Texas Football: Notable numbers from the first two weeks for Longhorns

Penalty Yardage

The penalty yardage wasn’t too bad for the Horns against Tulsa, but the bulk of those yards this season came against Maryland. That doesn’t matter too much since penalties at opportune times for opponents can hurt a lot worse than a just having a ton of penalty yards in general. Texas got to experience that in the first two weeks.

In both games this season, Texas has given up a lot more yards to penalties than it’s got in return. Tulsa only had 45 penalty yards and Maryland had 70. Texas had 65 penalty yards against Tulsa and more than 100 against Maryland. For a team that should pride itself on discipline and development, this is not a good look for the Horns.

Last season, Texas had under 70 penalty yards per game. Yet, its opponents only had 52 penalty yards per game. For the second straight season, it appears that the Horns are going to give up more penalty yards than it will get in return. Herman needs to take care of that trend before it becomes too costly in the long run.

You could argue that it already cost the Horns too much since it might’ve swung the Maryland game if the penalty yards were more around the 50-75 range instead of over 100. Some of the youth that is getting into the game might be a reason for all the penalties, but this will need to slow down come the start of Big 12 play.