Will Rogers knew what freshman wide receiver Creed Whittemore was capable of ever since he arrived in Starkville as an early enrollee this past spring.
It took just one half last Saturday against Southeastern Louisiana for Mississippi State fans, and the rest of the college football world, to find out that the senior quarterback wasn’t just talking a big game.
Whittemore, a former high school quarterback from Gainesville, Fla., proved he was the real deal with four catches for 59 yards and a touchdown to go along with 57 rushing yards on two carries and another score.
“I guess I know what I’m talking about, huh?” Rogers joked after the Bulldogs’ win over the Lions. “I’m going to have to bully him or something this week so he stays humble. He’s really good. He’s really special with the ball in his hands, and he really understands the game.”
Whittemore’s football upbringing played a big role in that advanced understanding — his father, Mark Whittemore, was his coach at Gainesville’s F.W. Buchholz High and was a wide receiver at Central Florida. His oldest brother, Luke, had 75 receptions and five touchdowns over four years at Troy, and another brother, Trent, is now a graduate transfer receiver at UCF after spending four years at Florida.
Creed was all set to follow in his family’s footsteps and play receiver and defensive back in high school, but an injury to Buchholz’s starting quarterback led to Mark moving his third son behind center. The switch worked out and then some — Whittemore was excellent as a sophomore and only got better from there, accounting for 52 total touchdowns as a senior.
Whittemore was also a track star and played basketball at Buchholz, but the defining moment of his high school football career, in his father’s mind, came in the Bobcats’ first postseason game last year against a school from the Pensacola area. With Buchholz trailing late, Whittemore led a 98-yard drive that he capped off in the final minute with a touchdown and two-point conversion for a 35-34 victory.
“He’s always been a go-getter from an early age,” Mark Whittemore said. “He had a pretty relentless motor. He just never looked back. That kind of displayed his never-say-die attitude.”
Following a senior season in which he passed for 2,693 yards and rushed for another 1,285, Whittemore had several FBS offers as a quarterback, from the likes of Troy, Florida Atlantic and Georgia State. But it was clear that his best fit would be at his original position — he had offers at receiver from his hometown Gators, as well as Texas A&M, Michigan, Penn State and eight other power conference programs.
He committed to Mississippi State to run Mike Leach’s “Air Raid” offense in part because Buchholz ran a similar system, but was undeterred by Leach’s death last December and the Bulldogs opting to run a more pro-style offense under head coach Zach Arnett and offensive coordinator Kevin Barbay.
“Creed, early on, whenever I first got here during the spring, was making plays and making some phenomenal catches,” Barbay said. “He’s a coach’s kid; he’s grown up around it his whole life and played quarterback, played probably every position on the field. It didn’t surprise me one single bit. I look forward to the rest of the season with Creed.”
Whittemore practiced with MSU during the spring to get a feel for Barbay’s offense and learn from a veteran wide receivers room replete with upperclassmen like Freddie Roberson, Jaden Walley and Lideatrick “Tulu” Griffin.
He was listed on the opening week depth chart as the second-string slot receiver behind Griffin, but an injury to sophomore Zavion Thomas — who Arnett expects back on Saturday against Arizona — opened an opportunity for the 5-foot-11 freshman.
“I play behind Tulu, and he’s a guy I’ve looked up to since I’ve gotten here,” Whittemore said. “He’s calm, cool and collected. He’s never frightened or in his head about anything. He’s going to be levelheaded no matter what, and that’s something I’ve learned from him. It’s just like backyard football, just a bigger and better stage.”
Whittemore recorded all four of his receptions on the same drive late in the second quarter, with the Bulldogs’ offense desperate for a bounce-back after their defense was on the field for more than eight minutes and allowed SELA to pull within three.
First, Rogers found him underneath the coverage five yards downfield, and Whittemore found room toward the right sideline and picked up 14 yards. Three plays later, with MSU facing third-and-5, Whittemore came open for a dump-off and followed his blockers to pick up the first down.
He looked slightly banged up after a three-yard catch on the next snap, but was clearly just fine two minutes later — he blew past the Lions’ secondary as Rogers sold a fake handoff and found Whittemore streaking along the left sideline for a 33-yard touchdown.
“We do a great job spreading people out,” Whittemore said. “We have motions and jets and different looks. We can hit the edge, we can go right up the middle, we can come at people from all sorts of angles.”
Whittemore showcased one of those looks on his long fourth-quarter touchdown run, coming in motion from the left slot and taking an end-around handoff to the right sideline, sprinting untouched for the 53-yard score.
Mark was in the stands at Davis Wade Stadium for Creed’s breakout debut and said wide receivers coach Chad Bumphis did a “phenomenal job” coaching him on the fine points of the position since began working out with the team in January.
“Some opportune scenarios developed, and there he was,” Mark Whittemore said. “But he was able to position himself in the spring and fall camp in a way that gave him some additional opportunities. Making the transition from quarterback to receiver is not as easy as it looks.”
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 35 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
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