Spencer Whipple begins his first season as pass game specialist in 2023 and his fifth year with the team after originally joining Arizona's coaching staff in 2019. He served as co-pass game coordinator in 2022 after working as assistant wide receivers coach for two seasons (2020-21) following one year (2019) as offensive quality control coach.
Whipple worked with All-Pro WR DeAndre Hopkins in each of the past three seasons (2020-22). In his first season with Arizona in 2020, Hopkins was selected to his fifth career Pro Bowl and received second-team All-Pro honors after having a franchise record 115 receptions (2nd in the NFL) for 1,407 yards (3rd in the NFL) and six TDs. He also tied for second in the league with seven 100-yard receiving games in 2020. Last season in only nine games played due to injury, Hopkins led the team in receiving yards (717) and was second in receptions (64) after finishing with eight TDs in only 10 games in 2021.
In 2021, Arizona's offense had 4,276 net passing yards and 2,076 rushing yards, marking just the second time in franchise history (1984) that the Cardinals had 4,000+ net passing yards and 2,000+ rushing yards in a season. The Cardinals had 6,352 total net yards, the second highest total in franchise history (2015) and finished with the 10th ranked passing offense in the league (251.5 ypg). During the team's Week 6 victory at Cleveland in 2021, Whipple called plays in collaboration with the offensive coaching staff due to head coach Kliff Kingsbury missing the game because of COVID-19.
Arizona's 6,153 total net yards in 2020 were the 3rd most in team history while its 410 points were the 5th most in franchise history.
Prior to joining the Cardinals in 2019, Whipple spent seven years coaching at the collegiate level. He coached for five seasons (2014-18) at the University of Massachusetts where he served as the passing game coordinator/quarterbacks coach in 2018. Whipple joined the UMass staff in 2014 as tight ends coach before working three seasons (2015-17) as passing game coordinator/wide receivers coach.
In 2018, UMass WR Andy Isabella was a Biletnikoff Award finalist after leading the FBS in the regular season with 1,698 receiving yards. He finished second in the nation with 102 receptions and 5th in the country with 13 TD receptions. Isabella was a consensus first-team All-American and finished with the most receiving yards in school history (3,526). In 2017, Minutemen wide receivers had the third-most total receptions (272) and receiving yards (3,570) in school history.
Whipple also tutored WR Tajae Sharpe, who was drafted by the Titans in the fifth round of the 2016 NFL Draft. In 2015, Sharpe set a single-season reception record (111) to go along with a school career record for total receptions (277). He was a two-time first-team All-MAC selection at UMass.
Prior to working at UMass, Whipple served as a defensive graduate assistant and video assistant at the University of Pittsburgh from 2012-13. He played collegiately for three seasons (2009-11) at the University of Miami (FL) as the team's holder and backup quarterback. During his senior season in 2011, Whipple received the Mariutto Family Scholar-Athlete award. He began his college career as a walk-on at the University of Pittsburgh (2007) and spent one season at UMass (2008).
His father, Mark, was the offensive coordinator at the University of Nebraska in 2022 after working in the same position for three seasons (2019-21) at the University of Pittsburgh. He previously served two stints as the head coach at UMass and also worked in the NFL as an offensive assistant coach with Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and Cleveland. In addition, Mark was an assistant coach with the Arizona Wranglers of the USFL in 1984.
Whipple earned a bachelor's degree in Sociology from the University of Miami in 2012.
