Don’t We Practice Celebrating?
After the excessive celebration penalty on Toryan Smith in Saturday’s win over Navy I remembered a quote from Weis last year about practicing celebrating after scores. Tonight I found the quote.
But you practice stuff like that. We practice celebrating after scoring a touchdown, because some guys just don’t get it.
My question is, how do the excessive celebration penalties keep happening. I understand that emotion is part of the game and I love to see the team playing with emotion, but if the team is indeed practicing celebrating than Smith, a junior, should have clearly known that diving into the end zone in such a manner would draw a penalty.
Last year after Brian Smith’s interception return for a touchdown against Boston College, an excessive celebration penalty ensued after players ran off the sideline and onto the field to celebrate.
For a team that practices celebrating, we sure do get enough excessive celebration penalties.
Frank Vitovitch has been Co-Owner and Editor in Chief of UHND.com since joining forces with Kyle Flavin in 1999. Since that time, he has written over 2,000 articles covering Notre Dame football, recruiting, and basketball. He also works with all staff and external writers on all articles published on UHND.com. Frank's love for Notre Dame football started at a young age watching Rocket Ismail give opposing coaches ulcers in the late 1980's. By day Frank works in marketing and holds a degree in Digital Media from Drexel University. Frank's work has been cited by online/print editions of NBC Sports, ESPN, and Sports Illustrated and has been quoted on air by ESPN's Collin Cowherd. He's conducted interviews with Notre Dame legends Rocket Ismail, Randy Kinder, Lee Becton, Reggie Brooks, Michael Stonebreaker, and Ned Bolcar among others over his 20+ years of covering Notre Dame football. He's also been published in the print edition of USA Today Sports Weekly and the USA Today College Football Preview multiple times. Other Published Works/Citations for Frank Three Reasons Notre Dame Will Beat Alabama - USA Today Notre Dame Suspends WR Kevin Stepherson, RB C.J. Holmes Indefinitely - Bleacher Report Notre Dame / Ohio State Fiesta Bowl Preview - Eleven Warriors Brace Yourself: The Fighting Irish are Relevant Again - Sports on Earth Interviews with the Enemy: A Q&A with Frank Vitovitch of UHND - Yahoo! Sports Five Good Minutes: Notre Dame Football Preview With UHND.com - BC Interruption Vicious Electronic Questioning with UHND - MGO Blog
“Act like you’ve been there before and will get there again”
…except in Toryan’s case – he very possibly won’t.
A celebration penalty is never acceptable. It is one player putting himself before the team. As C-Dog said, it may be a stupid rule, but it is a rule. And they should understand that
lets not forget these are kids, this was early enough in the game that it didnt hurt…. and navys offence is good enough to score points but the defense was good enough…
The college version of the excessive celebration rule is stupid. But the key word is that it is the rule. therefore these guys need to know the difference between high fives and hugs, etc. and any pre-planeed practiced juke and jive dance. They can do that over on the sidelines wheret he refs aren’t looking. I wouldn’t precatice it, I’d expect behavior to be complianct and apply punishment to correct where it wasn’t.
LOL david, you beat me to it!! lets take the time we’r “practicing” celebrating and use it on other areas.
Absolutely it is a lack of discipline. Its putting yourself before the team. Doesnt matter what team you are playing (or the time remaining in the game) it was a stupid penalty. Players need to act like they have been there before, hand the ball to the ref and get over to the sideline. Scoring should be expected by the team.
Now on a side note, maybe we should stop practicing celebration and spend that time on the hands team.
But like I said, it was by a guy who may never score another TD for the rest of his life. I don’t think it shows a lack of discipline, but rather an aura of arrogance, which the team could use some of, honestly.
Now late in the game, yeah it would have had some more relevance, but that early in the game the guy shouldn’t be ostracized for celebrating what was quite possibly the biggest play of his football playing career.
It’s a big deal because it was a 15 yard penalty which gave Navy great field position, against another team that could have meant points. The fact that Weis has said that the team practices celebrating but still gets excessive celebration penalties shows a lack of discipline and that is much more alarming than the 15 yards.
I’ve seen you mention this multiple times…I don’t think the penalty was that big of a deal. It’s not like Toryan Smith gets a lot of chances to score TDs.