A few days ago loyal reader and commenter Beernutts pointed out that we didn't factor penalties into our team's faltering 2010 season. Well, let's look at penalties today. The most called penalty for Georgia Tech is the false start. We've racked up 22 false starts in 2010. We had 28 in 2010. That means we're false starting at 10% higher rate in 2010 than in 2009. This really isn't that bad considering we've got a ton of young guys on OL and a big chunk of false starts were at loud as Hell Blacksburg.
I broke down 2009's penalties before last year's Georgie game. Procedural penalties are objective, simple penalties like false start, ineligible receiver downfield, or offsides. Dangerous penalties are late hits, personal fouls, roughing the kicker/passer, and illegal blocks. Subjective penalties are holding, pass interference, and unsportsmanlike conduct. I just kinda wanted to show that we're running at about the same rate in all penalty areas at about the same proportions as last year.
Last year, Nesbitt was our most penalized player. He accumulated 45 yards in 2009 penalties. This season Mario Butler is leading with 47 yards in pass interference penalties. I know a lot of people are frustrated with Butler's penalties but I kinda think it's a mixture of being matched up with #1 receivers and the fact that he is left man to man in a lot of blitz packages.
Any questions?