The preponderance of penalties (holding and procedural) are coming from our infamous offensive line positions,... the interior five plus a certain tight end. These penalties aren't the result of overly aggressive play, new offensive schemes or mental errors so much as from poor fundamentals in blocking technique and getting the OL operating together as a unit at the snap of the ball. Such fundamentals are obviously not being taught and/or practiced sufficiently, not even close and that super obviously is a coaching problem which seem to be getting worse as the ISU scrimmage demonstrated.
Sark has shown us that he can fire and replace assistant coaches when it's needed. He also showed us that he's slow to do so by sticking with Holt and crew on defense for three long, frustrating seasons. Sark did make some changes in his offensive staff the past off-season and this may be contributing to improved play at the skill positions(QB, WR, and RB). But where the biggest problem has been for five seasons now in the OL, Sark has stayed pat with a veteran ex-vandal and Erickson associate whose primary experience is coaching RB's, not OL. This didn't work for Gilby who allowed his cronyism for Cozzetto fuck with our football program and it's obviously never going to work for Sark, either in recruiting or on the field.
This thing that Sark seems to have with his OL coach is most puzzling and can no longer be accountable to Sark's learning curve as a onetime rookie head coach. There must be a bromance there of some sort for unlike Holt, I doubt there could be a huge Cozzetto contract for Woodward to buyout. As any old ex-high school offensive linemen can attest, getting the snap-count executed correctly is the easy part and the real fun-in-difficulty begins instantly as the ball's snapped. For those who've ever gone down in a three or four point stance and listened for a QB to turn us lose, this whole business of penalties is beyond sickening. Obviously, we had a couple of really bad coaches before Sark was hired, but the ongoing problems in the offensive and defensive lines continues to bewilder and must be corrected, even if it takes a change in AD's.
