Mark Whipple
Offensive coordinator across 2 programs, 2 stints, before and after wearing the head-coach hat — every season measured on the same axis, whether he personally ran the unit or someone else did.
Mark Whipple
Followed Charley Molnar. Mark Whipple slid Massachusetts from Regional Program IV to Regional Program V in 5 seasons.
Career arc
His real stature score, season by season, across every program he’s coached — so a stretch that stays in one tier the whole way can still climb or sink on the line, not just flatten out. Node color marks the tier reached. Which program a stretch belongs to is carried by the shaded lane behind it.
Reached Regional Program in his 1st career season — faster than 20% of the 925 FBS coaches who have ever reached Regional Program (rank #1 of 925 by seasons-to-arrival).
Style position and drift
Where each stint’s offense sat between run-first and pass-first, and how far it moved from one season to the next. The band is that stint’s real season-to-season range, not a fixed-width box.
Season-to-season pass-rate range for all 258 FBS coaching stints with at least three covered seasons, 2014–2025.
The big-game ledger
How he does in the games that matter most — rivalry record, performance broken out by real opponent tier, one-score games, and his toughest historical matchup.
Winless in 3 tries against Steve Addazio.
His own effect, isolated
A statistical estimate of this coach’s contribution to team performance, separated from that season’s roster talent, returning production, and his coordinators — pooled across his whole head-coaching career.
Model fit as of 2026-09-04.
Coaching career
2nd-best Massachusetts tenure of 7 by the numbers.
Performs about as expected for his recruiting talent, on both sides of the ball.
Followed Charley Molnar (2012–2013) · succeeded by Walt Bell (2019–2021).
| Season | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Record & result | ||||||
| Record | 3–9 | 3–9 | 2–10 | 4–8 | 4–8 | |
| Postseason | — | — | — | — | — | |
| Recruiting rank | #119 | #107 | #86 | #110 | #108 | |
| Style — pass rate | ||||||
| Pass rate | 56.0 | 55.8 | 54.4 | 51.7 | 50.1 | |
| Coordinators | ||||||
| OC | — | — | — | — | — | |
| DC | Tom Masella | Tom Masella | Tom Masella | Ed Pinkham | Ed Pinkham | |
| Outcome — opponent-adjusted efficiency percentile | ||||||
| Offense | 37 | 22 | 37 | 75 | 56 | |
| Defense | 29 | 43 | 29 | 57 | 17 | |
| Tendencies — play-by-play, neutral script (2021+ only) | ||||||
| 1st-down pass% | 57.3 | 51.9 | 55.2 | 52.9 | 48.6 | |
| Red-zone pass% | 54.9 | 49.6 | 58.2 | 52.9 | 38.1 | |
| 4th-down go%opp. territory | 56.1 | 44.2 | 43.2 | 37.8 | 46.4 | |
3 NFL Draft picks: Rob Blanchflower (2014), Tajae Sharpe (2016), Andy Isabella (2019)