It is important to do a penalty review of the Miami Hurricanes vs. Virginia Tech football game. Several penalties were committed at crucial moments of the game and erased any productivity by the offense and defense. The result of the game was almost as bad as a loss. Let’s review:
Miami Hurricanes Personal Foul Penalty Review
The Hurricanes committed three personal foul penalties. One personal foul was offset and I counted an unnecessary roughness penalty as a personal foul. The first personal foul penalty that happened caused the team to begin their drive at the 14 yard line instead of the 28. The second was on a touchdown drive that moved Virginia Tech from their own 29 to the Hurricane 42. Finally, an unnecessary roughness call on 3rd & 11 that gave Virginia Tech a first down on the drive. It went against the age-old cliche, “put your foot on their throat to win the game.” Remember the Virginia game in 2018 where two personal foul penalties allowed Virginia to run out the clock?
FCS Week Five: B-Mac’s Quick Reaction
False start penalty review
There were FIVE false start penalties! The false starts happened at the worse times. It happened on a 3rd and 15 which pushed the team back to 3rd and 20. Tyler Van Dyke completed a 12 yard pass to Thad Franklin which made it 4th and 8 and the drive was over. At 4th & 3, the team would/should/could go for it. There was another false start at 4th and 1 which pushed the team back and led to another punt. Three false start penalties happened on that drive and erased a 12 yard run by Lusicious Stanley and an 11 yard catch by Colby Young. Virginia Tech contributed a mistake with a roughing the passer penalty!
Pass interference penalty review
There is NOTHING. WORSE. than committing a pass interference penalty on third down. There were two pass interference penalties. The first PI was on third and 10 for Virginia Tech was on their 21 yard line. The 15 yards got them out to the 36, the drive stalled but the Hokies “flipped field position” and downed the punt on the Hurricane 20 yard line. On another drive, after the unnecessary roughness penalty on 4th and 1, the second PI took the Hokies from the Miami 35 to the 20. The Hokies scored on the drive to cut the lead to 6.
Penalty review of the rest
Reviewing the rest of the penalties breaks down as follows:
- (1) Ineligible receiver
- (3) Offensive holding
- (1) Illegal substitution
- (1) Defensive offside
Nick Schultz writes a great article on Coach Nick Saban talking about penalties after the Bama-Texas game. Taylor Tilley highlights in this article on the Bama-Texas game where the referees were throwing a lot of flags and the defense wasn’t playing as usual. The team to beat right now is Alabama, so listening to the Coach makes sense. The obvious take here is that “You don’t make mistakes to beat yourself.”
He said, “…It’s also focusing on the fundamental way that you need to do your job. Whether it’s hand placement as a defensive lineman when you’re blocking somebody, whether it’s hand placement as a defensive lineman when you’re striking a blocker, all those things help you have a chance to be successful on that particular play…”