Teams like Western Kentucky, Texas El-Paso, Alabama-Birmingham and Louisiana-LaFayette are better than Georgia this season.

Maybe not record-wise, talent-wise or prestige-wise. But Georgia ranks 118th out of 120 NCAA teams in penalties per game this season, and 112th in penalty yardage.

“It’s tough,” said quarterback Joe Cox. “There’s been times where you get in the huddle and all you’re talking about is don’t jump offsides, because we might be changing our snap count or something, and you’re saying it over and over and over again. And it’s almost like people get so freaked out that you’re talking about it so much.

“It’s pretty crazy how fine that line is. It’s almost like the more you talk about it the worse it gets.”

The Bulldogs have accumulated 41 penalties in four game this season, more than all but one team (Texas Tech with 44).

Those penalties have cost them 314 total yards, an average of 78.5 yards awarded to the opposition every game.

“It can be hard to understand, but things like that are going to happen in football,” said linebacker Rennie Curran. “You’re not always going to have a perfect game, and no matter how well we played there’s always something that we can do better.”

Right now, that’s reducing their number of penalties.