Being an offensive lineman is a little like being a holder on special teams; in each case, a player’s name rarely gets mentioned unless something goes wrong.

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That was the case Saturday for Kris Weeks. SMU’s starting right tackle was flagged five times — once for an illegal formation and four times for a fall start — by officials in the Mustangs’ loss at Texas A&M.

Head coach June Jones and multiple players said A&M defenders were mimicking the Mustangs’ offensive calls, which is illegal if caught (the practice is called “disconcerting signals” — a form of unsportsmanlike conduct that, if called, should result in a 15-yard penalty against the defense). The SMU offense operated much of the game with the use of a “silent count” in an effort to combat the loud Kyle Field crowd, but even that “silent” term is a misnomer; even after quarterback Garrett Gilbert lifted his foot to give a visual signal to center Taylor Lasecki to snap the ball, Lasecki still made calls at the line for his fellow linemen.

“When we go to a ‘silent count,’ the center still gives out a ‘go’ call,” Weeks said. “When the defense starts mimicking that call — which is illegal — it can be difficult.

“That doesn’t excuse the flags, though. That’s still on me. Those were my mistakes, and they won’t happen again. We knew it would be loud, and it was, but we were prepared for that. I watched the ESPN version of the game, and watched myself jump offsides. It was embarrassing.”

The penalties hurt the offense, but the offensive line was not completely ineffective, as Gilbert was sacked just once.

“You can’t have that many flags — that’s true,” Weeks said. “But a five-yard false start flag is better than being slow off the snap of the ball. If I do that, (Gilbert) could get killed because a guy can run by, untouched, and you can’t have that.”

Weeks said he has worked this week with head coach June Jones and offensive line coach Wes Suan in an effort to reduce or eliminate the penalties.

“They have been great,” Weeks said. “Coach Jones gave me some hints about how to watch the defensive line and avoid those mistakes. They’re going to be corrected.”

Weeks said that while the line of scrimmage usually features eight or nine players who are somewhere in the neighborhood of 300 pounds engaging in hand-to-hand combat, the number of cheap shots, which theoretically could lead to players losing their tempers, is surprisingly low.

“There is actually a respectful balance between offensive and defensive linemen,” Weeks said. “There’s a line most people don’t cross. You’re trying to kill each other, but we all know the consequences of getting in a fight. We’re out there to do one job, and that is to help the offense move down the field.”

Weeks acknowledged that it would have been hard to argue if the SMU coaches pulled him from the game in favor of backup Seaver Myers, but said he didn’t spend any time or energy looking over his shoulder.

“I didn’t really think about that,” he said. “It can happen to anybody, though. What’s funny is that other than the flags, I had a pretty good game. I blocked my guy pretty well all night.

“But that’s not good enough. I might have blocked my guy, but I also hurt the offense with penalties. We can’t have that many flags. We’re out there for one reason every week, and that’s to win, but I felt like I owed the fans an explanation.”

Weeks said he didn’t dwell on the penalties after Saturday’s game. Instead, he said he and his teammates followed the Mustangs’ “one snap and clear” mantra that requires players to forget each play and each game, whether the result was positive or negative, and move on with a clean slate.

“We started thinking about TCU right away,” Weeks said. “As soon as we got in the locker room, we were thinking about TCU. We know we shot ourselves in the foot at A&M, that we could have played better, but we have to learn from that, because we have another tough game coming this week."