No team from a Power Five conference is penalized less than Michigan football through three weeks.

After three blowout wins in the non-conference slate, the Wolverines are averaging 2.7 penalties and 23 penalty yards per game.

Only Air Force and Navy rank higher, at first and second in both. While Kentucky ranks ahead of Michigan in penalty yards (3rd), it ranks behind U-M in penalties with three per game.

Head coach Jim Harbaugh isn't surprised by the clean play. To the coaching staff, disciplined play is a contingency to program success.

"There's been a high emphasis on it," Harbaugh told the media on Monday afternoon. "Guys have been trained and really take those coaching parts and put them into action on Saturdays."

Avoiding penalties in today's game is far different from the mid-80s when Harbaugh was the team's quarterback.

Now, there's targeting, which I would explain if it had a true meaning. This volatile rule that's become a relative judgment call more than an ironed-out rule has forced defenders to change much of what they do.

The same goes for how defenders hit the quarterback due to roughing the passer calls and how corners play wide receivers with the number of pass interferences.

So, how do you teach your players to avoid penalties? Like anything else, you coach 'em up.

"An example would be the way the defense hits the quarterback. We have free runners, and they do a good job of keeping it in the strike zone, keeping their head out of it," Harbaugh said. "Mike Sainristil, or any guy that's gotten near the quarterback. They're really focusing on the technique and doing the best of their ability to do their job without getting those penalties."

Harbaugh continued with more penalty-driven situations.

"Same with hitting defenseless players. Makari Paige had a tremendous hit in the game that broke up a pass, but it was textbook shoulder pad, helmet-to-helmet. Not leading with the crown, all of those things that are coached and put into action," said Harbaugh. "Those coaching points and those guys being able to think in a split-second with reactions whether it's taking their hands off a receiver downfield, just taking them off and running with one hand. Ronnie (Bell) did it. In some of those situations, it's easy to get a penalty."

Michigan isn't the only Big Ten team avoiding flags.

Minnesota (5th), Michigan State (12th), Iowa (16th), and Indiana (tied 16th) all rank inside the top 25 in penalties per game. Ohio State averages 5.7, sixth-best in the Big Ten and 46th-best in college football.

Interestingly enough, U-M's next opponent, Maryland, is the fifth-most penalized team in the country, averaging over 10 penalties per game.

So far, Michigan cut its penalties in half from last year when it averaged 4.9, the 20th-best rate nationally.

With non-conference play coming to a close, can the Wolverines continue to play this clean against far better competition?

Harbaugh said in his press conference on Monday that you can't predict the future, but the program will continue emphasizing what's worked in its effort to play clean football through three weeks.

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