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Mark Whipple, Don Brown renew friendly rivalry

UMass coach Mark Whipple faces a big test in his first game of the season.stephan savoia/AP

Their coaching careers, as well as their friendship, have been intertwined since the mid 1980s.

The foundation of their professional relationship was cemented back in Connecticut, where Boston College defensive coordinator Don Brown held the same position at Yale from 1987-92 and UMass coach Mark Whipple was head coach at Division 2 University of New Haven.

“We’d scrimmage against each other when he was the defensive coordinator for Carm Cozza,’’ Whipple said, referring to the legendary Yale football mentor. “You know, he’d come over in the spring or we’d go over there.’’

Almost always, Brown had as many questions for Whipple about New Haven’s attack offense, which in 1992 rolled up pinball machine-like numbers. The 12-1 Chargers led all divisions in scoring (50.5 points per game) and total offense (587.7 yards per game).

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Their shared affinity for taking an aggressive approach to the game — on offense and defense — drew them together, forging their bond as coaches and as friends.

“He’s just a great person, great football coach and a tremendous family guy,’’ Whipple said.

“He’s a great friend,’’ said Brown, who worked for Whipple as a defensive coordinator at Brown (1996-97) and at UMass (1998-99). “It was a great choice by UMass [to hire Whipple again]. He’s a tremendous offensive football coach. He’s a tremendous football coach, never mind offense.’’

With the lines drawn for the “Battle for the Bay State,’’ Brown and Whipple will have to set aside their friendship when they match wits Saturday at Gillette Stadium.

“I just love watching his defense play; they’re aggressive, they have fun, and they never take a play off,’’ Whipple said. “He plays defense the way I like to coach offense.’’

“That’s the one thing we’ve always had and that’s an aggressive nature,’’ said Brown. “That’s what he does, that’s what I do . . . I don’t think there’s any great mystery with what he’s going to do and I don’t think there’s any great mystery with what I’m going to do.

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“We are who we are.’’

It explained why Whipple fully expects his quarterback, Blake Frohnapfel, to face a multitude of looks, disguised coverages, and pressure packages.

“It’s not an easy thing because he’s a great football coach and very aggressive,’’ Whipple said. “We grew up together a bit [as coaches], and we played off each other well and we had a lot of fun and, obviously, won a national championship together and so it’ll be a challenge.

“I don’t know whether playing him in the first game is good or whether [it’s better] playing him later on. It’s always been a challenge no matter when we stood across from each other and that goes back to all those practices we had, so I’m looking forward to seeing him.’’

It won’t be the first time Brown and Whipple have squared off.

“Shoot, I was the head coach at Northeastern [from 2000-03] and it was a war,’’ said Brown, who left NU to take over at UMass from 2004-08. “It came right down to the bitter end. I think it was 21-16 and they got us, but it was a war, it was a flat-out war.’’

They faced each other as rival coordinators in the Atlantic Coast Conference in 2009-10, with Brown coordinating Maryland’s defense and Whipple at Miami, where he helped the Hurricanes post a 26-20 victory over the Terrapins.

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“Yeah, it was a hell of a game,’’ recalled Brown.

Given their familiarity, Brown fully expects Whipple to throw the kitchen sink at his defense, with “throw’’ being not only the operative word but one of the predicates of Whipple’s offense.

“I think that’s kind of a fallacy,’’ Brown countered. “Everybody used to say that about Coach Whipple, but he’s always run the ball well, too.’’

Brown knows he must have his Eagles prepared to defend UMass from sideline to sideline. After all, he remembered how the Minutemen posted school records for points scored (524), touchdowns (73), total yards (7,074), passing yards (4,050), completions (306) and first downs (354) in that 1998 championship season.

“I probably gave him too many secrets when I was in the NFL,’’ Whipple said, referring to his professional stints with the Steelers, Eagles, and Browns. “It might come back to bite me in the tail right now . . . I gave him some things from [Steelers defensive guru] Dick LeBeau and Jim Johnson [the Eagles defensive coordinator] and I’m seeing them show up on tape.’’

The two have maintained radio silence in the run-up to the opener.

“The bottom line is that the phone lines will be quiet for about 10 days and then we’ll talk the rest of the season, so that’s just the way it goes,’’ said Brown.

Win or lose, the friendship will resume, same as it always has.

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Michael Vega can be reached at vega@globe.com.