Among the multiple reasons that so may of us watch sports, towards the top of the list is seeing players perform great athletic feats and witness well-executed plays. However, sports can also demonstrate examples of what not to do, by providing us with teachable moments, or just flat-out funny ones.
Wyoming punter Tim Zaleski provided a moment that could either be a cautionary tale or a point of frequent ridicule from teammates and coaches during the Cowboys’ season opener at Iowa. Late in the second quarter, with Wyoming down 7-3, the true freshman just needed to boot the ball down field, push the Hawkeyes down into their half, and essentially get to half time.
Instead, Zaleski completely whiffed on his kick, and I mean WHIFFED. Like it wasn’t even close; it was so bad. It literally looked like someone who tried punting for the first time in gym class. He bobbled the ball as he went to kick, missed the ball COMPLETELY, and it fell to the turf. The ball was quickly recovered by Iowa’s Devonte Young. Please have a look at the play if you haven’t seen it already:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47u1dIKQUgY
We could cut the kid some slack because this was his first colligate game. It was on the road in one of the biggest, loudest B1G stadiums ever. There was a good amount of Iowa players running at him that probably distracted him. BUT that is no excuse and we here at the SU won’t cut this kid a break at all. I mean this was one of the worst plays I have ever seen. Come on kid, you have one job: to drop a ball on your foot and kick it…. Our big Moutain West fan Ben Shumate, who couldn’t get to a TV, was devastated when we broke him the news as you can see below. (He said some more choice words on a pretty long rant as well) I can just picture him saying “My god” and I crack up:
Zaleski’s swing-and-miss was primarily costly for Wyoming. Given excellent field position with the terrible punt, Iowa took the gift and scored a TD two plays later on a 27-yard pass from Nate Stanley to Noah Fant. Rather than going into halftime behind 7-3 in a Big Ten stadium, Wyoming went into the locker room with a 14-3 deficit. If he wouldn’t have just toasted that punt and gave the Hawkeyes good field position it, may have been a different game. Iowa wouldn’t have scored to stretch their lead and gain momentum going into the break. The Cowboys wouldn’t have had their hopes crushed after that play either. Major game changer with that punt. Let’s hope this was a one time deal with Zaleski and that it won’t happen again.