Twenty false starts – Daily Trojan

TThere’s a flag near 19 here. There will be a false start on offense, No. 47. Five yard penalty, third down replay.

Can you believe this? I started writing very early, and you read very fast. There is never enough time to integrate these ideas into a whole; You’ll never have enough time to understand what I mean. There is never enough time.

But even in our insatiable desire to procrastinate, we act prematurely.

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USC football is no stranger to false starts. As defined in the rulebook, USC has made a total of 20 false starts this season; This means the referee’s whistle caught the offensive player breaching the line of scrimmage before the ball was snapped. Each time the whistle blew the team fell back five yards and play was replayed.

One could argue that USC football has had false starts in other ways, too. In all five of their losses this fall, the Trojans have fallen victim to late play, building a convincing lead in the fourth quarter. Interestingly, after USC’s loss at Washington in which it featured four false starts, the Trojans earned a season-tying win over Nebraska on Saturday, marking the first time this year they weren’t caught for a false start.

In athletics, jumping the gun can create a tragic mishap. Starting before the starting gun can result in yellow or red violations that can result in immediate disqualification. Missing the gun is challenging because on the track, if your start isn’t perfect then you’re behind; There is no tolerance for inverse error.

Although at first glance these mistakes may seem like hesitation, this is not possible considering that these movements took place very early. Maybe it’s a jolt of anxiety or overzealousness.

Whatever the reason, starting sports quickly will result in punishment. Athletes are punished for wasting our time, forcing the officials to stop the competition, shouting a few proclamations and taking a few steps back.

Sometimes good things come from false starts. It gives the team the opportunity to review their defensive plan, redraw the game, gain more space or take some breathing space. But more often than not, disqualification or decline in field position is a negative.

I tried to remove the false start principle from the field. It was challenging to look for when the whistle blew and we drifted backwards. Impatient behavior like jaywalking or jaywalking sometimes prompts officers to stop you on the road and they may even issue a ticket or fine, but aside from government-specified roadside malpractice, I haven’t come across many other examples of literal… life starts wrong.

Time doesn’t stop to hold us back. There is no game clock to determine when the game will start and no one is paying attention to our start to be our referee.

Although we are taught in our youth to practice time management, such as saving money or getting an education, ultimately it is difficult to divide life into chunks of time. There is no definitive end, so it is impractical to take quarters and halves until all decisions are made.

The false start penalty is not very enforceable. Of course, if the path to success is predetermined, then sticking to the rules of the game will probably be in your best interest; But in life you can’t average 69 games every 60 minutes. On the contrary, our lives are full of regrets, lack of beginnings. Opportunities are limited, so I guess you don’t hear the whistle. Once the ball is placed on a hash mark, take the opportunity and start running. You can’t go too far down the field without having to call another play, but you probably won’t be disqualified.

Basically, this is my semi-embarrassing way of saying the sport’s most famous adage: “Just. To do. BT.”

Leila MacKenzie is a junior who writes about the little things in sports in her column, “The Little Things,” published every second Tuesday. He is also the sports editor at the Daily Trojan.