Anti Yardage: The Penalties

At the end of the season last year I began tabulating the penalties that the Dawgs accumulated. I did this thinking that senior rover Tra Battle caused the most damage. It’s hard not to love Tra. He began his career as a walk on, then earned a scholarship on pure will, and then earned a starting spot. He was one of the vocal leaders on defense and no doubt served as a great mentor for the younger players. But Battle could be a little TOO emotional and mouthy sometimes. I thought with a little research, I could show that he got us into trouble more often than not.

That was absolutely not the case. Going through games stats for every game, and counting the penalties that were attributed to each player, Battle was not the one who hurt us the most. Listed below are the offenders. Keep in mind, there were around 3-4 penalties that were assessed that were NOT given to individual players.

Dan Inman: 8 (5 false starts, 2 personal, 1 holding)

Quentin Moses: 5 (3 offsides, 1 face mask, 1 personal)

Martrez Milner: 4 (2 false starts, 1 holding, 1 illegal block)

Tra Battle: 3 (1 pass interference, 1 personal, 1 unsportsmanlike)

Matt Stafford: 3 (2 forward pass, 1 delay of game)

Chester Adams: 3 (3 false start)

Charles Johnson: 3 (1 personal, 1 offsides, 1 rough kicker)

Remarcus Brown: 3 (3 pass interference)

Kelin Johnson: 3 (illegal block, rough passer, pass interference)

A couple of notes: Cornerback Remarcus Brown had one penalty in each of the South Carolina, UAB and Colorado games (2^nd, 3^rd and 4^th games of the season). He obviously learned as he went along (and he got benched). I’m still very bitter about the face mask call on Moses in the Florida game. That questionable call gave them a 1^st down to run out the clock and everyone in that stadium (including Urban Meyer) knew that another two minutes and the game would have been ours. And the pass interference call on Kelin Johnson in the bowl game against Virginia Tech was so heinous that I shouldn’t even count it.

So what have we learned? I have no idea, but the top four guys (plus Charles Johnson) who cost us the most yards are not returning 2007. Take away Stafford’s delay of game (I didn’t even check to see if it was INTENTIONAL), that leaves you with Chester Adams, who will probably end up at tackle, as the lone returning offender, with a whopping -15 yards all last year. Gone are Inman with his -65 yards, Battle with his -45 yards (remember the unsportsmanlike leap into the end zone after his TD INT in the Auburn game?), even the normally disciplined Quentin Moses and his -35 yards.

Does this mean the end of penalties for us? No, probably not. But when we lose some senior leadership like we did this year (and believe me, those guys did a WHALE of a job leading), you have to look for the silver lining. Maybe the next class says, “Hey, we want to play more disciplined football.” Or just maybe they won’t have these *&%! penalties at the worst possible time………………..

(Having said that, our offensive line will be almost entirely new, so I don’t see the holding calls or false starts going away)