Personal fouls, past & present?

[El_Gato]

Since we're at a bit of a lull right now, I wanted to bring this issue up.

A griz friend of mine & I were recently discussing football (can you imagine?) & he mentioned that he thinks the Cats are headed toward surpassing ISU as the dirtiest team in the Big Sky. While I heatedly argued the point, it did remind me of the seemingly excessive number of personal fouls we've been hit with the past few seasons.

Not only does it strike me that we would ROUTINELY get 1 or 2 (or more) PF's per game, it seemed the last 2 seasons that we would get one at the absolutely worst possible time during a game.

I just was curious how others felt about this issue or if you feel it's an issue at all?

[coachouert]

Since we're at a bit of a lull right now, I wanted to bring this issue up.

A griz friend of mine & I were recently discussing football (can you imagine?) & he mentioned that he thinks the Cats are headed toward surpassing ISU as the dirtiest team in the Big Sky. While I heatedly argued the point, it did remind me of the seemingly excessive number of personal fouls we've been hit with the past few seasons.

Not only does it strike me that we would ROUTINELY get 1 or 2 (or more) PF's per game, it seemed the last 2 seasons that we would get one at the absolutely worst possible time during a game.

I just was curious how others felt about this issue or if you feel it's an issue at all?

I don't think the cats are any worse or any better then all the rest of the BSC teams when it comes to personal fouls. the biggest thing is they aren't quite as sneaky about it at many times. Like you said, they seem to happen in critical situations, but also what i've noticed is that many cat players tend to shove somebody or grab a facemask or anything else that would warrant a personal foul right in front of a ref. every other team in the big sky does the same thing, just not as blatant at times. It's just going to be a matter of picking and choosing your battles during the game.

[CARDIAC_CATS]

I have heard that the coaching staff coaches the players to go all out and play the play and not the whistle. This could get them in trouble on a couple of late hits etc. once in a while. I would say our personal fouls are on average with the rest of the Big Sky though. Our defense plays very hard/aggressive defense. Ask a lot of the players the last 2-3 years (I have seen them in press clippings) on who they think has been the hardest hitting/physical team and they all said the Bobcats. In order to play that way, your going to miss some timing on plays and hit people late. I have not seen any swings to the head/punches by any Bobcat player in the last 3-4 years so if there are any personal foul penalties it will be the random late hit on a lineman blocking on a lineman or a late hit on the ball carrier. Now that Beal hit on the punt return 2 seconds before he caught the ball last year I thought was pretty cheap though.

One thing I will say, is it sure seems we lay out more players on teams we play than teams lay out our players. I have really noticed that the last 3-4 years. That is one thing Coach Krames instills in this team ... AGGRESSION and INTENSITY. We do dictate that to the other team in the last 3-4 years that is for sure.

[mquast53000]

I don’t think that the Cats commit that many personal fouls. Sometimes you commit them to send a message to the other team, and sometimes the refs give them out a little to easily to ensure they control the game. MSU and ISU have a heat rivalry, so there is bound to be more emotions running wild. When there are a lot of young players on the field you are more likely to see personal fouls, because they are not able to hide the fouls as well as a veteran (many of the fouls I remember have been from younger players). I would like to see no personal fouls in a game (15 yards is a huge chunk of yardage), but it is part of the game.

[GOKATS]

To me there is no "acceptable" number of personal fouls. They're the stupidest penalty in football.

[mquast53000]

The Griz NC game had a HUGE cheap shot. I think everyone remembers that one… The d-lineman punched James Madison's QB in the head! Pretty much sealed the Griz’s fate that evening.

Edit, wrong team...

[WYCAT]

I didn't research the stats but I would be surprised if our number of PF's is higher that most other BSC teams. I would, however, say we commit more than our share of stupid penalties and especially, as mentioned, at critical times. How many of those did Beal have alone last season? How many huge runs were called back due to penalty? How about pass interference on 3rd and 14 on a 5 yard out pattern that would have resulted in a 4th down? Those types of penalties and mistakes are way more of a concern than personal fouls to me.

Gato, tell your griz friend (isn't that an oxymoron?) to look in the mirror. The one MQ mentioned (except it was James Madison not Furman) from last seasons championship game was a classic. Nothing but classless and the true definition of a personal foul.

[Helcat72]

Seems like there's even less PF's than when Joey was there.