Miami will announce today that Mark Whipple will be taking over the reigns of the offense for “Mr. Spreads No Huddle McGee” Patrick Nix. Hopefully we will all survive the transition.
Since my original assessment of Whipple, I am definitely in his corner, and even more so now. I have received feedback from people up in the Northeast, obviously more well-versed in his offensive style. In fact, we received info from a direct source, one who has played for Whipple.
From commenter JP:
“…I played WR for Whipple at Umass from 2001-2003 and his offensive schemes are nightmares for opposing defenses.”
Now that is the type of details I want to hear, even if it is a vague assessment. I don’t believe Miami has ever had an OC that has created nightmares for opposing DCs. In fact, they have spent the past 5 years sending out prancing unicorns carrying burlap’s of gold and honey into their dreams.
Whipple took a 2-9 UMass team in 1997, one he did not coach, came in and revamped the entire team, and they won the D1-AA national championship in 1998 with a 12-3 record. Also of note, for those who read into these things too much, was his win in the title game against a Paul Johnson led Georgia Southern team. This guy knows what he is doing with an entire program, let alone just the offense. If Whipple was holding out for an Assistant Head Coach title, who really cares? All titles after the HC are arbitrary anyways. All that matters are who gets the wins, and who calls the plays. I could be the Assistant HC for jebus sake.
Marcel Shipp, a long-time Arizona Cardinal and UMass alum, had this to say about Whipple:
“When we hired Whip, he said in his press conference that we were going to win a national championship,” Marcel Shipp, the all-time leading rusher at UMass, said. “I was like, has he seen the team?
“But somehow he made us believe,” Shipp said of coach Mark Whipple. “They made it happen for us because we had the talent here, but we didn’t know how to use it. They brought us to another level and I take my hat off to the whole staff.”
Yes sir. I need to go find my dancing shoes.
I also had the privilage of playing on the O-Line for coach Whipple at Division II powerhouse, New Haven from 89-93. I can tell you that even as a division II team, he had us believing that we could compete with anyone in the country on any level. Whipple made us believe we could score with any play, at any time, from anywhere on the field and we did it on many occasions. Once the Miami players buy into his system and offensive philosophy hold on to your seats Canes fans, cause it’s going to be fun to watch! Watch out ACC, especially BC and the rest of the country.
MB-
This is great stuff. The accolades continue to pile in! We Canes fans just need to realize Whipple will not bring in a national title in year one, but hey, asking for an ACC title game appearance is good for me.