TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -- Florida Coach Steve Spurrier is not one to complain about officiating.

Yeah, right.

	Steve Spurrier's team is one of the most penalized in the SEC this season.

"You can't criticize officiating," Spurrier said. "But I don't know what I can tell our players at times. They're just playing the game and they get penalties the other team doesn't get."

Not to worry, Coach Superior. This week Florida plays the only team in the Southeastern Conference that has been penalized more than the third-ranked Gators: Alabama.

Whoever Bobby Gaston, the SEC coordinator of football officials, sends to work the game Saturday at Gainesville, Fla., between No. 3 Florida and Alabama (No. 22 ESPN/USA Today, No. 21 AP), they'd better bring along a spare set of yellow flags.

One-third of the way through this college football season, no one in the conference has been yellow-flagged more times than Alabama (38, for 310 yards) or for more yardage than Florida (358 yards, on 35 penalties).

No one else in the league has been penalized for more than 300 yards. Mississippi State, with 34 infractions, is the only other team that has been penalized more than 30 times.

It has always been a sore point with Spurrier, whose teams usually have been among the most penalized in the conference.

This year, maybe it's worse.

"I just want our guys to have the opportunity to play like everyone else," Spurrier said. "We're not asking for penalties on other teams; just that we don't get all of them called on us. I just don't know that we're not getting more than our share right now."

Alabama Coach Mike DuBose is just as frustrated as Spurrier, but his frustration is directed as his own team, and not SEC officials.

That doesn't make DuBose a better sport than Spurrier. A simple look at the types of penalties Florida and Alabama are getting most frequently is revealing, in that it demonstrates the difference between the two teams.

Coaches usually divide penalties into two types: those that occur before the snap of the ball, which usually are mental errors; and those that occur during actual play, which tend to be penalties of aggression.

Florida is getting flagged more frequently for penalties of aggression, while Alabama is much more likely to commit mental mistakes.

Through four games, Alabama has been called for 41 penalties (three of which were declined), and 20 have been so-called "before-the-snap" penalties.

The most common penalty is defensive offsides (10), but offensive false starts are a close second (six). The others range from illegal procedure to substitution infractions to delay of game.

Florida, on the other hand, has been called for only 10 "before-the-snap" penalties out of 35, according to the Florida Sports Information Department.

The Gators' most common penalty is holding (seven), followed by personal fouls (five), grabbing the face mask (three), illegal blocks (three) and unsportsmanlike conduct (two).

"If we're going to get personal foul calls, I should tell the guys to hit a guy 10 yards out of bounds," Spurrier said. "It's the same as pushing a guy after he throws the ball. Did the whistle blow? It's close. And they call it on us, but not on the other guys.

"I'm not complaining about officials. It just seems as if we're starting to get every close (call), now."

DuBose would gladly complain about the calls going against his team if he felt he had a reason.

"The penalties that occur after the snap of the football -- I don't like them, but I can deal with them because those are reactionary penalties," DuBose said. "Some of those are judgment penalties that you may agree with, you may not agree with.

"The ones that are driving me crazy are the ones that occur before the snap of the football, the jumping offsides, the illegal procedure penalties, those types of things. We shouldn't have those."

While Spurrier appeals indirectly to the league office, DuBose knows his appeal has to be to his players, on the practice field.

"We just have to be a more disciplined football team," DuBose said. "We have to demand more in practice so that we don't continue to get those. Sometimes, defensively, you're going to jump in the neutral zone if you're attacking or trying to anticipate the movement of the ball. Those things happen.

"But some of them that are occurring, we've just got to be a more disciplined football team, which means we have to demand more, which means I have to demand more in practice."

Meanwhile, all Spurrier ask is that officials don't decide the outcome of a game.

"In my personal opinion, referees should only call what is obvious," he said. "What pretty much affects play itself, where everyone in the stadium can see that it was a penalty.

"But it seems like the penalties that are called have no bearing on the play, that it's close and could go either way ... but it's something we all have to live with. I know (SEC) Commissioner (Roy) Kramer, when they have big games, he tells the referees to let the teams decide who wins. Certainly, as coaches, that's the way we wish every game was called. Just call the obvious."

(Ray Melick writes for the Birmingham Post-Herald in Alabama.)