Puntin' Chucks wont behave upon re-entering level

I'm currently working on a level with Puntin' Chucks, and I can't seem to get their punt timing to be consistent (I'm more than okay with the football bounces being random, but I need punts to happen at a more consistent rate).
Here's what I got going on: My level starts with a Puntin' Chuck on the first screen, he always punts after 1 second on my first level try. If I die and re-enter the level, his Punt will then be after 2-3 seconds after the level starts (setting off a chain reaction that effects flow of the entire level). He even sometimes immediately does a punt animation without a football in front of him, delaying him even more.

What would be the best way to fix this? Would using a custom sprite be my best option?

Puntin chucks use the frame counter $13 to check when to spawn a football. The issue is that $13 is never reset, so their cycle may be different every time you spawn in the level. To fix it you can try to reset $13 with a UberASM code, like this:
(you can also try storing a different value to $13 to adjust at which time he spawns the football after entering the level).