Category 6
Recruit
- Joined
- Sep 19, 2016
- Messages
- 43
"You're either coaching it or you're allowing it"
That level of consistent undisciplined play — ranking among the worst teams in college football in penalties year after year — is absolutely bonkers. You simply can’t win at a high level when your offense is constantly starting behind the chains or your defense keeps gifting opponents fresh sets of downs. You can have all the Ruben Bains in the world, but it doesn’t matter if you’re erasing stops with flags.
When your defense forces a third-down stop and gives it right back because of a hold, or your offense — down late in the fourth — commits two false starts in a row, you’re not just hurting yourself, you’re dooming your quarterback. Now he’s pressing, trying to make hero throws on 3rd and 15, and the entire team unravels. You just can’t win like that, man.
And the numbers don’t lie. In 2018, sure — some of that might’ve been residual from the previous staff, just like Butch left Coker a mess. But once Mario had full control, the penalties skyrocketed — up to 103rd nationally. There are only 130 teams in college football, man. And that “92” ranking everyone’s quoting? That’s before the SMU game. After that circus, we’ll probably be back over 100 again next week.
First off, just halve our penalties in the Louisville game — keep everything else the same — and we win. Halve them again against SMU, and we win that one too.
This team is vastly more talented than the opponents we’re losing to. We’re supposed to be chasing a CFB Playoff berth, yet we’ve been digging ourselves into holes for weeks with offensive penalties. And somehow, Mario hasn’t done something drastic to fix it? You lose to Louisville because of penalties — one of the most fixable problems in football — and your season’s on the line. You cannot afford another loss, and yet it shows up again versus Stanford, then costs you the SMU game.
I don’t know if Mario took too many hits back in the day, but how do you not see what’s happening here? How do you not stamp this out? It’s infuriating as a fan to watch the same script play out week after week — an O-line hold killing a drive, an offsides wiping out a gain, another dumb flag after the whistle.
No players benched. No accountability. No evidence of “discipline week” at practice. Just the same penalties, the same shrug on the sideline, and the same losses to teams we should be burying.
Yes, this roster has issues. Everyone knows that. But penalties are the easiest thing for a head coach to fix. You don’t need an offseason. You don’t need new players or new coordinators. You just need to impose your will on your team. Make them understand that discipline isn’t optional — it’s everything.
If you’re going to cost this team with penalties, you sit. I don’t care if you’re JoJo Trader or Jeremiah Smith or whoever — if you’re not playing clean, you’re hurting the team more than helping it. We could’ve beaten Louisville and SMU without them. What we can’t do is win when we’re facing 3rd-and-15 every other drive.
And for the record, I’m not a Beck apologist — that four (really five)-interception game was inexcusable. But the truth is, these constant penalties have been putting him in impossible situations all year. It’s hard for any quarterback to look composed when every series starts behind the chains.
Clean football wins games. And until Mario gets that through this team’s head, we’ll keep beating ourselves instead of our opponents.
| Year | Team | Pen/G | Yds/G | Rank (fewest penalties) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Oregon | 5.0 | 47.9 | 42* |
| 2019 | Oregon | 6.1 | 61.6 | 103 |
| 2020 | Oregon | 5.9 | 50.9 | 60 |
| 2021 | Oregon | 7.4 | 64.6 | 111 |
| 2022 | Miami | 7.0 | 59.2 | 94 |
| 2023 | Miami | 6.1 | 57.8 | 95 |
| 2024 | Miami | 6.6 | 67.5 | 120 |
| 2025 | Miami | 92* |
When your defense forces a third-down stop and gives it right back because of a hold, or your offense — down late in the fourth — commits two false starts in a row, you’re not just hurting yourself, you’re dooming your quarterback. Now he’s pressing, trying to make hero throws on 3rd and 15, and the entire team unravels. You just can’t win like that, man.
And the numbers don’t lie. In 2018, sure — some of that might’ve been residual from the previous staff, just like Butch left Coker a mess. But once Mario had full control, the penalties skyrocketed — up to 103rd nationally. There are only 130 teams in college football, man. And that “92” ranking everyone’s quoting? That’s before the SMU game. After that circus, we’ll probably be back over 100 again next week.
First off, just halve our penalties in the Louisville game — keep everything else the same — and we win. Halve them again against SMU, and we win that one too.
This team is vastly more talented than the opponents we’re losing to. We’re supposed to be chasing a CFB Playoff berth, yet we’ve been digging ourselves into holes for weeks with offensive penalties. And somehow, Mario hasn’t done something drastic to fix it? You lose to Louisville because of penalties — one of the most fixable problems in football — and your season’s on the line. You cannot afford another loss, and yet it shows up again versus Stanford, then costs you the SMU game.
I don’t know if Mario took too many hits back in the day, but how do you not see what’s happening here? How do you not stamp this out? It’s infuriating as a fan to watch the same script play out week after week — an O-line hold killing a drive, an offsides wiping out a gain, another dumb flag after the whistle.
No players benched. No accountability. No evidence of “discipline week” at practice. Just the same penalties, the same shrug on the sideline, and the same losses to teams we should be burying.
Yes, this roster has issues. Everyone knows that. But penalties are the easiest thing for a head coach to fix. You don’t need an offseason. You don’t need new players or new coordinators. You just need to impose your will on your team. Make them understand that discipline isn’t optional — it’s everything.
If you’re going to cost this team with penalties, you sit. I don’t care if you’re JoJo Trader or Jeremiah Smith or whoever — if you’re not playing clean, you’re hurting the team more than helping it. We could’ve beaten Louisville and SMU without them. What we can’t do is win when we’re facing 3rd-and-15 every other drive.
And for the record, I’m not a Beck apologist — that four (really five)-interception game was inexcusable. But the truth is, these constant penalties have been putting him in impossible situations all year. It’s hard for any quarterback to look composed when every series starts behind the chains.
Clean football wins games. And until Mario gets that through this team’s head, we’ll keep beating ourselves instead of our opponents.
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