Cards’ new coach 'wicked competitive' but keeps it fun
Darren Urban, Tribune
Whisenhunt played a few more seasons, thought about working in the private sector and even flirted with becoming a golf pro after growing up in Augusta, Ga., in the shadow of the Masters.
Ultimately, Fazio’s evaluation proved correct.
After a decade of climbing the ranks, Whisenhunt will take the field today as a head coach for the Cardinals’ first minicamp of the offseason.
He’s never been a head coach at any level, spending seven NFL seasons coaching tight ends and/or special teams and the past three as offensive coordinator for the Pittsburgh Steelers.
But the vibe Whisenhunt gives off — a blend of his competitiveness, intelligence and people skills — left many around him believing he would eventually lead a team.
“I am going to be myself,” Whisenhunt said. “That is the best piece of advice I got in this whole process.
“If you do that, players will know you are genuine. If they know you are genuine, they will play for you.”
ICE water in veins
The Notre Dame game is part of Whisenhunt’s personal legend, even if he’d rather not have it mentioned that it was almost 27 years ago.
He was a freshman at Georgia Tech, a jack-of-all-trades who had yet to play, when the 1-7 Yellow Jackets hosted No. 1 Notre Dame with every Jackets quarterback hurt.
Normally a tight end, Whisenhunt was the emergency replacement. His first assignment: Run the offense after a Notre Dame punt pinned Tech at its own 4-yard line.
Coach Bill Curry called Whisenhunt over to give him last-minute instructions.
“Normally, you get that bottom lip quivering and you see the white of his eyes and you see stark terror,” said Curry, now an ESPN college football analyst.
Curry just wanted a nod of the head. Instead, he got a confident response: “Coach, don’t worry about a thing.”
Whisenhunt wasn’t spectacular. But he didn’t screw up, and he inspired his team to a stunning 3-3 tie with the Fighting Irish.
“It was an amazing demonstration of poise, and sometimes that doesn’t go with a driven competitor,” Curry said. “Combine that competitiveness with an extremely high IQ, an ice-water capacity in the veins, you get a Ken Whisenhunt.”
That will to win was acquired in Augusta where Whisenhunt challenged himself to make 10 baskets in a row without hitting the rim in the schoolyard behind his house. His mother’s call to dinner was ignored if he hadn’t finished the job.
His athletic dreams were nearly derailed when he tore up a knee his senior year of high school. Whisenhunt expected to play baseball in college, but scholarships for both sports dried up after the knee injury.
Then he attended a Georgia Tech spring football practice, and Curry, who was about to begin his first year at Tech, was thinking about offering Whisenhunt a chance to walk on. At the end of practice — as Curry recalled — Curry turned to Whisenhunt and asked, “What do you think?”
Whisenhunt smiled and said, “Coach, I guarantee I can help you guys.”
Whisenhunt modestly chuckles at Curry’s memory, certain he wouldn’t have been so bold.
But it isn’t hard to imagine, said Cardinals special teams coach Kevin Spencer, who calls Whisenhunt “wicked competitive.”
On that point, Whisenhunt will not argue.
“That’s what this is all about, competition, competing against other teams and coaches,” Whisenhunt said. “And it is the team component of the competition. It’s not just me. It is us.”
That concept is what eventually drew Whisenhunt back to football once his playing days were done.
Whisenhunt was an “overachiever” as a player, Cards assistant head coach and former Redskins teammate Russ Grimm said, and his drive kept him in the league eight seasons.
When he retired, Whisenhunt contemplated using the civil engineering degree he earned from Georgia Tech. He had corporate types looking to hire a smart ex-NFL player.
Whisenhunt, who has played the Augusta National golf course five times and has a 4 handicap, also made an attempt to play professional golf.
But on Sundays, Whisenhunt realized he ached for something he once had.
“What I missed was preparing and being around guys with a common goal,” he said. “Whether it was February, March, July, November, you were always geared around one thing — winning the Super Bowl.”
His coaching career started at Vanderbilt, but two seasons later he was in the NFL. By the time he got to the Jets in 2000 as tight ends coach, offensive coordinator Dan Henning — Whisenhunt’s first coach in Atlanta — let Whisenhunt script some plays.
By 2003, Whisenhunt was coordinating his own offense in Pittsburgh and on an apparent fast track to becoming a head coach. “He is highly motivated to be outstanding at whatever endeavor he is trying to do,” Henning said. “And he doesn’t do anything without deep thought.”
KEEPING IT LOOSE
Whisenhunt, 45, was talking to reporters at the recent NFL owners’ meetings the day it was announced the Cardinals would be playing on “Monday Night Football” this season.
