Penalty Solution

[Apis Bull]

I think someone already suggested this, but have refs come and watch some of your practices and report to the coaching staff aftert practice about any penalties they see.  Then discipline the offenders.

[bulls87]

I think someone already suggested this, but have refs come and watch some of your practices and report to the coaching staff aftert practice about any penalties they see.  Then discipline the offenders.

Pro teams do it during training camp, but I feel that all coaches SHOULD be able to see a hold or offsides or better yet the number of players on the field.  Not all of the penalties the players fault (ie too many men on the field...)  I don't mind a DB's taking a penality when they are toasted, but when the same player receives holding call after holding call then take him out of the game or move a tightend over and double team the defensive end.

[sdgukhsdgl]

ive seen some teams with a tarp on the ground with the 11 spots on the ground to line up the players before they hit the field.  this was mostly at the high school level, but at the rate we are going it wouldnt hurt

[The_Reaper]

The problem is, is I only hear excuses. What about solutions? OTHER teams do not have this problem. I think it all starts with discipline. Our team has no discipline. Looking at the replay on TV of our team, we look sloppy, ( both in appearance and on organization. Tuck in the uni's!!!), disorganized, (how many times are we going to keep wasting time looking over at Coach Smith for the plays, only to find out that we have 4 seconds to hurry up the play?), and on and on... I know we are all armchair  Coaches. But when things become obvious.......

[MikeG]

Some penalties just happen in the heat of battle-- others are avoidable. Taking your helmet off is a well known no-no-- that one is pure coaching and a maturity issue. The substitution errors are on the coaches more or less. These are the type that are frustrating.

The holding penalties can be called just about any play but usually (provided the refs are unbiased) it has to be something pretty blatant to draw a flag.

Some of the penalties have little or no impact. Like the delay of game type when you are trying to give your punter room-- these type would be piled on wrongly if you wanted to make someone run for them. Others like offsides late in the game when you are up a couple of touchdowns-- those don't seem all that infuriating. It has been a while since we had the luxury of a big lead though.

I don't know what upsets me more-- a bad penalty at the wrong time (roughing the kicker against USC) or getting picked off 4 times. In either case, they are mistakes and young teams are prone to them. That doesn't exclude the offensive line from getting called for holding or offsides on occassion-- that is going to happen in a lot of games-- it just seems wrong to hold one person to blame (like what is being to Levi Newton in the Matt in the Box piece). I know these guys don't want to get the penalties-- I just don't know how anyone can coach them from doing them or falling into them. Some of those line holds, had they not been comitted might have ended up in more sacks. The bottom line seems to be we need to play better in all facets of the game-- penalties are just one more aspect. Drawing attention to just the penalties ignores missed blocks, dropped passes, fumbles, interceptions, bad call playing, etc-- there are plenty of errors going on out there, penalties just happens to be the most obvious and easiest stat to find. It hardly is our only problem though. I haven't looked at the worst offenders in terms of penalties, but I would imagine there are a couple of really good teams listed there as well. That's not an excuse--just a thought that focusing on penalties may not our biggest problem. Most reoccuring problem perhaps-- but not the one that is solely responsible for losses this year.

[bulls96go]

fix it NOW!

[Bullpride08]

IT"S BECAUSE THEY DON"T TEACH!!! Coaches are suppose to teach, not just be figureheads. There is no excuse for us having penalties year after year in this magnitude. It comes down to coaching.

You should fire Leavitt.....since you know they don't teach.

jeez, when a team isn't 11-0 the boards become ridiculous.  It's called youth, and its difficult to coach out the sophomorish, and high school antics.

[bulls96go]

win and all is forgiven and overlooked

lose and there is hell to pay!

[DENVERBULL]

It's called youth, and its difficult to coach out the sophomorish, and high school antics.

C'mon- haven't we led the nation the last three years in penalties?  All 117 teams have freshman and sophomores and they don't committ the penalties that we do.  Some of the blame has to fall on the coaches and some on the players.  Something HAS to give.

[Sitting_BULL]

You should fire Leavitt.....since you know they don't teach.

jeez, when a team isn't 11-0 the boards become ridiculous.  It's called youth, and its difficult to coach out the sophomorish, and high school antics.

Yes but, I know of other teams who actually do make it a part of practice and disipline penalties during practice when hey happen.

The fact that our coaches say they don't pay any mind to it during practice is disturbing at best?  You play the way you practice.  If you don't care about penalties, everyone's shirts being untucked, etc, during practice, it will carry over to game time.  It's obvious this is the case.