Texas' Penalties in 2025 (deep dive)

[Realist Horn]

After hearing everyone talk about how Texas needed to cut down on its penalties next year, I took a deeper dive. I looked at all penalties, even those that were offset or declined. I know am missing one penalty from the Kentucky Overtime as I could not get a play-by-play for those drives (not sure if it was offensive or defensive)

In total, Texas had 119 penalties called on them in 2025 - 7 of those were declined and 4 were offset for a total of 108 enforced. for over 900 yards.

Of all penalties called (including declined/offsetting) they are broken down as follows:

 OFFENSE - 64 or 54%

DEFENSE - 40 or 34%

SPECIAL TEAMS - 14 or 12%

Of those penalties - these were the most common:

False Start - 26

Holding (offensive) - 25

Personal Fouls/Roughing/Unnecessary Roughness/Unsportsmanlike Conduct - 12

Offsides - 10 (C. Simmons accounted for 5 of them)

Defensive Face Mask - 7 

Pass Interference/Delay of Game - 5

Defensive Holding - 5

(illegal block, special teams holding, illegal blocks, illegal shifts/formations, ineligible man down field) all had less than 5 more than 1. 

Intentional grounding - 1. 

False Starts, Offsides and Delay of Game penalties are all pre-snap penalties - and accounted for more than a 1/3 of Texas penalties. Your personal fouls, lates hits and unsportsmanlike conduct penalties are usually post-play fouls and accounted for 10%. By just being more disciplined pre-snap and post play, Texas can easily cut its penalties next season as they accounted for 40% of Texas' penalties. . 

[Here for the Wins]

Baker, hold on the first offensive play in OT.  Least think it was play 1.

[Realist Horn]

4 minutes ago, Here for the Wins said:

Baker, hold on the first offensive play in OT.  Least think it was play 1.

We can adjust those penalties accordingly - the offense would have an even bigger share of the blame probably pushing 55%.

[Realist Horn]

Also, I didn't want to throw specific players under the bus, but I have the penalties associated with each individual player as well...

[Hookem72]

Show Roberson please, and how many of those were on special teams where we also did something good.  Thank you for doing the Lord’s work.  

[Bunk Moreland]

Great stuff, thanks! This has been a problem Sark’s entire tenure. He’s gotta get it addressed.

[CJ Vogel]

Good stuff right here. Well done.

[Beldar]

Any way you could go back over last 25 years and see where we rank in total penalties each year?

May be wrong but it feels to me we always lose the penalty battle. Have watched replays of many games and see calls on us that were iffy and flagrant fouls on other team not called. Some of them cost us games. 

Edited January 16 by Beldar

[Here for the Wins]

Realist, since we’re at it, we want 25 years worth of data as you’ve presented for all teams so we can compare.😃

[AZ Longhorn]

GOATed. Thank you!!

[diegozanna20]

Really great work and really interesting!

It'd be nice to see how the penalties are "spread out", I think:
Did we become more disciplined as the year went on?
Did we get more penalties in games where the team struggled/big games, indicating the players were probably "pressing" too much?
Were the penalties drawn by younger players or is there not a trend with experience?

Because so many penalties drawn were due to mental errors I think we'll see a pretty drastic change with a more experienced team next year... or at least I hope so...
The players also need to be more loose and have fun on the field... we're gonna have really high expectations again next year... hopefully the team is prepared for it this time.
Arch needs to do what VY did and instill confidence in his teammates through his personality and his energy.

[Realist Horn]

At Ohio State, Texas only had 6 penalties: 3 false starts (23 on Baker) and a hold on offense

At Florida, it was a mess. 10 penalties, 8 on the offense. 5 false starts and 3 holds (one was decline). 

Oklahoma was fairly clean - 3 offensive penalties - 2 holds and a false start

At Georgia: 5 offensive penalties - 2 false starts and 3 holds. (2 special team penalties)

The Bowl Game at Mich was odd as well: 8 offensive, 5 defensive and 2 special teams (one from each group was declined or offset) - these penalties ran the gambit: facemask, holdings, delay of game, block in back, ineligible man down field, false starts, unnecessary roughness

[Horns7]

How much did it impact 3 losses Ohio State, Florida, and Georgia? 

What was the net, Per Opponent ?

We had 8.7 penalties against unranked opponents and 7.8 ranked

Non-Conf games 9.2 

Conference games 7.8

Michigan 12 penalties 

Texas opponents 5.8 per game and 2 - 1st downs per game

Sorry if off on anything. Does the O Line need hearing aids or hearing tests?

