A Jersey Guy: Nebraska makes a Big Time Big Ten move
He is the ultimate quarterback whisperer, so good, so respected even head coaches who were quarterbacks themselves, seek his council.
Down-trodden Nebraska and embattled coach Scott Frost didn't generate major headline news with the announcement earlier this week the Huskers' new offensive coordinator would be Pittsburgh OC Mark Whipple.
But trust me, by time next year ,that may be different
Nebraska (3-9) has probably dropped as far as it could go under Frost, the former Husker QB who came back to revive the once elite program.
To save his job, Frost was told, much like Michigan QB (and former Wolverinne QB Jim Harbaugh), to change his staff.
Harbaugh did that and the No. 2 ranked Wolverines, with 12-1 record and a Big Ten tile, are in the hunt for a national championship, facing off against No. 3 Georgia in an Orange Bowl CFP semifinal on New Year's Eve.
Now it is Nebraska's turn.
With Whipple as the Huskers offensive coordinator, the Huskers can make the same kind of turnaround.
Frost, who is regarded as an offensive genius by more than a few folks, conceded he needed help when he flew to Arizona over the weekend to talk to Whipple about taking the burden of running the offense off a head coach's table that was already overloaded with tasks.
Whipple said, No problem, he could do that.
Offering a two year contract--something Whipple could not get from Pitt head coach Pat Narduzzi at double the 475,000 he was making for the Panthers, made it an easy decision
For Frost, it was a call for aid, which prompted the equivalent of arrival of the 82nd airborne division.
Whipple is that good.
I know because I've known Whipple for almost 25 years and watched some of his magic in person.
But there is also other supporting evidence.
Remember when UCLA Chip Kelly was college football's flavor of the month at Oregon 15 years ago, with an innovative offense which made the Ducks a national power and boosted Kelly into an NFL job with the Philadelphia Eagles?
Kelly's mentor was Mark Whipple, who was the QB coach at New Hampshire when Kelly was a player.
Remember when Pittsburgh Steeler QB Ben Roethlisberger was doing his best impression of a young emerging superstar QB?
Whipple was the Steelers' QB coach.
Whipple's latest project has been at Pitt the last three years with an unheralded QB named Kenny Pickett, who had bounced through the early part of his career without much success.
Whipple arrived at Pitt, after his second stint as head coach at UMass, and Pickett went from a projected 5th round draft choice to a Heisman finalist and a projected first round (and first QB chosen) pick next spring
.In addition, Pickett is the QB of Pitt's first Atlantic Coast Conference championship team.
Whipple's arrival and Pickett's success are not coincidences.
Before he was a QB Whisperer, he was a QB--and a pretty good one at Brown, where he got not only a degree, while leading his team to an Ivy League title--Ivy fans knowing Brown's history should ponder that.
Whipple's skills were not in playing but in coaching and teaching.
He began his coaching career at New Hampshire in 1986 and has never looked back, starting a 34 year journey that took him to Massachusetts, once as the coach of an FCS school which won the national championship in his first season at UMass and brought him back for a second less successful stint when the Minutemen made the transition to the FBS level.
I witnessed some of Whipple's coaching skills when I was at the Boston Globe covering college football and Whipple was in his second season at UMass, taking his defending national championship team into a first round FCS (then 1-AA) tournament game at Furman.
My assignment that day was to get an inside look at how games are won or lost at UMass, a job made much easier since Whipple gave me almost total access.
At the half, UMass trailed 14-10 and the offense was sputtering to say the least.
In the coaches locker room, adjacent to the small, sparse visiting team locker room, Whipple looked at his staff, ""Any ideas, guys?''
Crickets
.Whipple nodded and sat on a bench, took some papers from his pocket and started scribbling.
In a few minutes, he looked up and said, "Ok. We're good.''
He then walked into a fairly subdued locker room and basically told his team that Furman had played as well as it could and UMass hadn't come close to doing what it could and that everything was OK.
With a "UMass on 3"" shout, the Minutemen charged onto the field, scored a couple of quick touchdowns, grabbed the lead and posted a 30-23 OT victory.
Whipple fixes things. That is what he has done with programs, with offenses and with QB's.
If there is a mystery in this tale is why hasn't this skill translated to a career as an elite head coach in the mold of Nick Saban or a Lincoln Riley.
Whipple has flirted with head jobs. Boston College, UConn and Rutgers, three programs needing help, all talked to Whipple.
In classic examples of administrative incompetence, all three schools went4 in other directions which all failed.
Whipple's departure from Pitt was sudden but not totally unexpected, considering the Panthers won their first ever ACC title.
A ceiling had been reached.
At 64, Whipple knew as much as what he didn't want., as what he did wanted.
Some family issues made it more important to be closer to his Scottsdale, Arizona home, which as Whipple told me with a laugh earlier this week, "is an hour and 15 minute plane flight from Lincoln.''
Whipple didn't want to return to the NFL.
He wasn't going to be a head coach and stops with the Steelers, Browns and Eagles had sated his NFL appetite.
He also doesn't have an overwhelming desire to be a head coach again, citing the numerous bureaucratic responsibilities which can clog a coaches daily routine.
But he wants to coach and to teach and to see success created from failure.
Nebraska is the right place at the right time.
The Big Ten needs Nebraska to be not only good, but relevant,
So does college football.
Whipple is the right man who is in the right place at the right time.
And with his arrival, you can count on a QB portal transfer of quality will soon be in Lincoln as well.
Mark Whipple, after all, is the ultimate QB whisperer.