Penalties Are Keeping Dawgs Form Winning the SEC

Georgia Head Coach Mark Richt has no answer for why his teams are ranked near the bottom of Div. 1-A College Football in penalties. The Dawgs were ranked 113th in penalties.

There are about 120 Div. 1-A college teams. Many of those penalties came in very close games. Some of those games they won, and some they lost. Richt brought discipline to the Dawgs when he arrived in Athens in 2001. That discipline led to an SEC Championship and BCS bowl win in 2002.

Many of these penalties are non-physical penalties such as jumping off sides, illegal procedure, delay of game, things like that. Those penalties indicate a lack of discipline and concentration. Other kinds of penalties such as pass interference, holding, face mask or late hit out of bounds are more understandable because they involve aggression. However, too many of these types of penalties are unnecessary. Some how , some way, Richt must get this corrected. I'm not sure that running stadium stairs or suspending a starter for the first quarter are going to be enough to stop penalties. Those punitive measures have been tried and for the most part, they have not worked.

I have an idea. On all teams, players have decals placed on their helmets as rewards for excellent play on the field. In the case of Georgia, they get dog bones placed on their helmets. At Florida St., they get tomahawk's. If a player who commits a stupid penalty like jumping off sides or a personal foul, take their dog bones off their helmet. In fact, they lose ALL of their dog bone decals which they worked so hard to get. Players have pride in their play. The dog bones represent, in a sense, how good they are and how hard they have worked. If they commit a stupid penalty or penalties, take all the bones off the helmet. I don't know if it will help, but it might be worth a try.