Whiplashed:

When Mark Whipple was on his way home last spring from the Atlantic-10 Conference meetings, the rookie head coach at the University of Massachusetts decided to buy one of those preseason football magazines to see where the so-called experts believed the Minutemen would finish in league play. Much to his dismay, UMass was the only team among 11 conference schools not mentioned in this magazine's A-10 forecast. It was as if the program didn't even exist. "We weren't in there, maybe because they had to eliminate somebody for space reasons," said Whipple. "That's where the program was at. That was the lowest." It only seems appropriate that Whipple is coaching the Minutemen. Because just like the Revolutionary War soldiers, who got their nickname by being ready to enter battle on a minute's notice, UMass got its football team prepared faster than anyone could imagine. Whipple and his