How penalties impacted Texas vs. Vanderbilt

For a team that has been heavily penalized this season on offense, the flags on the Longhorns in Nashville had an unusually-pronounced effect.

Self-inflicted mistakes have been a consistent theme for the No. 6 Texas Longhorns since starting SEC play against the Mississippi State Bulldogs a month ago, continuing unabated in a way that influenced regular slow starts and the season’s only loss the now-No. 2 Georgia Bulldogs.

On Saturday in Nashville against the then-No. 25 Vanderbilt Commodores at FirstBank Stadium, the story was not just similar, but even worse for a team that now ranks tied for 87th in penalties per game at 6.9, 78th nationally in penalty yardage per game at 56.8, and 84th in total penalty yardage at 454 yards.

But while the regular false starts that have plagued Texas on offense are only worth five yards and don’t negate a play, the lost yardage against Vanderbilt was particularly impactful.

Here are the team’s 10 penalties and how they effected the game.

---

Holding

Player flagged: Redshirt freshman cornerback Warren Roberson

Context: The opening kickoff return

Total lost yardage: Eight yards

Impact: While the 15-yard kickoff return for Texas was already going to result in 10 lost yards of field position because of the difference between Golden fair catching it and the yardage he actually gained, the lost yardage on the play compared to a fair catch is 18 yards.

“The odds of you scoring starting inside of your your own 10 diminish immensely,” Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian noted on Monday.

According to data gathered between 2014 and 2019, the Expected Points Value of a first-down play from your own 25-yard line is 1, dropping to 0 at the 10-yard line. After gaining on first down, a second-down pass by Ewers was tipped at the line of scrimmage of intercepted, returned to the Texas 31-yard line, where Vanderbilt started its drive with an Expected Points Value of 2, eventually scoring a touchdown on a Diego Pavia scramble on 3rd and 8 from the 18-yard line.

The bigger picture: Penalties in the return game have been a consistent feature of coordinator Jeff Banks’ units this season, negating big returns like the 64-yarder by Golden against Georgia or simply costing valuable field position. Given the proven return ability of Golden at Houston and punt returner Silas Bolden at Oregon State, Texas wants to be aggressive in the return game, but the execution has been poor for the Longhorns too many times.

Overall, the Horns have been flagged for 10 penalties on special teams, including three on Roberson and two on junior tight end Amari Niblack, who lost his role on the return teams after penalties in consecutive games. Roberson is in similar danger — it was his penalty that negated Golden’s long return against the Bulldogs.

During the bye week, Banks needs to emphasize blocking technique in the return game and find 10 players on each unit he can trust not to regularly commit penalties.

---

Unsportsmanlike conduct

Player flagged: Junior right tackle Cam Williams

Context: A nine-yard run by Jaydon Blue with 11:49 remaining in the second quarter on first down just inside Vanderbilt territory with Texas leading 14-7.

Total lost yardage: 15 yards

Impact: Because Williams was flagged for pushing a Vanderbilt defender on the ground after knocking him down at the end of the play, Texas didn’t lose the yardage from Blue’s run, but the loss of 15 yards from the penalty did put them in 2nd and 16, the type of situation that often leads to third and long. Fortunately for the Horns, Blue caught a 16-yard pass on the next play to gain a fresh set of downs.

The bigger picture: Williams is known for committing false-starting penalties are he was flagged for four in his first career start last season against Kansas State. This year, the massive junior from Duncanville has been flagged 11 times, more than twice as many as the three players tied for second place — junior left tackle Kelvin Banks, junior right guard DJ Campbell, and senior tight end Gunnar Helm, who all have five penalties.

In fact, given how good Williams has been in pass protection and his above-average run blocking, his inability to avoid penalties is the only thing keeping him from truly high-level all-around performances.

---

Holding

Player flagged: Banks

Context: Two plays after the penalty on Williams, sophomore running back Quintrevion Wisner picked up 14 yards on a run off the left edge to the Vanderbilt 16-yard line, but Banks was flagged for grabbing at the legs of the defender as he went to the ground, creating a spot foul that moved the Horns back to the 36-yard line.

Total lost yardage: 20 yards

Impact: Instead of having a first down inside the Vanderbilt red zone, Texas had to face a 2nd and 12. When Blue only gained three yards on second down, the Longhorns had to face the third and long that they were lucky to avoid after the Williams penalty. This time, they paid for it, as Ewers was sacked for a 10-yard loss on third down that pushed Texas out of field-goal range when Vanderbilt schemed up a pressure that created a free-running blitzer right up the middle.

Ultimately, the penalty cost the Horns between three and seven points.

The bigger picture: With three penalties in the last two games, the flaggable mistakes by Banks are starting to add up. To a lesser extent than Williams, that’s also taking away from all the things that Banks is doing well — Texas needs its highest-graded starter to to avoid penalties like this holding call that indicates a loss of poise and composure pulling down a defender in that manner.

