playing as a Football Bowl Subdivision independent. Massachusetts ranked 36th in FBS with 32.8 points per game, and averaged 298 yards passing to 139.8 rushing. Whipple’s offense had the leading receiver in FBS in senior Andy Isabella, who reeled in 102 catches for 1,698 yards and 13 touchdowns.
“Mark will not only make a huge impact from an offensive standpoint, but his tremendous wealth of experience will benefit our entire program,” Narduzzi added. “I really value the fact that we are adding another staff member who has been a head coach.”
Whipple had received a contract extension at Massachusetts in April 2018, and had two years left on a deal that paid him an annual base salary of $500,000. It is unlikely that Pitt will disclose the terms of their agreement.
Narduzzi and Whipple have never worked together, but have some similar roots. Narduzzi played at the University of Rhode Island in the late 1980s, then coached there for much of the 1990s, two decades Whipple spent most of his time working in New England. Whipple also has a Pitt tie, as his older son Spencer, a former standout quarterback at Pine-Richland High School, was a Panthers walk-on in 2007 and later served as a graduate assistant from 2012-13.