By TIM REYNOLDS
AP Sports Writer
CORAL GABLES, Fla. (AP) -- There was a time in Miami's football history when being the nation's most-penalized team would have been a source of pride.
No more.
These days, it's only a source of frustration.
The Hurricanes are No. 1 nationally in penalties this season with 83 -- already more than their season-long average from the last three years -- and Miami coach Randy Shannon simply cannot understand how that's the case.
Even lobbying to the Atlantic Coast Conference over particularly bothersome calls on a weekly basis, something all teams in the league do anyway, doesn't seem to be helping.
"It doesn't make me feel good and it doesn't make the team feel good and the fans and everybody else keep saying the team is undisciplined," Shannon said. "But I can't go and say, 'OK, we got this report back from the (league) office and this is how many calls they've made a mistake on.' I cannot do that. That's not right. Coaches, we decide to keep those reports in-house and confidential."
So Shannon wouldn't share specifics on what Miami sends to the ACC and what the ACC sends back to Miami.
An educated guess: Sean Spence was featured prominently in those reports this week.
The Miami linebacker was lined up in pass coverage against Maryland tight end Matt Furstenburg in the fourth quarter of last week's game, facing the right side of the Terrapins' line. Miami's Ramon Buchanan blew past the left side, knocking the ball away from Maryland quarterback Danny O'Brien, and the Hurricanes' Marcus Robinson scooped it up for what became a 55-yard touchdown.
None of it counted.
Spence was called for grabbing Furstenburg's face mask, although replays showed his hands were hitting the Maryland player in the chest, not the helmet. It's the only time a Miami defender has been flagged on a face-mask call this season.
How was that possible?
"I don't know, but it's what the ref called," Spence said. "I didn't get a chance to watch it. It's behind me."
If there is a silver lining in all these yellow flags for Miami, it's that the penalties probably haven't cost the Hurricanes a game yet this season. Dropped passes and blown routes doomed the Hurricanes at Ohio State, nothing went right in the 45-17 loss to Florida State, and Miami could only blame itself after falling behind by 24 points in what became a five-point defeat at Virginia.
Still in the ACC title hunt, Miami (6-3, 4-2) visits Georgia Tech (5-4, 3-3) on Saturday.
"We'll just keep working on it," Shannon said. "Nothing else you can do, really."
These aren't the fatigues-wearing, excessively celebrating, hit-after-the-whistle bad boys of Hurricane teams gone by, either. If anything, Shannon tends to hear that his players -- who've stayed out of trouble off the field and rank among the national leaders in the NCAA's academic categories -- are somehow too nice.
On game day, for whatever reason, that all changes.
Miami is one of two teams, Arkansas being the other, with more than 10 penalties in four different games this season. The Hurricanes have been the lesser-penalized team just once in nine contests this year, and against Maryland last week were called for holding six times -- while the Terrapins weren't called for it once.
"It's obviously an issue," offensive lineman Harland Gunn said. "It can be corrected. We just have to have the focus, take it to practice, keep it in our minds for the future."
Shannon has tried his best to be diplomatic about the penalty disparity, even joking when asked about it this week that reporters are trying to "get me fined." Plus, some of the issues are clearly Miami's fault: There's been 24 false-start calls, two illegal forward passes, 12 offsides on the defense, and nine special-teams penalties among the 83 against the Hurricanes this season.
But when Tyler Horn gets called three times in the same game for holding as he was against Maryland, that's when Shannon can't help roll his eyes. Horn is Miami's center, a position that doesn't usually get flagged for much of anything. And going into last week, Miami had just nine holding calls for the entire season.
"We try to play physical," Gunn said. "It's just adversity. It's something we have to fight, focus on and put behind us."