---

Holding

Player flagged: Redshirt junior safety Michael Taaffe

Context: With 19 seconds remaining in the first half, Vanderbilt was near midfield hoping to create some momentum at halftime down 21-7 when Taaffe was called for holding, a 10-yard penalty, on a nine-yard completion.

Difference in yardage: One

Impact: Since the difference between the completion and the hold on Taaffe was only one yard and a first down, it probably didn’t impact the 54-yard field goal that Vanderbilt kicked as time expired in the second quarter.

The bigger picture: See the pass-interference penalty below.

---

False start

Player flagged: Campbell

Context: After picking up 22 yards on the first two plays of the second half for Texas on offense, Campbell put the Horns behind the chains on first down.

Total lost yardage: Five yards

Impact: A 20-yard run by Wisner on 3rd and 7 gained a fresh set of downs on a drive that culminated in a 40-yard field goal.

The bigger picture: On a day when only one of the 10 penalties on Texas was a false start, it was nice of Campbell to play a tried-and-true hit like a good, old-fashioned false start. As the highest-rated prospect in the 2022 recruiting class for the Longhorns, Campbell still hasn’t fully secured the starting right guard job because of persistent mistakes like false starts and issues in run blocking.

As a result, backup junior Cole Hutson played 17 snaps against Oklahoma and 26 snaps against Georgia even though Hutson hasn’t been particularly good, either, including giving up a pressure in one of his five pass blocks on Saturday in Nashville.

To put it simply, Texas needs more out of Campbell, especially as a run blocker, because playing Hutson isn’t solving any issues other than avoiding mistakes by Campbell.

---

Defensive pass interference

Player flagged: Muhammad

Context: With Texas up 24-10 midway through the third quarter, Vanderbilt had just intercepted Ewers for a second time on a tipped pass in Texas territory. At the edge of field-goal-range, the Commodores went for it on 4th and 7 from the 35-yard line with Pavia trying to hit Loic Fouonji down the sideline on a go route. Muhammad played the route with physicality, just too much physicality, and without playing the ball.

“Manny’s in awesome position. I think if you could do it all over again, he’d turn around a little quicker — he might even intercept it,” Sarkisian said.

Total lost yardage: 15 yards

Impact: Since it was fourth down, Texas didn’t need Muhammad to intercept the ball, it just needed him to play with better technique and situational awareness. Instead, the penalty extended a drive that ended with a three-yard touchdown pass by Pavia on 4th and goal from the 3-yard line on an absurdly lucky throw that was deflected by Texas sophomore linebacker Liona Lefau into the hands of Vanderbilt’s Junior Sherrill on a play that sophomore safety Jelani McDonald was in position to intercept had Lefau not deflected it.

“A little bit of bad luck there, but we’ve got to continue to try to defend our end zone better,” Sarkisian said.

Before the fourth-down play, the win probability for Texas was 96.9 percent, according to ESPN. By the time that Pavia threw the touchdown pass for the seven-point swing, the win probability had dropped nearly 10 percent. In real time, it felt like more than that, and actually was since an incompletion on fourth down boosts the win probability for the Longhorns even higher.

The bigger picture: While Muhammad hasn’t committed any other penalties this season, his play has seen a steady erosion over recent weeks. With one tackle and three missed tackles in the last two games, he’s been finishing poorly in addition to giving up 42 yards on two receptions against Georgia. The standard is high for Muhammad in large part because he’s set such a high standard for himself through the first year and a half of his college career, but the South Oak Cliff product hasn’t quite performed up to it over the last several games.

---

Holding

Player flagged: Niblack

Context: Leading 24-17 early in the fourth quarter, Texas was on a sustained drive picking up yardage in small chunks. Facing a 3rd and 1 from the Vanderbilt 45-yard line, Wisner bounced an inside zone run off the left edge for nine yards that was set because Niblack was holding the defender trying to play contain. On a conservative play call from a heavy personnel grouping, Helm was blown up at the point of attack as another defender filled an interior gap, forcing Wisner outside and putting extra pressure on Niblack to execute his block at a high level.

Total lost yardage: 19 yards

Impact: Instead of reaching the edge of field-goal range, Texas needed to convert a 3rd and 11 that resulted in a sack when Williams was beat with an inside move, his second sack allowed this season with both coming in the last two games.

Between Niblack’s hold and the sack, Texas lost 26 yards on the consecutive plays. When freshman punter Michael Kern hit a mediocre 40-yard punt and Vanderbilt returned it 15 yards, a drive that should have ended with a field goal or the home team pinned against its goal line resulted in the Commodores’ offense taking over at the 37-yard line.

The bigger picture: Niblack profiles as one of the team’s most disappointing players this season — the Alabama transfer was called for a holding penalty against Michigan on his only rep in pass protection and got benched on offense for four games before returning against Vanderbilt and picking up another penalty.

After getting some reps on three different special teams units early in the season, Niblack was called for a block in the back penalty against UTSA when he pushed a player into Bolden, which resulted in the Texas punt returner failing to catch the punt around the 21-yard line. Not only did Bolden take a knock on the play, but the ball bounced to the 8-yard line and the Longhorns eventually took over at the 4-yard line following the penalty enforcement.

