Kansas State’s penalty numbers look excellent on paper, but don’t expect Collin Klein to treat them like a badge of honor.
After the Wildcats were flagged five times in a 31-20 win over Tulane last week, Klein sounded less like a coach whose team has been among the nation’s cleanest and more like someone staring at a laundry list of mistakes. His frustration was plain.
“Way too many penalties,” Klein said. “Very, very frustrated there. We have to be more disciplined.”
That reaction fits the way Klein approaches the issue. As a disciple of former K-State coach Bill Snyder, he treats flags as something to be rooted out, not explained away. Snyder, after all, had no patience for seeing his teams penalized.
And against Tulane, the Wildcats gave him a few things to gripe about. A late hit by linebacker Mekhi Mason helped set the Green Wave up in scoring position in the second half.
Defensive pass interference calls on Zashon Rich and Koy Beasley kept Tulane moving. Two false starts made life harder on offense.
K-State also drew a sideline warning in the first quarter after Klein lost track of his surroundings and bumped into an official.
“We just have to tighten those things up, collectively, so that we don’t give people free stuff that way,” Klein said. “It’s a great lesson for our guys and a great opportunity to move forward and get better as we go on the road for our first conference game.”
The bigger picture, though, is that penalties have not been a problem for Kansas State this season. Not even close.
Through three games, K-State has committed only eight penalties. Only Army has fewer with six, and the Black Knights have played one fewer game.
On a per-game basis, the Wildcats lead the nation at 2.67 penalties per game. They also rank fifth nationally in fewest penalty yards with 89.
Those are the kinds of numbers Snyder would have appreciated.
Still, Klein isn’t drawing a blanket pass for every flag. At Monday’s news conference, he said some penalties are part of the game, while others are simply not acceptable.
“It’s about what you can control and what is out of your control,” Klein said. “When you’re playing as hard and when you’re straining as hard as we want to strain and play, there’s going to be a time that you get called for a holding here or something like that. There’s a little level of understanding there.
“But I think procedures are 100% in our control. Those penalties can’t happen.
After the whistle, unsportsmanlike conduct or whatever it happens to be is unacceptable. That’s completely within our control.
That’s kind of the line that I would draw on it.”
So while the raw totals suggest Kansas State has handled discipline well, Klein clearly sees room for cleaning things up. From the outside, the Wildcats have been one of the nation’s least-penalized teams. Inside the building, the standard is still stricter than that.
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