Wyoming Cowboys punter Tim Zaleski completely whiffs on a punt versus the Iowa Hawkeyes in the first half of their 2017 season opener in Iowa City.
Special teams can be hard sometimes, especially in Division I college football. Oftentimes, college football fans will pile on a 19-year-old freshman kicker who can’t make a 25-yard field goal. Week 1’s first major special teams goof comes via the Wyoming Cowboys.
Wyoming punter Tim Zaleski is probably not used to playing in a raucous road environment quite like Kinnick Stadium in Iowa City. He completely misses the punt versus the Iowa Hawkeyes and hilarity ensued.
Rarely do you see a punt be botched that bad, especially on a good snap. Unlike Iowa, this is the toughest matchup Wyoming has on their 2017 slate of games. The Cowboys are one of the better teams in the Mountain West. It helps having a potential Heisman Trophy winner and future first-round draft pick in quarterback Josh Allen.
buh buh buh pic.twitter.com/AJcLKJ6vQh
— Timothy Burke (@bubbaprog) September 2, 2017
So this just happened in the Wyoming-Iowa game. pic.twitter.com/gbgvfdhEZo
— Nathan Deal, now on BlueSky (@NattyD13) September 2, 2017
However, you can’t win games if you can punt correctly on the road against a well-coached team like Kirk Ferentz’s Hawkeyes. Though Iowa isn’t favored to win the Big Ten West this year, the Hawkeyes are almost always in the mix in the Big Ten. Replacing quarterback C.J. Beathard will be hard, but Ferentz is an excellent coach.
Iowa is clearly not overlooking the Cowboys in this game. Keep in mind that the 2015 Big Ten West champion Hawkeyes lost at home to FCS juggernaut North Dakota State in September of last year. Iowa doesn’t want another bad non-conference loss before the start of Big Ten play.
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Wyoming would need to be perfect this season to have any shot at getting the Group of 5 bid this season. Hopefully that punting debacle by Zaleski does not foreshadow the Cowboys’ 2017 season in general.