As the 2006 Kansas Media Day unfolded, Kerry Meier, Jon Cornish and Aqib Talib were hounded by the lights, cameras and microphones, having already cemented themselves as the new faces of Kansas football. Away from the spotlight, standing under the scoreboard with the assistant coaches, was the man Mark Mangino said got the ball rolling for KU football, former standout quarterback Bill Whittemore.

This time, Whittemore wasn’t wearing a helmet and pads, but rather holding a clipboard and a whistle as the new Offensive Graduate Assistant.

“I’m just excited to learn and sit back and watch so I can gather all that I can,” Whittemore said.

In a typical day, he plans out the schedules for all the different coaches, then at practice, he works primarily with offensive coordinator Nick Quartaro and wide receivers coach Tim Beck.

“Off the field and in the office, he has been aggressive in taking his assignments seriously and really being on top of things in terms of organization,” Quartaro said.

Beck uses Whittemore as another set of eyes, because when the offense runs a three or four wide receiver set, Beck won’t always catch everything. Whittemore also works with wide receivers on route running, teaching the general nuances of the offense.

Whittemore still has a presence about him when he steps on the field because of what he accomplished in his years at Kansas.

“On the field the kids know he has credibility, and when he says something on a coaching point, they will take it to heart,” Quartaro said.

It has also helped that just three years ago Adam Barmann, Bob Whitaker and Cornish called Whittemore a teammate. Now they call him coach.

“When I was younger, he was my mentor. I learned a lot of things from him, I am glad we got him back,” senior quarterback Adam Barmann said.

In 2003, Whittemore’s final season, he passed for 2,385 yards, third best in KU history. He also led Kansas to the Tangerine Bowl, its first bowl game in eight years. This was especially amazing considering Kansas was a dreadful 2-10 the year before.

When Whittemore left Kansas that next spring, things got a little rocky. He tried his hand at the NFL, but after two tryouts with the New York Jets and the Atlanta Falcons, he decided to take his game to Nashville for the Arena Football League.

“It was enjoyable, short and sweet, but I never got on the field. To be honest, I don’t how good I would have been out there,” Whittemore said.

Whittemore, always more of a dual-threat style quarterback, never fully adapted to Arena Football’s fast paced game, and spent his year there as a backup.

After that, things started to look up as he chose to go back home to Brentwood, Tenn., and became a football coach at his former high school. The team went 11-2, with Whittemore gaining valuable coaching experience while working with the wide receivers, his focus at Kansas this year.

“Working with the receivers this year, a lot of them are young guys, so it was kind of the same situation as it was for me last year in the sense of their knowledge of the game, and to understand what they are thinking and what they need to know,” he said.

Now that Whittemore is back in Kansas, he has to juggle coaching football and getting his master’s degree in sports management, although he doesn’t foresee any problems.

“The young players these days are so talented and really care, and all of them are willing to do what is expected of them,” he said.

As KU Football takes the field this fall, it will hope to carry on the winning tradition that Bill Whittemore started.

Kansan sportswriter Bryan Cisler can be contacted at bcisler@kansan.com.

— Edited by Travis Robinett