PITTSBURGH (93.7 the Fan) – Hired in January as the fourth offensive coordinator in five years of Pat Narduzzi at Pitt, veteran coach Mark Whipple doesn’t lack confidence.
“The system works,” Whipple said. “It’s the one used in the NFL. You are able to use those tapes and show them how to run, I didn’t use UMass tape. I used NFL tape and I think they bought in.”
“They’ve been enthusiastic about it. You can see the confidence in how they are carrying themselves and I think that’s what good coaches do, give players confidence. I think our offensive staff has done that.”
“Huge, huge fan of it, spent a lot of time with him just figuring out what he thinks,” said quarterback Kenny Pickett. “We are getting in sync.”
Whipple said he wants a balanced offense, but much like when he was quarterbacks coach with Ben Roethlisberger and the Steelers, he wants to spread the ball around.
“It’s a unique offense,” Pickett said. “It’s a pro-style and we have some up-tempo elements to it. He does a really good job of keeping the defense off-balance. I think his play-calling is really good, he’s done it for a while.”
“Just by giving playmakers the ball, that’s what we lacked last year,” senior receiver Maurice Ffrench said of the changes at Pitt. “Coach Whipple knows when and where to put people at a certain time and he makes sure that person gets the ball and lets them make a play.”
Whipple has won championships at the NFL and NCAA level and spent the last five years as head coach at Massachusetts, last year averaging 298.1 passing yards a game. That was good for 14th nationally. Compare that to the Panthers last year, 121st nationally at barely 141 yards a game.
“If you are going to have a good passing game, everybody runs and everybody catches,” Whipple said. “You can’t have three guys running a route hard and one guy not. I will point that out, when you look at Alabama or Oklahoma and you watch their tape. All of them are running and it creating spacing and creating mismatches.”
“I’ve been through a couple of playbooks during my time here, I love the knowledge,” said senior Tre Tipton. “I love learning. Whipple is different. He sees things in us that we don’t see yet. He seems to just know exactly what he wants from us and he knows how we can get there. So we believe in them.”
“Everything they say about Coach Whipple is true,” said receiver Taysir Mack. “He’s just a brilliant mind, everything about him. He just understands people’s strengths and puts them in the best position to succeed within the offense.
“I never question what he says because of where he’s been and what he’s done,” Pickett said. “His resume speaks for itself. So whatever he says, I soak it up.”
Head coach Pat Narduzzi said he likes what they are doing combining what Whipple brought with stuff done here in the past. Narduzzi said they will continue to run the football as well.
Junior all-ACC center Jimmy Morrissey says he loves that 62-year-old Whipple is a “football guy” and all he cares about is scoring touchdowns.
“His confidence is contagious throughout the entire facility,” Morrissey said. “He believes in his system. He believes in his play-calling and I think he believes in us. That instills a lot of confidence in us when we see a coach that truly believes in how we play in his system.”
“He comes in every day and tells us we think we can win a national championship,” Mack said. “Him having that confidence in us, feeling like we can achieve this in his playbook, it makes us more confident.