There’s a flag down near the 19. It’s going to be a false start on the offense, No. 47. Five-yard penalty, replay third down.

Can you believe it? I started writing too soon, and you read too fast. There is never enough time to make these ideas whole; there’s never enough time for you to understand what I mean. There is never enough time.

Yet even with our everlasting desire to linger, we act prematurely.

Daily headlines, sent straight to your inbox.

Subscribe to our newsletter to keep up with the latest at and around USC.

USC football is no stranger to false starts. As defined by the rulebook, USC has totaled 20 false starts this season, meaning a referee’s whistle caught an offensive player breaching the line-of-scrimmage before the snap. Each time the whistle sounded, the team was backed up five yards and the play was redone.

It can also be argued that USC football has committed false starts in other ways. In all of their five losses this fall, the Trojans have fallen victim to leisurely elapsed time by blowing a convincing lead in the fourth quarter. Interestingly, following a loss in Washington where USC erred four false starts, the Trojans notched a season-leveling win over Nebraska on Saturday, and for the first time this year, they were not caught for a false start.

In track and field, jumping the gun can present a tragic setback. Beginning before the starter pistol may prompt yellow or red violations that can result in immediate disqualification. Missing the pistol is compelling because in track, if your start is not perfect, then you are behind — there is no lenience for the inverse error.

At first glance, these miscues look like a hesitation, but considering these movements occur too soon, that cannot be the case. Maybe it’s a jolt of anxiety or over-eagerness.

Regardless of the reason, speedy starts in sports prompt punishment. Athletes are penalized for wasting our time, forcing the officials to pause the action, shout a few declarations and take a few steps back.

Occasionally, good things do come from false starts. It gives a team the opportunity to scan a defensive scheme, redraw a play, gain more space or take a breather. But for the most part, a disqualification or regression in field position is a negative.

I tried to take the principle of false starts off the field. Searching for times when the whistle blows and we are dragged behind was challenging. Acts of impatience like running a red light or jaywalking sometimes urge officers to stop you in your trek and they may even deliver a penalty or fine, but besides state-determined roadside malpractice, I couldn’t come up with many other instances of real-life false starts.

Time simply does not stop in an effort to hold us back. There isn’t a game clock dictating when a play can begin, and nobody pays attention to our beginnings to be our referees.

Although we are instructed to practice clock management, like saving money or obtaining an education in our youth, at the end of the day, it is difficult to divvy life into fragments of time. There is no certain ending, so drawing quarters and halves is impractical until all decisions have been made.

The false start penalty is not very applicable. Sure, if a path toward success is predetermined, then adhering to the rules of the game is likely in your best interest; however, in life, you don’t get to average 69 plays every 60 minutes. If anything, our lives are riddled with regrets — a lack of starts. Opportunities are scarce, so I guess, hear no whistles. When the ball is placed on a hash mark, take the opportunity and just start running. You may not make it far downfield before having to call another play, but you probably won’t get disqualified.

Basically, this is my semi-cringe way of saying sports’ most famed adage: “Just. Do. It.”

Leila MacKenzie is a junior writing about small things in sports in her column, “Little Things,” which runs every other Tuesday. She is also a sports editor at the Daily Trojan.