After two years as special teams-tight ends coach at Vanderbilt, Whisenhunt moved to the NFL where he was tight ends coach with Baltimore (1997-98), special teams coach with Cleveland (1999), and tight ends coach with the Jets (2000).

Cowher hired him as tight ends coach in 2001. When Mike Mularkey left the staff to become head coach of Buffalo, Cowher promoted Whisenhunt to offensive coordinator in 2004, the same year the Steelers drafted Ben Roethlisberger. Roethlisberger went on to become rookie of the year, then in 2005, the Steelers advanced to the Super Bowl, where they beat Seattle.

Roethlisberger has been highly complimentary of Whisenhunt in the days leading up to this Super Bowl, refuting reports that the two didn’t get along.

“We are better than straight,” Roethlisberger said. “People think we haven’t talked and that we have this huge rift between us, but unless they’ve checked our phone records, people don’t know how much we’ve talked. We text message after games ’Good Job.”’

Roethlisberger called Whisenhunt “a great mentor to me.”

“He really helped me a lot early on and helped me develop into who I’m becoming and who I am,” the Steelers quarterback said. “I owe him a lot. I really do. ... I look forward to playing some golf with him, I just need to get my game better first.”

On the sidelines, Whisenhunt rarely shows emotion, except perhaps after a big play and certainly after his team won the NFC championship. He’s made a habit after every playoff victory of circling the stadium, giving high-fives to fans all along the way.

But that’s not to say he isn’t capable of letting his team have it. That’s exactly what happened after Arizona lost at New England 47-7 in the next-to-last game of the regular season. He hollered at them and threatened players with benching. He put the team in full pads and had them go at it.

He got their attention. They haven’t lost since.

Pittsburgh running back Willie Parker calls Whisenhunt “a great guy and it’s a big congratulations to him and what he did for that organization.”

“To be facing him is crazy,” Parker said. “But at the same time he’s done a great job over there and if we were not to win the Super Bowl, I would love for him to win it. There wouldn’t be any other guy.”

Whisenhunt repeatedly has denied that he has any hard feelings about not getting the Steelers’ job, that it’s any motivation for this game.

“I think coach Whis is past that right now,” Cardinals linebacker Karlos Dansby said. “He’s a very professional man and he’s past that. You see what we have here in Arizona and he’s soaking it up. He’s loving it.”