Mark Whipple

Head coach, Massachusetts, 2014 to 2018

Now

Career arc

Stature score reached, by season of his head-coaching careerMassachusettsRegional Programthe building-block levelMassachusetts when he took over: 10.5 (Regional Program IV), its final 2013 readingtook overMassachusetts, 2014: 3-9, Regional Program IVMassachusetts, 2014: 3-9, Regional Program IV20143-9Massachusetts, 2015: 3-9, Regional Program V20153-9Massachusetts, 2016: 2-10, Regional Program V20162-10Massachusetts, 2017: 4-8, Regional Program V20174-8Massachusetts, 2018: 4-8, Regional Program VMassachusetts, 2018: 4-8, Regional Program V20184-8-1.4best: 2018○ the program when he took over · Dashed segments are program changes — spacing is not proportional to calendar time

Coordinator years

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.

100th — best in the country90th — elite — top 10%75th — top quarter50th — national median25th — bottom quarter0 — worst in the countryHis unit’s national rank, by season’14’15’16’17’18’19’20’21’22’23’24’25’26Massachusetts · head coachPittsburgh · OCNebraska← Returned to coordinatingPittsburgh, 2019Pittsburgh ranked 74th percentile the year before he arrived○ what he walked intoPittsburgh 2019: 20th percentile nationallyPittsburgh 2020: 29th percentile nationallyPittsburgh 2021: 66th percentile nationallyNebraska ranked 63rd percentile the year before he arrivedNebraska 2022: 36th percentile nationallyMassachusetts 2014: 37th percentileMassachusetts 2015: 22nd percentileMassachusetts 2016: 37th percentileMassachusetts 2017: 75th percentileMassachusetts 2018: 56th percentile66th, career bestPittsburgh, 202122nd percentile

How to read this. Coordinator seasons come from our coordinator career records; head-coaching-era seasons are the same unit's FBS-relative percentile for those years, regardless of who coached it, read directly from the staff assignments record. A role change (a “hinge”) is a fact, never a performance verdict — only the season-by-season data itself is colored by outcome.

Report card

Offense carries it: 51st percentile offense, bottom-quarter defense at 19th.

Massachusetts, every completed season graded against the whole field, then averaged.

Offense

B-
of which —51st
efficiency — 51st percentile success rate, 2014–18
B-55th
Standard-downs success
B-50th
Passing-downs success
B-50th
Trench push (line yards)
C-33rd
Red-zone scoring rate
B-50th
Power-success (short yardage)
C-31st
Ball security (giveaways per game)

Defense

D
of which —19th
19th percentile SP+ defense, 2014–18
C-34th
Front-7 havoc
B-52nd
Secondary havoc
B68th
Stuff rate (run defense)
C42nd
Takeaways per game

Each season is his team’s percentile among every team with that stat (the share it beat), averaged over his completed seasons here; a mid-season takeover year and the season in progress aren’t graded. Letters: A+ 90th percentile and up, A 80, B+ 70, B 60, B− 50, C+ 45, C 40, C− 30, D 15, F below.