The Hurricanes are flying high, having beaten three of their biggest rivals to start the season and climbing to No. 2 in the nation. The offense is doing well, and the defense is vastly improved.

There is one area where Miami lags behind its opponents and is looking to improve: penalties.

Through its first five games, UM is averaging 7.6 penalties per game, costing an average of 62.8 yards. The Hurricanes are 113th in the nation in penalties per game and 97th in the nation in penalty yards per game. They are tied with Wake Forest for most penalties per game in the ACC, and they are 11th in the conference in penalties per game.

“Oh, no doubt it’s (on) the priority list, at the top of it,” coach Mario Cristobal said. “Certainly, when we hurt ourselves, it affected our drives. It affected the outcome of drives, as well. We overcome them sometimes, but when you play really good teams, those things could be fatal. And so, the benefit of being able to learn your lessons without learning it through consequence is great. But it has to be driven all the way through because certainly it’s not a stat line that we want to be on. And that starts with myself and every single person in this building. It’s not acceptable. It’s not what we preach or teach. But we’ve got to make sure we get the results that we want.”

The Hurricanes had their worst game, penalty-wise, against Florida State last week. They racked up 13 penalties for 114 yards, both of which were season-highs.

Miami was fully in control of that game, so there were no devastating penalties. But penalties did play a role in limiting the Hurricanes’ offense and aiding the Seminoles’ offense.

Early in the game, an illegal motion on Keelan Marion wiped out a touchdown by Malachi Toney, costing the freshman his third score of the game.

A UM holding penalty stunted its first drive of the fourth quarter, and the Hurricanes were forced to punt. On that punt, safety Dylan Day was called for targeting. The penalty cost UM 15 yards (and will keep Day out of the first half against Louisville next week). The Seminoles scored on the drive, starting their doomed comeback attempt.

All in all, the Hurricanes amassed five pre-snap penalties (four on offense, one on defense) and eight penalties during play (two on offense, six on defense). Five of the penalties were personal fouls.

First-year UM defensive coordinator Corey Hetherman preaches “violence” as part of his three-word motto for coaching (E.S.V. — excitement, swarm, violence). But he cautioned Monday that players need to be careful and not make mistakes when playing violently.

“Everything’s got to be smart situational football, smart between the whistles,” Hetherman said. “We want to be an attacking-style defense. We don’t want to sit back. We don’t want to let the offense dictate the tempo. And we’ve seen very different styles every week, whether (it’s) Notre Dame to South Florida to even Florida State. Every week, you’re going to see something different. Florida was completely different. And for us it’s being physical from whistle to whistle, playing start to finish. … Aggressive penalties, we can coach. Aggressive penalties, we can get that fixed.

“It’s the discipline: jumping offside, or the roughing or diving on a pile, some of those things, we’ve just got to be smarter in those situations. And that was, that was part of our meeting (Monday) with the players. That’s what we’ve talked about as a staff. And there’s definitely little details we’ve got to get cleaned up. We got a horse collar. It’s got to be a bend the knees and a wrap and roll (tackle). We get the roughing on the sideline — we’ve got to be smart and know where we are in the field right there. That’s something that we address with the defense (Monday), and we will get that cleaned up.

“But we’re going to continue to be a physical football team as we go forward.”

https://www.orlandosentinel.com/2025/10/09/um-penalties-issues/