Targeting penalties down significantly

The number of enforced targeting penalties is down 32% in the Football Bowl Subdivision compared with the first seven weeks of the 2018 season, the NCAA said Wednesday.

Targeting, the act of striking a defenseless opponent above the shoulders or using the crown of the helmet to contact an opponent, has been one of the college game’s biggest player-safety concerns for a decade.

There have been 132 targeting penalties called in the FBS. Of those, 83 were enforced and 49 were overturned on video review. There were 171 targeting penalties called at this point in 2018. Of those, 122 were enforced and 49 were overturned.

“It is hard to know how precisely to attribute the decline, but it is a significant drop,” national coordinator of football officials Rogers Redding said. “The main reason is that coaches and players have responded,” Redding said of increased penalties for targeting.

SEC

No. 1 Alabama and No. 2 LSU are the highest-scoring teams in the nation at the midway point of this college football season. That should shatter any lingering notions that the SEC features stifling defense and ball-control offenses heavy on smash-mouth runs. “If you tell a guy to go huddle, you’d have to explain what a huddle is nowadays,” LSU coach Ed Orgeron joked this week while discussing a transformation in his offense, which has produced a nation’s best 52.5 points per game this season for the unbeaten Tigers (6-0). No. 1 Alabama (6-0) is averaging 51 points per game, slightly ahead of Oklahoma (50.2) for second nationally.

Tennessee

Coach Jeremy Pruitt said quarterback Brian Maurer’s status for the Volunteers’ Saturday matchup at No. 1 Alabama will be a gametime decision after the freshman sustained a concussion last week. Pruitt said that Maurer had taken some reps this week and that “he’s going to be fine, I’m sure.”