Following rules gives Kansas advantage

Thursday, October 18, 2007

Referees across the country should be lining up to apply for the right to work Kansas football games, because a Saturday spent officiating the Jayhawks is like a paid vacation – the team doesn’t commit many penalties.

Kansas has committed 22 penalties this season so far, which is the NCAA low. The team’s average of 3.67 penalties per game is the second best in the nation. In fact, Kansas has drawn just one-third as many flags as the nation’s most penalized team, Cincinnati, has.

“We tell our kids all the time to use their poise and do things in the proper way, because one penalty can kill a drive,” Kansas coach Mark Mangino said. “We’ve been pretty good so far and we need to maintain it.”

Since spring practices, Mangino has praised his team’s discipline, using terms like “mental edge” and “football aptitude” to describe the difference between the 2007 team and his past teams. The offensive line, the source of penalty problems for many programs, has been one of the Jayhawks’ most rule-abiding units. Holding penalties, false starts and delay-of-game violations have not heavily taxed Kansas at any point this season.

“It really shows how hard those guys have worked and how focused they are during the games,” sophomore quarterback Todd Reesing said. “The fact that we’re not getting a lot of penalties is huge because penalties are big momentum-changers that can kill an offensive drive really fast.”

The Jayhawks have benefitted from the momentum swing that comes along with a penalty on several occasions this season. In the third game, Toledo committed a false start on fourth-and-one in the first quarter, forcing a punt. Kansas scored 51 seconds later. In the third quarter of the same game, Toledo faced a fourth-and-four near midfield and elected to go for a first down. After another false start penalty, the Rockets had to punt the ball away.

Though penalties can often seem unimportant at the time, they tend to add up. So far in 2007, Kansas has lost 225 yards to penalties and its opponents have lost 320, essentially giving the Jayhawks 95 free yards for displaying good behavior.

The fact that Kansas has played in front of a tame Memorial Stadium crowd in five of its first six games stands out as a possible reason for the low penalty total. But the team handled the hostile din of Bill Snyder Family Stadium with ease two weeks ago, drawing just three flags, although two of them helped keep KSU drives alive. The team’s discipline will be tested this weekend at Colorado’s Folsom Field, capacity 53,750.

Edited by Rachel Bock

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