What is the expectations for OL by coaches ie no more than 2 Penalties or 20 yards per game? 

 

 

 

[Here for the Wins]

1 hour ago, Horns7 said:

How much did it impact 3 losses Ohio State, Florida, and Georgia? 

What was the net, Per Opponent ?

We had 8.7 penalties against unranked opponents and 7.8 ranked

Non-Conf games 9.2 

Conference games 7.8

Michigan 12 penalties 

Texas opponents 5.8 per game and 2 - 1st downs per game

Sorry if off on anything. Does the O Line need hearing aids or hearing tests?

What is the expectations for OL by coaches ie no more than 2 Penalties or 20 yards per game? 

 

 

 

Around the draft, it was reported that Campbell had 25 career penalties.  Ten this year.

There were penalties that preceded the interceptions versus OSU and UF.  If you look at the play calls and QB decisions, the penalties were impactful because we lost patience.  We had defensive penalties versus OSU and UGa that extended, stalled drives.  A&M too.  All drives resulted in points.  Maybe this year, we can overcome.

[Jc Dobbs]

On 1/16/2026 at 12:58 PM, Bunk Moreland said:

Great stuff, thanks! This has been a problem Sark’s entire tenure. He’s gotta get it addressed.

Could it be the pre-snap motion? Lack of complete FOCUS?!

Could Arch adjust the snap count for certain play calls that have resulted in the most pre-snap penalties? In Sark's system does the QB determine the snap count (usually according to the play clock, etc., or does it come in with the play call through the QB helmet)?

Thanks! Hook 'Em!

[Gerry Hamilton]

Something to shoot for ...

Ole Miss improved from 118th in penalties in 2024 to 54th in 2025 ... huge difference for them, and in making the CFP with improved discipline as a team

Alabama improved by 2.9 penalties per game from 2024 to 2025. Same. 

With Texas talent level, if they could make a move toward 65th range in penalties they would he hell on wheels to deal with. Ultra talented and truly improved in terms of discipline contentder

[Steamboat Willie]

On 1/16/2026 at 12:34 PM, Realist Horn said:

After hearing everyone talk about how Texas needed to cut down on its penalties next year, I took a deeper dive. I looked at all penalties, even those that were offset or declined. I know am missing one penalty from the Kentucky Overtime as I could not get a play-by-play for those drives (not sure if it was offensive or defensive)

In total, Texas had 119 penalties called on them in 2025 - 7 of those were declined and 4 were offset for a total of 108 enforced. for over 900 yards.

Of all penalties called (including declined/offsetting) they are broken down as follows:

 OFFENSE - 64 or 54%

DEFENSE - 40 or 34%

SPECIAL TEAMS - 14 or 12%

Of those penalties - these were the most common:

False Start - 26

Holding (offensive) - 25

Personal Fouls/Roughing/Unnecessary Roughness/Unsportsmanlike Conduct - 12

Offsides - 10 (C. Simmons accounted for 5 of them)

Defensive Face Mask - 7 

Pass Interference/Delay of Game - 5

Defensive Holding - 5

(illegal block, special teams holding, illegal blocks, illegal shifts/formations, ineligible man down field) all had less than 5 more than 1. 

Intentional grounding - 1. 

False Starts, Offsides and Delay of Game penalties are all pre-snap penalties - and accounted for more than a 1/3 of Texas penalties. Your personal fouls, lates hits and unsportsmanlike conduct penalties are usually post-play fouls and accounted for 10%. By just being more disciplined pre-snap and post play, Texas can easily cut its penalties next season as they accounted for 40% of Texas' penalties. . 

What jumps out is that the biggest gains probably come from discipline, not scheme. This is actually fixable -- and probably one of the highest ROI improvements they can make heading into a title run.

Edited yesterday at 09:37 PM by Steamboat Willie

[Pwood]

Love the data analysis - thanks for sharing!! 

[watty7796]

Im OK with certain penalties ie PI to save a td.  What I am NOT ok with is presnap and penalties away from the play.  If a kid is just playing hard I can find a little forgiveness.  If its I am not paying attention or I am not disciplined type of lazy penalty is where I can not stand it.  Late hits kinda nonsense, those are that are unforgivable.   I do beleive that Muschamp being on the sidelines will make an improvement off the bat because of his no nonsense personality.   When Bo Davis left, Texas did not have the same kind of accountability and a coach that would call them out.  Sark and PK were birds of the same feather; very laid back.  Now you have 2 very different parents on the sideline and that imho is going to be a great thing.

Edited yesterday at 11:45 PM by watty7796