Whipple returns to old home

The Brown football team will host Penn in its annual Homecoming game tomorrow. First-year Bear head coach Mark Whipple, however, has already come home. Whipple, a Phoenix, Ariz., native, spent his college years in Providence, leading Brown to a 13-5 record during two seasons as Bears starting quarterback. Brown finished second in the Ivy League in both 1977 and '78. Since then, the Bears have placed that high just twice. Although the decline of Brown football certainly cannot be traced to Whipple's 1979 graduation, it has been harsh. During the last six seasons, the Bears have managed just nine total wins, four of those in 1993. Despite last year's improvement, Brown athletic director David Roach, as well as many players, felt a change was needed. After the close of the season, Roach began looking for a new head man. "We all felt it was necessary," Bear co-captain Brett Atkins said. "Brown obviously wasn't doing very well. We made some improvements last year but they weren't strong enough or quick enough for the administration's tastes, and I don't think for the players' tastes either." In beginning the search, Roach did not confine himself to any specific criteria. Among the six candidates, aside from Whipple, then the head coach at Division II New Haven, were three I-A assistant coaches, including one in the celebrated Pacific-10. Three factors separated Whipple from the rest of the pack. First, Whipple was one of only two candidates with head-coaching experience. "There's a difference between someone who's been a head coach and pushed all the buttons and someone who hasn't," Roach said. "They come in with a little more confidence?.They really know what they want to do." The second key factor was Whipple's success at New Haven. In six years as the Chargers head coach and offensive coordinator, Whipple compiled a 48-17 record. His teams finished undefeated in each of the past two regular seasons and advanced as far as the national semifinals in the Division II tournament. Whipple earned a reputation as a master offensive strategist. Averaging more than 50 points and 550 total yards per game during the last two years, Whipple's Chargers were ranked in the top 20 in Division II in total offense in five of his six years at the helm. "At New Haven, we did things that nobody had ever done in the history of the game of football," Whipple said. "As time goes on, I appreciate that a little bit more. People talk now about a great innovative offense at Florida. We were doing those things every week at New Haven." The third element working in Whipple's favor was his connection to Brown. Aside from his time as quarterback, he was acquainted with Roach through his time as an assistant coach. "When I came back [to Brown] and walked around, I found it still had the same qualities that made it a great institution," Whipple said. "The commitment to the student-athlete was there, and they seemed to make it clear that they wanted to be successful in football." Meanwhile, from Roach's perspective, Whipple's Brown experience was enough to overcome the differences of the Charger and Bear programs. "He has, like most people, a lot of affection for the school he played at," Roach said. "The fact that he was a Brown graduate probably made it easier to convince someone like him who had been very successful to come here -- he'd had a lot of other opportunities over the last couple of years." Once at Brown, given free rein by Roach, the enthusiastic Whipple assembled an entire coaching staff in a matter of days. Some members of that staff, such as defensive coordinator Joe Wirth, accompanied Whipple from New Haven. Others, like recruiting coordinator and running backs coach Phil Estes, were Whipple's associates who had been at other programs. The speed with which Whipple assembled that staff gave his Bears tenure an immediate boost. "The Ivy League is highly competitive," Whipple said. "Recruiting is very important. We felt like we couldn't waste a day?.We tried to get going right away and I think because of that we got off to a good start." "We got a chance to meet with our new assistant coaches right away," Atkins said. "It's a totally different program from the smallest details, like the locker room being cleaner, to the larger details, like the more intense morning workouts during spring practice. [Whipple] definitely brought more intensity to the program." That intensity was important to Roach in considering Whipple for the job, and that intensity may have made the most important difference in the Bear program. While former Brown head coach Mickey Kwiatkowski did manage to assemble a talented group of players, he had been unable to translate that talent directly into wins. "The biggest thing about [Whipple's] coaching style is that he makes us work so hard," Atkins said. "We put so much time and energy into it now that he has raised our own expectations for ourselves and for the team." Those higher expectations have led to a dramatic improvement in the level of football. At 3-2, the Bears are hardly on top of the football world. But with a new coach, a new system and a new outlook, the Bears are certainly out of the basement.

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