Eventually, the conversation came around to Dennis Green’s infamous tirade after the Cards’ Monday night loss to the Bears. Whisenhunt was told about the regret of Cardinals’ media relations director Mark Dalton, who ended that press conference with a clasping of the hands and a somewhat flippant “Thanks, coach,” a response that garnered Dalton some good-natured ribbing nationally.
When Dalton showed up a few minutes later and Whisenhunt was ready to leave, Whisenhunt smiled, clasped his hands together and said goodbye — knowing by the look on Dalton’s face the needle had hit its mark.
“Ever been around a person who can cut you like a knife with his words and you don’t know it’s happening? He is like that,” Spencer said. “Ken will dig you, but not in a demeaning way. That’s his way of enjoying the relationship.”
Said Cardinals receiver Sean Morey, who spent the past three years in Pittsburgh with Whisenhunt, “Sometimes you need a nice, healthy dose of humble pie and he serves it quite well.”
Whisenhunt has often served as Morey’s foil. Yet Morey thinks the approach has been crucial in his development as a player.
Once Morey sat in a darkened meeting room dreading to see the tape where he was running a poor route — the pass bouncing off his helmet — only to have Whisenhunt break the tension by cracking wise while remaining constructive.
“The thing with Whiz is he has done a great job the last few years pulling our offense together,” Steelers guard Kendall Simmons said. “When you can get guys to buy in, that’s good material for being a head coach.”
One of Whisenhunt’s strengths, Grimm said, is his feel for each player’s differing personality. Some need a stern leader. Some need sarcasm once in a while.
Best of all for Whisenhunt, the verbal jousting is another form of competition.
“(It is fun) trying to come up with a remark that is off the cuff that maybe someone will get a minute or two later and then you laugh about it,” Whisenhunt said. “(And) sometimes, these guys need humor.”
Redskins coach Joe Gibbs, who coached Whisenhunt in Washington, noted that Whisenhunt will “have a great relationship with the players.”
That’s why Whisenhunt just wants to be himself, and for most of his team, they’ll get the first extended idea of just what that means today on the practice field.
“He may be a tyrant, who knows?” Morey said, smiling. “This is his show and he is going to run it as he sees fit.”
“But I think he is a winner. And no matter what he does, I think he’ll be a winner.”
Darren Urban, Tribune
Whisenhunt played a few more seasons, thought about working in the private sector and even flirted with becoming a golf pro after growing up in Augusta, Ga., in the shadow of the Masters.
Ultimately, Fazio’s evaluation proved correct.
After a decade of climbing the ranks, Whisenhunt will take the field today as a head coach for the Cardinals’ first minicamp of the offseason.
He’s never been a head coach at any level, spending seven NFL seasons coaching tight ends and/or special teams and the past three as offensive coordinator for the Pittsburgh Steelers.
But the vibe Whisenhunt gives off — a blend of his competitiveness, intelligence and people skills — left many around him believing he would eventually lead a team.
“I am going to be myself,” Whisenhunt said. “That is the best piece of advice I got in this whole process.
“If you do that, players will know you are genuine. If they know you are genuine, they will play for you.”
ICE water in veins
The Notre Dame game is part of Whisenhunt’s personal legend, even if he’d rather not have it mentioned that it was almost 27 years ago.
He was a freshman at Georgia Tech, a jack-of-all-trades who had yet to play, when the 1-7 Yellow Jackets hosted No. 1 Notre Dame with every Jackets quarterback hurt.
Normally a tight end, Whisenhunt was the emergency replacement. His first assignment: Run the offense after a Notre Dame punt pinned Tech at its own 4-yard line.
Coach Bill Curry called Whisenhunt over to give him last-minute instructions.
“Normally, you get that bottom lip quivering and you see the white of his eyes and you see stark terror,” said Curry, now an ESPN college football analyst.
Curry just wanted a nod of the head. Instead, he got a confident response: “Coach, don’t worry about a thing.”
Whisenhunt wasn’t spectacular. But he didn’t screw up, and he inspired his team to a stunning 3-3 tie with the Fighting Irish.
“It was an amazing demonstration of poise, and sometimes that doesn’t go with a driven competitor,” Curry said. “Combine that competitiveness with an extremely high IQ, an ice-water capacity in the veins, you get a Ken Whisenhunt.”
That will to win was acquired in Augusta where Whisenhunt challenged himself to make 10 baskets in a row without hitting the rim in the schoolyard behind his house. His mother’s call to dinner was ignored if he hadn’t finished the job.
