By The Numbers: Louisville Penalties

It’s easier to absorb penalties when your team is putting up 40 points a game, but in a power-running defensive-minded system like Strong’s (euphemism for low scoring?), overcoming them is much tougher.

I really feel like all the holding penalties are just do to lack of skill. When you get beat the temptation is to hold. The false starts are plain lack of dicipline.

How many of our penalties this year are holding? How many penalties total?

These were notorious for Krag. Twelve men in the huddle, illegal substitutions, sideline interference (remember that one?). Most of the penalties this season have been holding, offsides, etc. But you also have to look at penalty yards. I would be very interested to see those stats. And it’s also interesting to see that Strong is averaging almost 1.5 more penalties per game since he’s been here than Kragthorpe (even with a veteran team last year made up of mostly “Krag’s guys”), and that was one of the major complaints against Krag. Of course, we also had an illegal substitution penalty after a timeout on a critical 4th down today.

A lot of you guys are quick to throw out the “UK fan” insult, but I think you’re missing our point (at least mine). I don’t want to see anybody fired. I still think Strong can turn it around, and I still have faith that we will get better. It’s already good to see that we have a lot of good offensive linemen signed in next year’s class, and there’s no question that we’re getting some good talent here. But it’s a shame to see the lack of discipline and the apparent lack of preparation on our part, especially on the offensive side of the ball. Those are the things that you want to always have right, talent or no, because it’s far easier to plug talent into a disciplined team and get better than it is to plug it into an undisciplined team and get better. Especially when it’s young talent.

As I said in the other thread, I don’t think the sky is falling, but that doesn’t mean I have to wait until a chunk lands on my head before I start expressing concern about the cracks in the clouds. I knew Charlie had an uphill climb when he got here, and I was afraid, given our large junior and senior classes in year 1, that it would take longer than the 2-3 years that everyone was hoping for. But I always said that I would be fine taking our lumps for a few more years as long as our team played passionately and executed well, and that, unfortunately, has not been the case for most of the five games so far this season.

You should have said “hot hot topic.”

when you consider that we’ve lost 3 games by a total of 18 points and our defense is #15 in the nation in points allowed. Take away half those penalties at crucial times and it’s fair to say we’d score more and lose less. If we were getting blown out I wouldn’t probably notice the penalties that much because we’d have bigger fish to fry. But when you lose so many close games, it’s exactly things like excessive penalties that factor heavily into the mix. And it’s fixable. The coaches should pick their battles here and if the OL is as good as it’s going to be this year, then make the best of it but work really hard on eliminating penalties. Make that a major goal and let the chips fall where they will. That’s my armchair coach call for today.

Well at least their potential.