Hawaii football coach Nick Rolovich is thinking outside the penalty box.

“I’m going to ask the NCAA if I can take (the players’) cost of attendance for unsportsmanlike penalties,” Rolovich mused. “A hundred dollars (per penalty). See if that works.”

Each UH football scholarship contains an additional $1,500 for cost of attendance, a subsidy intended to help cover the extra college expenses beyond tuition, room and board.

Rolovich was joking — maybe — but he finds little humor in the Rainbow Warriors’ running tab of penalties. In four games this season, the Warriors have been penalized 38 times for 368 yards, averages of 9.5 infractions and 92 yards per game.

The offense has been flagged 27 times for 245 yards. The top offensive infractions are false starts (eight), holding (five) and personal fouls (five). The offense has committed nine 15-yard penalties. For the coaches, the most troublesome statistic is the 15 penalties on first down.

“When we get behind the chains,” quarterback Dru Brown said of the first-down penalties, “we’re off schedule. You’re trying to make up ground. There’s a reason there are penalties. If we don’t have penalties, we’ll probably have a few more wins.”

Offensive coordinator Brian Smith acknowledged that the volume of penalties is “something that’s hurt us, getting us into third-and-longs.”

Smith added: “I don’t think it’s because we’re overaggressive. I think some of it is lack of discipline. Some of it happens with the nature of the game. There are times when Dru gets flushed out of the pocket and we end up with a hold call, and that sets you back. Some of it is the nature of what we do offensively. There’s a couple where there are some linemen downfield because of our (run-pass option) scheme that we’re continually trying to correct and get better at.”

Brown said he appreciates the intent of blockers doing whatever they can, including grasping pass rushers, to keep him from being hit. But he said he is willing to make sacrifices for the team. “I’d rather take a 5-yard sack than a holding penalty,” Brown said. “Me personally, I understand they’re trying to protect me. At the end of the day, I’m willing to take a hit in order to save us 5 yards.”

This season, offensive linemen Chris Posa has been assessed two 15-yard penalties that he described as “dumb mistakes. I’m not thinking, not in the moment.”

Posa said the key is to play with controlled ferocity.

“There have been a lot of drive killers we’ve gotten,” Posa said of the penalties. “It’s good because it shows we’re playing with an edge, we’re playing with aggression. We’ve got to dial it in, take it back just a little.”