He attended Georgia Tech before being picked in the twelfth round of the 1985 NFL Draft by the Atlanta Falcons, with whom he spent four years. He went on to play two more seasons with the Washington Redskins and two more with the New York Jets. After his career ended, he became a coach and is currently the head coach of the Tennessee Titans. In addition to his National Football League career, Whisenhunt also played one season of Canadian football after leaving school. He signed with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in 1989 and was part of their roster for three games that year. He returned to Georgia Tech for one final season in 1990 as a graduate assistant before moving on to be a coaching staff member elsewhere. Whisenhunt's first two stops as a coach were both on Mike Shula's staff at South Carolina: he was the defensive coordinator from 1993 to 1995 and then served as the team's offensive coordinator from 1996 to 1999. In 2000, he took over as the head coach at the University of Tennessee and has not looked back since. He has gone 82-40 during his time at Tennessee and led the Volunteers to a national title in 2002. He has also been named the AFC Coach of the Year twice (2002, 2006) by the Associated Press and has won the Bear Bryant Award given to the nation's top college football coach each year since 2004.