Indiana Football Loses Key Assistant Coach to NFL Job

Indiana football quarterbacks coach Chandler Whitmer will not return to the Hoosiers' coaching staff next season, an Indiana Athletics spokesperson confirmed Tuesday afternoon to Indiana Hoosiers On SI.

Whitmer, who doubled as the Hoosiers' co-offensive coordinator, will become the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' quarterbacks coach, according to NFL Network. Whitmer will work under offensive coordinator Zac Robinson, who he was an assistant under in 2024 with the Atlanta Falcons.

The Hoosiers hired Whitmer in December of 2024 to replace Tino Sunseri, who followed coach Curt Cignetti from James Madison to Indiana before leaving to be UCLA's offensive coordinator last season. The Bruins fired Sunseri after four games.

Like Sunseri before him, Whitmer is Indiana's lone position coach to depart the program this offseason. The Hoosiers did, however, lose strength and conditioning coach Derek Owings and two of his assistants to the University of Tennessee one day after the national championship game.

Whitmer, 34, is no stranger to the NFL. He served as an offensive quality control coach for the Los Angeles Chargers from 2021-23, and he was the Falcons’ pass game specialist in 2024. His coaching background also includes stints as a graduate assistant at Yale, Ohio State and Clemson.

During his lone season at Indiana, Whitmer served as the Hoosiers' most direct coaching influence on Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Fernando Mendoza.

Cignetti said in October that Whitmer did "a tremendous job developing Fernando," a sentiment he repeated once more in November.

"I think Chandler Whitmer has done a great job, too, of developing him," Cignetti said, "and showing him the way, so to speak."

Mendoza agreed.

The Miami native told reporters in November that Whitmer was "one of the huge reasons" he had the caliber of season he produced, aided by significant strides from both physical and mental standpoints.

Mendoza said he has a better understanding of the game, of footwork, of timing and anticipation and how good players never get bored. Playing quarterback isn't about making Superman plays, he said, but about making the right play with the right read, timing and technique.

"I don't think I can put it in words how much Coach Whitmer has meant to me," Mendoza said. "He's really helped me go from a raw prospect to more refined. There's still a long way to go. This half of the screen to here, a long way to go. But we went from here, and I would say we made a good jump."

Whitmer and Mendoza spent extensive time together hanging out over the summer, be it watching film or talking on the phone about footwork. Mendoza dubbed Whitmer "such a great coach" due to the manner he ironed out technique and mechanics and how he explained the game off the field.

"He reminds me of one of these young superstar coaches like a Sean McVay," Mendoza said. "To have him there be my quarterback coach and to help have his input in the offense, along with Coach Cignetti and Coach (Mike) Shanahan, Coach Whitmer has stepped up above and beyond to help me become the best Fernando Mendoza.

"To have him has been truly special."

Quarterbacks have a strong track record of success under Cignetti and Shanahan. Of the duo's past five signal callers, four have won conference player of the year, capped by Mendoza's Heisman award this past season. The lone exception came in 2024 with Kurtis Rourke, who earned second-team All-Big Ten honors behind Oregon's Dillon Gabriel, the conference player of the year.

Indiana landed TCU transfer quarterback Josh Hoover over the winter, and Hoover figures to take over the reins of the Hoosiers' offense next fall. He's next in the quarterback factory Cignetti and Shanahan co-run, but he won't get the same, Whitmer-stamped experience as Mendoza.