Curt Cignetti’s coaching staff is undergoing another shake-up, and once again, it’s the quarterbacks room at the center of it.
Chandler Whitmer, who served as Indiana’s quarterbacks coach this past season, is heading to the NFL to take the same role with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. It marks the second straight offseason the Hoosiers will be searching for a new voice to lead their quarterback room-a position that’s suddenly become one of the most high-profile on the staff.
Whitmer’s departure comes just a year after Cignetti brought him in to replace Tino Sunseri, who left to become UCLA’s offensive coordinator. Sunseri, for his part, didn’t last long in Westwood-he was let go midway through the season after the Bruins’ offense sputtered. Whitmer, meanwhile, made the most of his brief time in Bloomington.
Before joining Indiana, Whitmer spent 2024 with the Atlanta Falcons as a pass game specialist and held a prior stint with the Los Angeles Chargers as an offensive quality control coach. That NFL experience translated well at the college level, where he helped guide Fernando Mendoza through one of the most explosive seasons in program history.
Under Whitmer’s tutelage, Mendoza didn’t just thrive-he rewrote the Indiana record books. The star quarterback threw for 41 touchdowns, setting a new single-season mark for the Hoosiers, and piled up 3,535 yards through the air-second-most in a single season in school history. His play didn’t just turn heads locally; it earned him a host of postseason accolades, culminating in Indiana’s first-ever Heisman Trophy.
Now, Cignetti faces the challenge of finding yet another quarterbacks coach who can keep that momentum rolling. With Mendoza returning as one of the most decorated signal-callers in college football, the hire will be a pivotal one-not just for the offense, but for Indiana’s hopes of building on a historic campaign.
The bar has been set high. The next man up in Bloomington will be stepping into a quarterback room that’s no longer just a developmental project-it’s a nationally recognized engine of production.