"You either won or you lost." "You either made the play or you didn't." "You either get it right or you get it wrong."
So with a position group that includes two of the league's savviest veteran cornerbacks Charles Woodson and the soon-to-be-back-in-action Al Harris Whitt routinely relies on brutal honesty as his lesson of the day. Which should also explain why he has no qualms about letting Woodson, the National Football League's reigning Defensive Player of the Year, know that he couldn't have reached that particular milestone without a little help from his coach.
"That's my joke with him. 'Hey, you never did it without me coaching you.' It is what it is, right?" Whitt said, laughing.
"Seriously though, I knew what he could do in this scheme. If he had been in this scheme for his whole career, it would be untold how many interceptions he could have. With his skill set, I mean, he's played his whole career with his back to the ball. In this scheme his whole career? My goodness."
With Woodson as a star student, it's easy to see why Whitt salivates at the possibilities. He's also in a more unique position than most, having broken in as a position coach at 32 making him younger than both Woodson and Harris.
Though his age could have created an odd dynamic when Whitt was promoted from his defensive quality control position to cornerbacks coach last season, he never had any doubt about his abilities. Whitt's life path was all but carved in stone while growing up on the sidelines next to his dad, Joe, a legendary assistant with the Auburn Tigers for 25 years.
"That's how I was brought up. I was a coach's kid. I knew that's what I always wanted to do," Whitt said. "I knew the business. The good parts of it and the bad parts of it. How you handle yourself as a coach, how to deal with different situations. I've seen it all. If you've never been in that realm before, you've only seen it as a player. You don't know the other side. How to deal with a guy who misses curfew. How you deal with a guy who got in a fight at a bar. I saw all that happen, and how my dad had to deal with it."
After five surgeries ended his collegiate career, Whitt coached alongside his dad for two seasons as an Auburn student assistant.
He moved onto The Citadel and the University of Louisville before breaking into the NFL as an assistant defensive backs coach with the Atlanta Falcons.
Though he planned to follow in his dad's footsteps and stay in the college ranks, Whitt said moving to the NFL taught him that his straight-shooting personality is better suited to deal with men.
"College kids, they don't know right from wrong. You can tell them anything and they'll do it," Whitt said. "But these guys here? They're not gonna take any b.s.. They're strong-willed men. And I like that.
"Some coaches get scared dealing with great players. I had to deal with it in Atlanta with DeAngelo (Hall) and Lawyer (Milloy). I thrive off that. I'd rather have great players and be able to get them to play at a high level than guys who can't play and then wonder why I'm getting fired every year."
Even in the offseason, Whitt said he's wired differently than most. "I don't golf. I don't hunt. I don't fish. I don't do any of that. I don't have any other hobbies beyond football." It's an all-or-nothing mentality that prepares him for the scrutiny of coaching high-profile players at a high-pressure position.
"I know that my guys are gonna be the most prepared group on the field. I never send them on the field without them knowing exactly what they need to do. I sleep well at night," Whitt said.
"That's the NFL. If I didn't want the scrutiny, I'd go coach Pop Warner football."
While coaching in "the big boys league" has been a fairly easy adjustment, Whitt and his wife Ericka haven't embraced Green Bay's frigid winters.
Even on a warmer-than-normal fall day, Whitt still draped himself in sweats a look he claims to keep even in the summer.
"Where I'm from, it's 80 degrees the minute you wake up in the early morning," Whitt said.
"My first day here was in February, and I went right down the road to Target or something and I got a space heater. It's probably on right now. That thing never goes off."