2012 College Fair Catch Percentage Leaders

The share of a punter's punts that the returner fair caught instead of running back. Public play-by-play does not record hang time, so the fair-catch rate is the best available stand-in: a punt that hangs long enough for the coverage team to arrive leaves the returner no choice but to wave for a fair catch.

Higher usually means better hang time, though a returner who is no threat also calls for more fair catches. College punts whose play text does not say how they ended are left out of the count. In 2012, Josh Brisk (74.2%) led college football punters in fair catch percentage, ahead of Baker Swedenburg (72.2%) and Taylor Cook (69.0%). 119 punters qualify (minimum 30 punts). The median qualified punter had 41.7%.

Final 2012 regular-season numbers, updated October 23, 2026.

Rk	Player	Team	FC %	Punts	Avg	Net	In 20	In 20 %	TB %	Points
1	Josh Brisk	Florida International	74.2%	47	40.0	39.4	11	24%	2%	−6.4
2	Baker Swedenburg	Mississippi State	72.2%	52	40.8	39.7	21	40%	6%	+7.9
3	Taylor Cook	Rice	69.0%	37	36.4	35.7	10	28%	3%	−9.5
4	Justin Brockhaus-Kann	South Florida	65.1%	54	40.6	37.9	19	35%	9%	+3.9
5	Collin Barber	Georgia	63.6%	57	41.6	40.5	22	38%	5%	+6.8
6	Wil Baumann	NC State	61.8%	71	39.3	37.3	19	27%	7%	−11.1
7	Sean Sellwood	Utah	61.5%	38	46.5	44.5	13	34%	11%	+9.3
8	Drew Meyer	Wisconsin	59.6%	73	41.2	39.9	35	48%	7%	+12.2
9	Ben Buchanan	Ohio State	59.5%	59	41.0	39.0	17	29%	7%	+3.4
10	Cole Leininger	California	58.5%	60	40.0	39.8	17	29%	2%	−7.1
11	Steven Clark	Auburn	58.3%	70	39.8	38.6	19	28%	6%	+4.8
12	Travis Coons	Washington	58.3%	51	39.5	36.9	14	27%	10%	−3.1
13	Jackson Rice	Oregon	57.6%	48	39.6	38.0	13	27%	8%	−0.8
14	Richie Leone	Houston	56.8%	60	45.5	43.6	18	31%	10%	+7.2
15	Jeff Locke	UCLA	55.8%	71	43.4	41.5	33	47%	10%	+7.6
16	Cason Beatty	Florida State	55.6%	42	38.4	36.6	21	49%	5%	+1.1
17	Jim Broadway	Ole Miss	54.8%	54	41.2	39.9	13	27%	4%	−5.1
18	Ryan Neir	Northern Illinois	54.5%	45	37.8	36.8	19	49%	0%	−0.8
19	Darragh O'Neill	Colorado	53.5%	76	43.5	42.6	28	37%	4%	+3.6
20	Tyler Hull	South Carolina	53.5%	51	39.4	37.5	15	29%	10%	−6.5
21	Anthony Melchiori	Kent State	52.4%	66	42.5	41.0	27	42%	8%	+16.5
22	Ryan Doerr	Kansas State	51.6%	36	41.7	39.0	14	38%	14%	+3.7
23	Keith Kostol	Oregon State	51.2%	55	42.1	40.9	24	44%	5%	+9.7
24	Christian Eldred	Minnesota	50.0%	63	38.5	37.2	22	37%	7%	−3.5
