COLUMBIA, Mo. — If you watched — or played or coached in — Missouri’s 49-39 loss to Louisiana State over the weekend, you were probably surprised by a penalty call for “disconcerting signals,” a delay of game penalty assigned to a defense. Mizzou was called for it twice and LSU was once over the course of the game.
That confusion has popped up elsewhere in the country as flags fly more frequently for a previously rare infraction: a defensive player trying to draw an offensive false start by mimicking a snap cadence — some illegal trickery, in the eyes of the rule book.
MU coach Eli Drinkwitz, who spoke selectively but seemed bemused by the calls after the game, again side-stepped a question about them during his Tuesday news conference.
“It doesn’t matter now,” he said.
But after the penalty appeared in other college football games, it’s clear it’s a point of emphasis.
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“Everybody tries to get an advantage,” NCAA coordinator of officials Steve Shaw . “But it’s an unfair advantage if the defense tries to do something that’s mirroring the offensive cadence or moving in a way that simulates action at the snap. And many times that’s designed to cause the offense to false start. That’s what we’re really being focused on.”
Before one of the disconcerting signals calls against Mizzou, linebacker Ty’Ron Hopper clapped and pounded his fist into his hand while looking sideways at his teammates — evidently enough of a cadence imitation to draw a flag.
Justified or not, those penalties were not the most disconcerting, well, flags for Mizzou (5-1, 1-1 Southeastern Conference). Offensive line penalties have begun to plague the Tigers.
Of the six offensive linemen who have seen significant game action for MU, five have been called for at least one penalty. According to Pro Football Focus’ penalty tracking, right guard Cam’Ron Johnson has been called for eight penalties, center Connor Tollison four, left tackle Javon Foster four, right tackle Armand Membou two and rotational lineman Marcellus Johnson one. Left guard Xavier Delgado has not been flagged since a 2020 game.
The offensive line on any team tends to be rack up penalties, of course, because of false start and holding penalties that become harder not to commit when forcibly matched up against defensive linemen. But MU’s struggles are rising beyond the usual cost of doing blocking business.
Among the 133 Football Bowl Subdivision teams, most of which have played five or six games this season, 125 offensive linemen have picked up four or more penalties, according to PFF. Mizzou has three of those. The only other SEC program to have three linemen with at least four penalties is No. 24 Kentucky — which, coincidentally, hosts Missouri at 6:30 p.m. Saturday.
“We have way too many penalties pre-snap on the offensive side of the ball,” Drinkwitz said. “And that’s got to get taken off the tape. “
It’s not unrelated to the principle behind the disconcerting signals call in that the issue, in the coach’s eyes, is tied to the cadence that determines when the ball is snapped.
“Cadence is all about everybody getting off at the same time,” Drinkwitz said. “And when we’ve got one person jumping or not jumping, that means there’s not a trust in what they’re hearing. So from the quarterback perspective and from us (coaches), we have to figure that out. We go on the clap, so we have to do a better job of understanding when the clap could occur within the sequence of the cadence, and that’s something that we’re working on.”
That whole process will become more difficult as the season takes MU out of friendly confines. In Kentucky’s sold-out Kroger Field on Saturday, for example, noise will likely take away the ability for quarterback Brady Cook to lean on verbal cadences — meaning that mental timing and claps will be standard operating procedure.
“We’re going to practice it all week with noise and make sure our cadence is dialed and pre-snap operations are good,” Cook said.
Back on the defensive side of the ball, unsportsmanlike conduct penalties bubbled up against LSU. Defensive end Johnny Walker Jr. was ejected after picking up his second such penalty, which left Missouri without one of its starting edge rushers down the stretch of a shootout.
It was the first time the Tigers’ defense had been called for unsportsmanlike conduct this season, but that was still too many for Drinkwitz — especially combined with some of the O-line flags.
“Both of those have to either be taken off the tape or the player’s got to come out of the game,” he said. “Because the team comes first, and that’s really the message to our team.”