His athletic dreams were nearly derailed when he tore up a knee his senior year of high school. Whisenhunt expected to play baseball in college, but scholarships for both sports dried up after the knee injury.
Then he attended a Georgia Tech spring football practice, and Curry, who was about to begin his first year at Tech, was thinking about offering Whisenhunt a chance to walk on. At the end of practice — as Curry recalled — Curry turned to Whisenhunt and asked, “What do you think?”
Whisenhunt smiled and said, “Coach, I guarantee I can help you guys.”
Whisenhunt modestly chuckles at Curry’s memory, certain he wouldn’t have been so bold.
But it isn’t hard to imagine, said Cardinals special teams coach Kevin Spencer, who calls Whisenhunt “wicked competitive.”
On that point, Whisenhunt will not argue.
“That’s what this is all about, competition, competing against other teams and coaches,” Whisenhunt said. “And it is the team component of the competition. It’s not just me. It is us.”
That concept is what eventually drew Whisenhunt back to football once his playing days were done.
Whisenhunt was an “overachiever” as a player, Cards assistant head coach and former Redskins teammate Russ Grimm said, and his drive kept him in the league eight seasons.
When he retired, Whisenhunt contemplated using the civil engineering degree he earned from Georgia Tech. He had corporate types looking to hire a smart ex-NFL player.
Whisenhunt, who has played the Augusta National golf course five times and has a 4 handicap, also made an attempt to play professional golf.
But on Sundays, Whisenhunt realized he ached for something he once had.
“What I missed was preparing and being around guys with a common goal,” he said. “Whether it was February, March, July, November, you were always geared around one thing — winning the Super Bowl.”
His coaching career started at Vanderbilt, but two seasons later he was in the NFL. By the time he got to the Jets in 2000 as tight ends coach, offensive coordinator Dan Henning — Whisenhunt’s first coach in Atlanta — let Whisenhunt script some plays.
By 2003, Whisenhunt was coordinating his own offense in Pittsburgh and on an apparent fast track to becoming a head coach. “He is highly motivated to be outstanding at whatever endeavor he is trying to do,” Henning said. “And he doesn’t do anything without deep thought.”
KEEPING IT LOOSE
Whisenhunt, 45, was talking to reporters at the recent NFL owners’ meetings the day it was announced the Cardinals would be playing on “Monday Night Football” this season.
Eventually, the conversation came around to Dennis Green’s infamous tirade after the Cards’ Monday night loss to the Bears. Whisenhunt was told about the regret of Cardinals’ media relations director Mark Dalton, who ended that press conference with a clasping of the hands and a somewhat flippant “Thanks, coach,” a response that garnered Dalton some good-natured ribbing nationally.
When Dalton showed up a few minutes later and Whisenhunt was ready to leave, Whisenhunt smiled, clasped his hands together and said goodbye — knowing by the look on Dalton’s face the needle had hit its mark.
“Ever been around a person who can cut you like a knife with his words and you don’t know it’s happening? He is like that,” Spencer said. “Ken will dig you, but not in a demeaning way. That’s his way of enjoying the relationship.”
Said Cardinals receiver Sean Morey, who spent the past three years in Pittsburgh with Whisenhunt, “Sometimes you need a nice, healthy dose of humble pie and he serves it quite well.”
Whisenhunt has often served as Morey’s foil. Yet Morey thinks the approach has been crucial in his development as a player.
Once Morey sat in a darkened meeting room dreading to see the tape where he was running a poor route — the pass bouncing off his helmet — only to have Whisenhunt break the tension by cracking wise while remaining constructive.
“The thing with Whiz is he has done a great job the last few years pulling our offense together,” Steelers guard Kendall Simmons said. “When you can get guys to buy in, that’s good material for being a head coach.”
One of Whisenhunt’s strengths, Grimm said, is his feel for each player’s differing personality. Some need a stern leader. Some need sarcasm once in a while.
Best of all for Whisenhunt, the verbal jousting is another form of competition.
“(It is fun) trying to come up with a remark that is off the cuff that maybe someone will get a minute or two later and then you laugh about it,” Whisenhunt said. “(And) sometimes, these guys need humor.”
Redskins coach Joe Gibbs, who coached Whisenhunt in Washington, noted that Whisenhunt will “have a great relationship with the players.”
That’s why Whisenhunt just wants to be himself, and for most of his team, they’ll get the first extended idea of just what that means today on the practice field.
“He may be a tyrant, who knows?” Morey said, smiling. “This is his show and he is going to run it as he sees fit.”
“But I think he is a winner. And no matter what he does, I think he’ll be a winner.”
