Utah State has been heavily penalized and that will likely continue. Blake Anderson just hopes at a reduced rate
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Utah State was heavily penalized against the Iowa Hawkeyes — 10 penalties for 75 yards — but that isn’t anything new.
During the Blake Anderson era the Aggies have consistently been a highly penalized team, never rating among the top 65 teams in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) in fewest penalties per game or fewest penalty yards per game.
“It could have been a much better game, a much closer game, a more competitive game had we eliminated a lot of mistakes.” — Utah State coach Blake Anderson
After Week 1, the Aggies are ranked No. 120 in both the aforementioned categories, meaning they were one of the most penalized teams in the country over the first full weekend of college football.
Anderson bemoaned all the penalties committed by his team immediately after the loss to the Hawkeyes and did so again Monday afternoon during his weekly press conference.
“It could have been a much better game, a much closer game, a more competitive game had we eliminated a lot of mistakes,” he said.
There have been discussions on how to limit penalties — many in fact — going back multiple seasons, back even to Anderson’s tenure as head coach at Arkansas State.
“We’ve (the Utah State staff) had a ton of conversations about penalties and it’s not the first (time),” Anderson said. “Been dealing with this for years.”
But in Anderson’s eyes, there is nuance to the discussion. The way he wants his teams to play almost necessitates they commit penalties. At least at times.
“I feel like if you’re gonna play with your hair on fire and play with the energy level that we need, you’re gonna get right up to the edge a lot,” Anderson said. “We talk about getting up to the edge and not going across it. And we won championships at Arkansas State and we won a championship here (at Utah State) by playing that way.
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“I mean, talent-wise — on paper — we are not more talented than a lot of (teams) that we beat. That culture and that environment — how hard we play — is a staple. It’s part of who we are.”
Anderson conceded that with how his teams play, with how he coaches them to play, guys do cross into penalized play. It happens.
“If you play to that line, at times you’re going to cross it,” he said.
To Anderson, though, there are different types of penalties. And the ones that drive him crazy are lack-of-discipline penalties.
He doesn’t mind the ones that come as a result of playing hard, such as hands to the face, or an illegal tackle, etc. But personal foul penalties in particular make him livid.
“A competitive penalty, where a guy’s hands end up on a face mask or you’re competitive, you’re in the heat of the battle, and you end up grabbing a face mask inadvertently or you end up with some type of collision. It’s inadvertent. Those you gotta teach.
“... The ones that frustrate you or the ones that are completely unforced errors that are selfish behavior and those you treat differently.”
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Anderson singled out a pair of personal foul penalties committed by the Aggies against Iowa to make this point, one by senior defensive tackle Poukesi Vakauta, the other by redshirt freshman linebacker Josh Williams.
Both penalties, he explained, were selfish and completely unnecessary, but in the case of Williams, who is a redshirt freshman who “doesn’t have equity built up,” it is enough that he may not see the field again this season.
Something of a teaching moment if you will.
“Josh Williams, who basically played a couple of his first snaps ever (against Iowa), who has been told not to make mistakes — selfish mistakes — and he blatantly made one. You won’t see him back on the field for quite some time, if at all,” Anderson said. “He doesn’t have equity built up. He has not earned the right or an opportunity to make those mistakes. And that one was blatant and egregious, and completely selfish. And he knew it when he did it. So I don’t really need to see him on the field until he grows up.”
Aggies on the air
Utah State (0-1)
vs. Idaho State (0-1)
Saturday, 6 p.m. MDT
Logan
TV: KJZZ
Radio: Aggie Sports Network
Anderson admitted that he knows penalties are an issue with his teams, an issue that fans have been asking about. And while he hopes to see less of them as the season progresses, they won’t completely go away. Not with how he wants his team to play.
“If we’re going to play at the level of effort and intensity that we want you’re going to have some times where you spill over that line. And hopefully we can overcome those and avoid as many as possible,” he said.
“... I know a lot of people ask and I get it. Nobody’s more frustrated than we are. But (our aggressive style of play) has allowed us to win championships. I don’t want to become passive. I don’t want to become soft. I don’t want to play with less effort or chase. We need all those things to win. It is about not crossing (the line) and that is a skill that we have to learn. We have to have discipline. We have to learn that, and this team clearly hasn’t learned that yet.”