In the next game against Louisiana-Monroe, Niblack remained on the punt return unit, but was called for a holding penalty that resulted in his removal from special teams.

With only three catches for 29 yards this season, Niblack has committed more penalties than he has receptions while demonstrating that he’s unplayable on special teams and arguably unplayable on offense.

---

Holding

Player flagged: Banks

Context: Still leading 24-17 in the fourth quarter, Texas opened its drive running wide zone, but Williams couldn’t execute his reach block, forcing Wisner to bounce the run outside towards the block by Banks, who simply couldn’t maintain it long enough without drawing the flag.

Total lost yardage: 12 yards

Impact: Texas ended up in 3rd and 19 after the penalty, which Ewers converted with a 24-yard completion to Bolden, but the Longhorns couldn’t pick up another first down and punted the ball away.

The bigger picture: The Longhorns have become heavily reliant on wide zone as the staple running play because they struggle to create displacement on inside zone/duo and have regressed as the competition has improved on gap runs. Especially from the shotgun, when the positioning of the running back almost always indicates the play direction, opponents are keying on tendency, making it easy for a defensive linemen to slant towards the run and make that reach block by Williams so difficult, blowing up plays in the process.

During the bye week, the Longhorns need to get better on some other staple runs so that opponents can’t anticipate wide zone so easily, but there are some real limitations with the size of the Texas running backs that makes the more physical, downhill runs like inside zone/duo and Power unlikely to succeed at any point this season.

---

Holding

Player flagged: Helm

Context: As the margin remained at 24-17 past the midway point of the fourth quarter, Texas had come up with an interception by Lefau on a desperate fourth-down attempt by Vanderbilt, setting the offense up at the Vanderbilt 29-yard line in prime position to create game-ending separation.

Instead, Helm was called for holding blocking on slice zone, something that should never happen. It was a questionable call, and was likely made because Helm grabbed at the defender while taking him the ground, negating a seven-yard run by junior Jaydon Blue.

Lost yardage: 17 yards

Impact: Texas was able to produce a 14-yard completion on 2nd and 23 and a 23-yard run on 3rd and 9 to move the chains before the drive stalled at the 5-yard line and Bert Auburn had to attempt a 23-yard field goal.

The bigger picture: As a pass catcher, Helm has been sensational in his breakout senior season. In pass protection, he’s been strong. But with five penalties in the last four games, he’s been hurting the Longhorns blocking on runs or in the quick passing game. Overall, he’s graded out extremely poorly as a run blocker in every game except for Louisiana-Monroe:

Because Texas is getting such poor play from the other tight end position, there’s increased pressure on Helm to perform better with his blocking at the line of scrimmage or in space.

---

Roughing the passer

Player flagged: Redshirt senior defensive tackle Vernon Broughton

Context: With a little more than a minute remaining and Texas up 27-17, Vanderbilt was desperately trying to score a touchdown so it could attempt an onside kick and have a chance at tying the game late. Under pressure from Longhorns senior Jack end Barryn Sorrell, Pavia climbed the pocket and threw a wounded duck that was intercepted by freshman cornerback Kobe Black and returned 72 yards for a touchdown, but Broughton was ejected for targeting when he hit Pavia late.

Total lost yardage: The 72-yard touchdown

The impact: Pavia was able to hit an explosive passing play to Sherrill to convert a 3rd and 10 and then threw a touchdown to tight end Eli Stowers with 46 seconds remaining, allowing the Commodores to attempt the crucial onside kick that the Longhorns recovered with ease, ending the game.

The bigger picture: In the most extensive high-leverage playing time of Black’s young career, the Waco Connally product flashed over his nine snaps, putting himself in the mix to be the team’s third cornerback with senior Gavin Holmes only playing six snaps against Georgia and one against Vanderbilt.

---

Conclusion

The penalties and the resulting impact of them were arguably the difference between a comfortable SEC road win against a dangerous opponent and turned it into a seven-point win that was never in true danger down the stretch, but certainly demonstrated the continued room for growth for Texas.

“You’re looking at, that’s a 14-point swing on one play, a seven-point swing on another play, probably a seven-point swing when you have to start inside your own 10-yard line to start a drive, and then four explosive runs getting called back,” Sarkisian said.

“Those are impactful plays in a game — our penalties did not come at the ideal time. I don’t know if there ever is an ideal time, but those penalties did not occur at the right time. We have to be better. That’s 18 penalties now in the last two ball games, and we have to clean that up.”

As Sarkisian and his staff work to clean up these issues, the question for Texas is whether it’s possible to fix them or whether the inability to play clean football is a fatal flaw that will derail this team’s goals of an SEC title and a national championship run.

“We know our best football still ahead of us and now it’s our job to get that out of everybody so that we can play the best football we need to play that is required in November,” Sarkisian said.