Miami has had a consistent issue crop up this season: penalties.

The No. 18 Hurricanes are one of the most penalized teams in the nation, averaging eight per game. Against SMU on Saturday, it proved costly in a 26-20 overtime loss.

“We felt that we had made progress the previous week against Stanford, but we regressed Saturday,” Miami coach Mario Cristobal said on WQAM. “There’s no other way to cut it. In between the whistles, the play was really good, really physical. But the pre-snap penalties were certainly hurtful, and I know we had a couple of holdings, as well. So that part certainly it’s … not our standard and certainly something that we have to fix and get better.”

Some of the penalties were controversial, such as Marquise Lightfoot’s fourth-down roughing-the-passer call that extended the game-tying drive for the Mustangs. UM has asked for clarification from the ACC on that play and some others. But many of the penalties were straightforward calls like false starts.

Miami offensive linemen, in particular, had a rough day against the Mustangs. All six regular offensive linemen were called for a penalty in the game, combining for 50 of UM’s 96 penalty yards. Miami offensive linemen have committed 30 penalties this year out of the team’s 65 total penalties, according to Pro Football Focus.

Six of Miami’s 12 penalties in the loss to SMU were pre-snap penalties; five were on the offensive line and one was on the defensive line.

“It’s just discipline,” quarterback Carson Beck said. “That’s all it is. And each and every day, we attack that and we work through it, and everyone makes mistakes. We just can’t take turns doing it. I’ve made mistakes. Everybody else has made mistakes, and as a team, we’ve made mistakes, and we have to do our best to try to eliminate those and continue to play the most perfect and consistent football that we can.”

UM is currently tied for 130th in the nation with eight penalties per game. Only four Power 4 teams have more penalties per game. The Hurricanes are also 105th in the nation with 63.4 penalty yards per game.

“We don’t cut corners, we practice hard,” Cristobal told WQAM. “Everything is regimented, structured. And I live a disciplined life, and we coach a disciplined team. And we did not get the outcome that we work for, strive for, every single day. So when that happens, it’s not just assessing, it’s adjusting, it’s tweaking. It’s teaching it better, coaching it better. Really dig deep into, ‘Hey, what are we thinking here? And what made you want to do this that caused the penalty?’ so we could get it fixed and get better.

“It’s that simple. And again, when I say it’s simple, (it is) in terms of trying to find out why. But then the hard part is getting it to happen on game day, which we didn’t do. We regressed.”

Offensive coordinator Shannon Dawson noted that the pre-snap penalties did not slow Miami’s offense down much during the loss to the Mustangs (that lied more with mistakes like dropped passes), but it is something UM is working hard to fix.

The Hurricanes have four games left, so they need to correct their penalty issues as soon as possible. UM is ranked 18th in the first College Football Playoff rankings. To have any shot at a playoff berth, the Hurricanes need to win out. To win out, they need to stop creating their own problems.

“We’ve reached a point in time where it’s like we have tried, we have made the tweaks and adjustments, but it’s not good enough,” Cristobal said. “And it’s hurt us, and we know that. So certainly there is, there’s some more adjustments coming to it and there’s confidence and faith that it’s going to be better. And hopefully, I can say with confidence you’ll see a better result in that area because it’s unacceptable.”

https://www.sun-sentinel.com/2025/11/05/hurricane-penalty-issues/