Last year Curt Cignetti and Indiana lost co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Tino Suneri to UCLA, where he took over as the Bruins offensive coordinator and play caller.

To fill the role, Cignetti found NFL experience in Chandler Whitmer, who had gone from Ohio State to Clemson as a graduate assistant and then to the NFL, first in a quality control role for the Chargers before becoming the pass game specialist for the Atlanta Falcons in 2024.

Now, for the second season in a row, Cignetti is set to lose his co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, and this time it’s to the NFL.

Sources confirm to FootballScoop that Whitmer is leaving Bloomington to become the quarterbacks coach for the Tampa Bay Bucs.

Whitmer leaves the Indiana staff after a magical undefeated 16-0 run, capturing the national title just weeks ago, and having developed a Heisman Trophy winner and projected #1 overall pick in Fernando Mendoza, who was arguably the top story in college football this fall.

At just 34 years old, Whitmer has worked with a number of NFL quarterbacks. In college he worked with Justin Fields at Ohio State and Trevor Lawrence at Clemson, and then tutored Justin Herbert in LA, and his work with Michael Penix prepared him to take over as the starter in Atlanta as a rookie. 

In three of his four seasons in the NFL, Whitmer has been a part of a top-10 passing offense in the league. While in LA, Herbert set NFL records for completions, passing yards and touchdowns as no player had more in the first three years of their career. Herbert is also the only quarterback in NFL history to begin a career with three straight seasons of 4,000 passing yards or more, and is the second to throw 25 touchdowns in each of his first three years, joining Hall of Famer and Colts icon Peyton Manning.

A former player at UConn, where he started 24 games, Whitmer earned a minicamp invite from the Eagles, finishing his college career ranked among the top 6 all-time in career completions, passing yards, and passing touchdowns.

Before landing at UConn, Whitmer played at Illinois before transferring to Butler CC (JC – KS) for a season, where he earned All American honorable mention after the Bulldogs finished among the top five junior college teams int he country.

The Bucs recently hired former Falcons offensive coordinator Zac Robinson as their new offensive coordinator , and Robinson and Whitmer previously worked alongside each other in Atlanta.