Arizona’s Punter Had A Punt Blocked By A Teammate

The first few weeks of the college football season are, in some ways, about getting stuff figured out. This isn’t to say that teams aren’t trying to win, of course, but after a long offseason and whatever changes a program goes through between January and August, mistakes are a little more understandable, so long as they are taken as an opportunity to learn and grow.

Still, some mistakes can be really, really bad, like this one from Saturday’s game between the Arizona Wildcats and the San Diego State Aztecs. Arizona lined up for a punt from its own 1-yard line after a series that didn’t go particularly well. The team’s punter, 2021 first-team All-Pac 12 selection Kyle Ostendorp, lined up at the very edge of his end zone and prepared to boot one away.

That didn’t quite happen. Punting out of your own end zone can be very, very hard due to the lack of space you have, but that’s usually because it means the opposing team can get to you more quickly. In the case of Ostendorp, this meant that he didn’t have a ton of space to get the kick off with where one of his big fellas was standing, so instead of booting the football down the field, his kick was blocked by his teammate, Josh Donovan.

This wasn’t a catastrophic error or anything — it meant that Arizona’s lead was cut to 14. As a result, this means that the Wildcats’ special teams coach will have something he can use to teach his guys this week.