Iowa football: Kirk Ferentz not worried about the punting game
By Andrew Wade
The Iowa football team’s punting game has struggled the past two games, but it’s not one of Kirk Ferentz’s biggest worries at this point.
Heading into the 2019 season, I could honestly say the Iowa football team’s punting game was one of my biggest concerns because last year it was bad. It was really bad. Colten Rastetter had one of the worst yard per punt averages in the country and it even worse, he had a handful of ridiculously bad punts that switched field position less than 20 yards.
It’s something the Iowa football team historically has not struggled with, but last year, they did.
So this offseason when Arizona State punter Michael Sleep-Dalton decided to enter the transfer portal, the Iowa football team scooped up the graduate transfer to add some depth and competition to the position.
Sleep-Dalton won the job (as expected) and through the first three games (save for the one punt against Miami of Ohio), he looked like the real deal. He was averaging 46.4 yards per punt and consistently flipping the field for the Hawkeye defense.
The last two games, though, he has struggled.
He had 1 punt travel 34 yards against Middle Tennessee State and last week against Michigan, he averaged 38.3 yards per punt on 7 punt attempts and that was significantly boosted by his lone attempt that traveled further than 40 yards (56 yards). He had two punts travel 28 yards as well. The wind was bad, but come on. The Michigan punter managed to still average 45.6 yards.
That’s not going to cut it.
Despite the last two games being pretty subpar, head coach Kirk Ferentz doesn’t seem phased by it saying this in his chat with the media yesterday:
"It wasn’t characteristic, like our offensive performance. I don’t think it’s a trend. I think we’ll get back and get straightened out."
I’m glad he is confident because the Iowa football team can’t afford to have another year of punts that travel between 20-35 yards consistently.
At that point, we might as well just heave the ball up and hope for a catch.