[msqueri]

Good point on penalties and our current #113 ranking. We've never been that bad. We ranked #99 in 2008, Harbaugh's second year. Believe it or not, our best rankings were #8 and #7 in fewest yards per game penalized...in Wlat's first and second years, 2005 and 2006.

We had a good year in 2018, Shaw's 9-4 season, and last year we were #21.  Anyway, here's our ranking among NCAA college football programs in fewest average penalty yards per game for the last 20 seasons inclusive of 2023:

YEAR RANK
2023 113
2022 21
2021 27
2020 64
2019 40
2018 18
2017 41
2016 65
2015 32
2014 47
2013 48
2012 67
2011 79
2010 33
2009 62
2008 99
2007 40
2006 8
2005 7
2004 50

More plays means more opportunities for penalties, which should factor in when comparing yearly totals. Not actually sure how Stanford ranks in plays per game this year compared to other years.

BTW, the replays from last night seemed to show at least one hold on every play, either by Washington or Stanford. Defensive backs do it, receiver do it, linemen do it. Every play. It truly is arbitrary whether or not officials flag a team for it or not.

Meh. Penalties happen on both offense and defense. A highly penalized team is a highly penalized team. 

As for plays per game, Stanford is at 71.75. Typically I view mid-70s as a blistering pace and, by way of comparison, in Taylor's three seasons at Sacramento State he had more than 73.9 plays per game every year and 76.5 was the median while Stanford in 2022 was 68.7 and Shaw's median over 12 years was 66. Notably, the clock rules changed in 2023 and run much more liberally than before, presumably making it harder to sneak in a lot of plays. I think it is fair to say Stanford is getting a lot of plays in this season. Looking across the nation in 2023, among teams who have played eight games (a short cut I'm electing to take because the database I'm looking at lists in terms of total plays rather than plays per game), Stanford is 24th of 117 teams in plays. Fast but not blistering. We are actually only fourth in the Pac-12 on pace, behind Cal, Colorado, and UCLA. The big shock to me is how much USC has slowed down compared to what Riley usually does.

[msqueri]

Good point on penalties and our current #113 ranking. We've never been that bad. We ranked #99 in 2008, Harbaugh's second year. Believe it or not, our best rankings were #8 and #7 in fewest yards per game penalized...in Wlat's first and second years, 2005 and 2006.

We had a good year in 2018, Shaw's 9-4 season, and last year we were #21.  Anyway, here's our ranking among NCAA college football programs in fewest average penalty yards per game for the last 20 seasons inclusive of 2023:

YEAR RANK
2023 113
2022 21
2021 27
2020 64
2019 40
2018 18
2017 41
2016 65
2015 32
2014 47
2013 48
2012 67
2011 79
2010 33
2009 62
2008 99
2007 40
2006 8
2005 7
2004 50

More plays means more opportunities for penalties, which should factor in when comparing yearly totals. Not actually sure how Stanford ranks in plays per game this year compared to other years.

BTW, the replays from last night seemed to show at least one hold on every play, either by Washington or Stanford. Defensive backs do it, receiver do it, linemen do it. Every play. It truly is arbitrary whether or not officials flag a team for it or not.

Meh. Penalties happen on both offense and defense. A highly penalized team is a highly penalized team. 

As for plays per game, Stanford is at 71.75. Typically I view mid-70s as a blistering pace and, by way of comparison, in Taylor's three seasons at Sacramento State he had more than 73.9 plays per game every year and 76.5 was the median while Stanford in 2022 was 68.7 and Shaw's median over 12 years was 66. Notably, the clock rules changed in 2023 and run much more liberally than before, presumably making it harder to sneak in a lot of plays. I think it is fair to say Stanford is getting a lot of plays in this season. Looking across the nation in 2023, among teams who have played eight games (a short cut I'm electing to take because the database I'm looking at lists in terms of total plays rather than plays per game), Stanford is 24th of 117 teams in plays. Fast but not blistering. We are actually only fourth in the Pac-12 on pace, behind Cal, Colorado, and UCLA. The big shock to me is how much USC has slowed down compared to what Riley usually does.