The Gators played a nearly flawless game on Saturday, but if there was one flaw to be found, it was in those tiny yellow flags that flew all around the stadium.
UF ended the game against Hawaii with a crazy 13 penalties for 90 yards, and eight of those 13 penalties came in the first half.
Hawaii only had seven penalties for 60 yards.
On Hawaii's first two possessions alone, the Gators went offsides three times and then also had a false start on their own first drive. The false start came on a 4th-and-1 situation where UF was planning on going for it. Instead, the false start made it 4th and 6, so the Gators elected to punt.
"The discipline of the D-line, you can't have penalties," UF coach Urban Meyer said. "You think it's going to be 2nd-and-10, but now its 1st-and-5. You get a nice play on offense, and a guy moves, or a guy doesn't line up correctly. … We've got a long way to go now."
The biggest penalty, however, came on a Hawaii punt. Both sophomore running back Chris Rainey and freshman running back Jeff Demps broke around Hawaii's offensive line and made to block the punt. Instead, the two ran into Hawaii punter Tim Grasso, costing UF 15 yards and possession of the ball.
"That was a silly penalty," Meyer said. "You have the two freshmen running on the side … trying to come off the edge, and sure enough they ran into the punter."
Demps seems less worried about the possibility of future penalties than Meyer.
"Mistakes are going to happen," Demps said. "But as long as you're playing hard and giving all you got, it doesn't really matter.
"It matters, but deep down it doesn't matter because you were giving it your all."
Meyer attributes the penalties to youth.
"Just silly, nonsense, freshman penalties," Meyer said. "You have guys running into the kicker, guys jumping offsides, an offensive tackle moving.
"Most of it was on young players. That's the biggest thing we've got to correct."
On the very last play of the third quarter, Hawaii's third-string quarterback, Inoke Funaki, ran to the right sideline to go out of bounds.
Instead, he was met by two Gators who shoved him off the field. UF was assessed a 15-yard personal foul penalty.
Funaki was also hit hard out of bounds in the fourth quarter - possibly late - but no flag was thrown.
Meyer knows things like that can't happen against better teams and realized how many times the yellow flag flew.
"We probably set a record today," Meyer said.
The Gators haven't had that many penalties since beating Mississippi on Sept. 22, 2007 when they had 14 for 127 yards.
