UMass Suspends Coach For 'Rape' Comment In Officiating Rant

Updated at 3:08 p.m.

Massachusetts has suspended football coach Mark Whipple for one game after he said one of his players had been "raped" while complaining about the officiating Saturday in a loss to Ohio. 

Athletic director Ryan Bamford announced Sunday the suspension of Whipple without pay for the Minutemen's home game against South Florida on Saturday, and all team activities leading up to it.

Defensive Coordinator Ed Pinkham will serve as acting head coach. Bamford and Whipple issued statements apologizing for the coach's comment.

UMass lost 58-42 at Ohio in Athens.

"We had a chance there with 16 down and they rape us, and he picks up the flag," the 61-year-old Whipple told reporters, referring to an official who did not call a pass interference penalty against Ohio.

On Monday, news of Whipple's suspension had not yet reached a lot of students outside the student union. 

Molly McGuigan, a UMass junior, doesn't follow football -- but she said the suspension was necessary.

"When you keep saying the word like that, it loses the depth, and the seriousness, that the word actually has behind it," McGuigan said. "It will no longer become a term of a serious crime. It is now just a playful word that people who have experienced it can't really -- can't really use it."

UMass sophomore Scott Walsh said he and some other students in a college sports fan group called "The Militia" heard Saturday night about the incident -- and they think Whipple should be fired.

"It was just an awful way to describe the game," Walsh said. "There's plenty of other words he could have used to give off a better connotation."

Walsh said it should have been obvious the word "rape" is off-limits, especially with the growing MeToo movement.

In addition to the suspension, Whipple is required to take a sensitivity training.

Jill Kaufman contributed to this report, which includes information from The Associated Press.