Mark Whipple agreed in principle to become the football coach at the University of Massachusetts, the Daily Hampshire Gazette reported Friday night.

Mark Whipple, who led UMass to the Division 1-AA (now FCS) title in 1998, will once again serve as the school’s football coach.

It will be Whipple’s second go-round with the Minutemen; he led the team to the NCAA championship in 1998, when the program was in Division 1-AA. Now, UMass will be entering its third year in the highest level of college football, the Football Bowl Subdivision.

The Minutemen went 2-22 in the first two seasons under Charley Molnar, who was fired Dec. 26.

Whipple went 49-26 in six seasons with UMass, then left for the NFL, becoming the quarterbacks coach for the Pittsburgh Steelers.


Whipple then spent two seasons as an assistant with the Philadelphia Eagles before joining the University of Miami as its offensive coordinator.

Whipple, 56, was out of football in 2013.