Pain Of Penalties

MeanGreen61 · October 18, 2005

Football: Pain of penalties

UNT having a lot of yards eaten up by flags this season

08:25 AM CDT on Tuesday, October 18, 2005

By Brett Vito / Staff Writer

North Texas coach Darrell Dickey had every reason to be upbeat on Monday.

The Mean Green broke a three-game losing streak with a win over Florida International on Saturday and crawled back toward the top of the Sun Belt Conference standings.

The mere mention of the number of yellow flags that flew in the Mean Green’s 13-10 victory was enough to sour Dickey’s mood, though. UNT committed a whopping 15 penalties for 146 yards against the Golden Panthers and nearly paid a heavy price when FIU hung with the Mean Green until a late field goal attempt sailed wide.

The game might not have been so close if UNT had not committed so many penalties at critical junctures.

“It’s a huge concern for me,” Dickey said. “I have to tell our guys that we have to pull off and be a smart football team ”

UNT (2-3, 2-1) has reached that goal in a few games, while struggling to avoid repeatedly damaging its chances to win with penalties in others. The Mean Green were penalized just once for five yards against Kansas State and also had reasonable totals against Troy (five penalties for 45 yards) and Middle Tennessee (six penalties for 35 yards).

It’s inordinately high number of penalties the Mean Green committed against FIU and Tulsa that concern UNT’s players and coaches. The Mean Green were flagged 12 times for 111 yards against the Golden Hurricane.

UNT was at a decided disadvantage in both of those games because of penalties. FIU had just four penalties for 25 yards, while Tulsa had three for 30 yards.

Those are the types of totals UNT hopes to get back to when it travels to Louisiana Tech on Saturday for the first of consecutive non-conference games.

“We keep on getting penalties, so we are going to have to watch how we play and watch the things that we do,” UNT defensive back Ja’Mel Branch said. “You can’t really work on penalties. You have to keep that mentality that you have to beat your man and cut out some of the penalties.”

The up-and-down nature of the number of penalties that have been called against the Mean Green has left UNT in the middle of the pack in the Sun Belt when it comes to penalty yards. UNT ranks fifth in the league with an average of 68.4 penalty yards a game.

That total is actually down from last season when the Mean Green ranked sixth in the league with an average of 69.1 yards in penalties per game.

What has been particularly frustrating for UNT is that it has committed a series of penalties at the worst possible points in games.

An offensive pass interference penalty and an illegal formation call killed a drive that reached the FIU 39-yard line. A roughing the punter penalty gave FIU a first down after the Mean Green had pinned the Golden Panthers at their own 5-yard line.

Those penalties were just an extension of a season’s worth of bad timing. UNT extended a Troy drive with a personal foul penalty after making a third-down stand.

A second personal foul gave the Trojans a boost in a drive that resulted in what turned out to be the game-winning field goal in the Trojans 13-10 victory that ended the Mean Green’s 26-game Sun Belt winning streak.

A pair of penalties and two sacks left UNT facing fourth-and-50 in its game against Tulsa.

Branch said some of those situations have come about when UNT’s players have let their frustration show.

The results were tough to reflect on for the Mean Green, who can look back and see how costly some of their penalties have proven to be throughout the season.

“It hurt has us a little bit to have so many penalties,” UNT offensive lineman Jason May said. “They have killed some drives.”

Watching some of those drives come to a premature end has been troubling for Dickey, who said he must do a better job of teaching the Mean Green the rules of the game and how get away with bending them.

The Mean Green came all too close to finding out what the alternative can be on Saturday when a host of penalties nearly left UNT with a second loss in Sun Belt play.

BRETT VITO can be reached at 940-566-6870. His e-mail address is bvito@dentonrc.com .

GoMeanGreen1999 · October 18, 2005

same old writting, different day

MootPoint · October 18, 2005

Watching some of those drives come to a premature end has been troubling for Dickey, who said he must do a better job of teaching the Mean Green the rules of the game and how get away with bending them.
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What!?

untgirl04 · October 18, 2005

What!?
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Glad I'm not the only one bothered by that statement. I know football can be dirty, but I don't think announcing in your city paper that you're trying to bend the rules is the most intelligent thing to do. All we need now is to have the NCAA breathing down our necks....