How the hires of Mark Whipple and Donovan Raiola unfolded for the Huskers and Scott Frost | Football

Whipple made $476,450 in 2021 but is most likely in for a substantial raise at Nebraska. Husker offensive coordinator Matt Lubick made $500,000, and before him, Troy Walters made $700,000. 

Whipple spent the past three years at Pittsburgh. Over those three years, the Panthers’ offense climbed from being one of the country’s worst to one of the best. In 2019, Pitt was No. 112 in scoring at 21.2 points per game. In 2020, it climbed to No. 58 (29), and then this fall the Panthers rose all the way to No. 3 nationally at 43 points per game. In total offense, Pitt went from No. 87 to No. 79 to No. 5 this year at 502.9 yards per game. 

That rise tracked with the development of Pickett, who has thrown for 42 touchdowns and just seven interceptions this fall and has completed 67.2% of his passes for 4,319 yards.

Pitt threw the ball on 51.3% of its snaps through the regular season and ACC title game. Adjusting for 51 sacks, the Panthers dropped back to pass more than 56.4% of the time. And the offense took off.

It was a big turnaround from a year ago, when Narduzzi was asked after the season whether he’d stick with Whipple after a pair of underwhelming seasons. 

Before Pitt, Whipple was the head coach at UMass for five years, compiling a 16-44 record in his second stint for the school, which transitioned to an independent while he was there. He had much more success the first time around when UMass was in the Atlantic 10, going 49-26 over six seasons from 1998-2003. Before that, he spent four years as the head coach at his alma mater, Brown, which he attended at the same time as Nebraska senior offensive analyst Ron Brown.