Linked to the Heights, June 19: Mark Whipple Melodrama

August 30, 2012; Cleveland, OH USA: Cleveland Browns quarterbacks coach Mark Whipple before the preseason game against the Chicago Bears at Cleveland Browns Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Eric P. Mull-USPRESSWIRE

The once and current head coach of UMass football, Mark Whipple, has a sense of how important the Boston College game is when the season opens on August 30. Maybe too much of one.

Boston College Football

• Mark Whipple looking forward to bringing UMass football home games back to Amherst (MassLive, Daniel Malone)

Most of this piece is irrelevant to Boston College fans, as the majority of us do not care if the Minutemen succeed or not, but still strangely prefer if they don’t.

The money quote comes closer to the bottom, just after a good bit of discussion of Mark Whipple’s desire to get the stadium in Amherst renovated so they can resume normal football operations:

"And though [Whipple] called the season opener against Boston College – a game scheduled for Gillette, not McGuirk – the “biggest home game we’ve ever had in the history of the school,” Whipple is focused on re-establishing the Minutemen’s local dominance to help win back those fans alienated by the transition to Foxborough."

Certainly, it’s flattering, and this is a coach trying to inspire his team to start off the year right, but maybe just a little over the top?

And, with apologies to Mark Whipple, it’s barely even a home game as it’s an hour and fifteen minutes closer to Boston College than the Amherst campus.

Not since the Ed Chlebek mega-meltdown season of 1978 have the Eagles lost to the Minutemen; let’s hope they’re not about to start now.