25	Ben Turk	Notre Dame	50.0%	48	40.6	39.7	13	27%	4%	+1.8
26	Justin Manton	UL Monroe	50.0%	43	40.2	39.7	15	38%	8%	−0.6
27	Alex King	Texas	50.0%	38	45.3	44.8	16	42%	3%	+6.9
28	Alexander Kinal	Wake Forest	49.0%	95	40.7	40.1	26	30%	6%	−4.2
29	Kyle Christy	Florida	48.8%	62	46.1	43.5	30	48%	10%	+16.7
30	Trey Barrow	Missouri	48.7%	68	43.0	41.1	31	44%	4%	+1.1
31	Spencer Benton	Clemson	48.3%	42	38.6	38.5	14	34%	2%	−2.2
32	Quinn Sharp	Oklahoma State	48.0%	41	45.8	44.8	19	46%	5%	+7.9
33	Alex Butterworth	Penn State	47.5%	51	37.4	36.6	20	39%	4%	−7.0
34	Nathan Renfro	Maryland	47.4%	75	39.7	38.3	17	23%	7%	−17.1
35	Brandon Williams	Northwestern	47.4%	59	39.6	39.3	19	33%	2%	−1.7
36	Erich Toth	Indiana	47.2%	48	39.5	38.7	9	19%	4%	−4.2
37	Brett Baer	Louisiana	47.1%	54	42.0	41.3	20	40%	4%	+1.1
38	Pablo Beltran	Navy	46.4%	40	43.9	40.9	20	50%	15%	+3.7
39	Kirby Van Der Kamp	Iowa State	46.2%	69	41.6	41.0	27	40%	3%	+10.3
40	Ryan Erxleben	Texas Tech	46.2%	37	42.1	38.3	7	19%	6%	−7.1
41	Ryan Epperson	Texas A&M	46.2%	37	42.8	42.6	13	37%	3%	+8.7
42	Bobby Cowan	Idaho	45.9%	65	42.8	41.5	16	25%	3%	+0.3
43	Tyler Bennett	Utah State	45.9%	57	41.8	40.4	30	54%	5%	+6.2
44	Kyle Negrete	USC	45.8%	36	42.4	42.5	16	44%	0%	+2.0
45	Connor Kornbrath	Iowa	45.5%	53	37.9	37.3	11	22%	2%	−9.2
46	Jonathan Fisher	Syracuse	45.5%	50	39.2	38.4	19	38%	4%	+0.1
47	Ryan Johnson	Louisville	45.2%	48	39.5	35.4	18	36%	13%	−13.1
48	Jay Karutz	Eastern Michigan	44.9%	69	42.7	41.3	24	34%	4%	−0.2
49	Richard Kent	Vanderbilt	44.4%	54	44.8	43.8	26	48%	6%	+14.6
50	Chris Boldt	Army	43.5%	34	38.1	36.4	9	26%	9%	−8.4
51	Brandon McManus	Temple	43.3%	54	45.1	42.5	16	29%	9%	+6.5
52	Cody Mandell	Alabama	43.3%	46	43.8	41.7	17	37%	11%	+7.5
53	Josh Hubner	Arizona State	43.2%	52	47.1	44.4	22	43%	14%	+15.6
54	Cody Webster	Purdue	43.2%	66	42.5	39.4	28	43%	11%	+3.9
55	Scott Kovanda	Ball State	42.9%	44	40.2	39.7	25	57%	2%	+4.3
56	Daniel Zychlinski	Stanford	42.2%	60	42.9	40.6	27	45%	12%	+8.6
57	Ron Doherty	Kansas	42.1%	56	40.5	38.5	18	33%	7%	−4.9
58	Cole Way	Tulsa	42.0%	69	39.4	38.0	22	31%	1%	−8.0
59	Cayle Chapman-Brown	New Mexico State	41.9%	70	44.3	43.2	24	38%	6%	+3.1
60	Alex Dunnachie	Hawai'i	41.7%	49	46.2	43.7	16	33%	12%	+11.1
61	A.J. Hughes	Virginia Tech	41.5%	68	40.3	39.5	25	36%	3%	−1.7
62	Grant Venham	Ohio	41.2%	53	39.4	36.8	21	47%	9%	−3.6
63	Tyler Grassman	Buffalo	40.9%	80	35.4	34.0	19	26%	4%	−28.4
64	Josh Davis	Middle Tennessee	40.9%	42	40.2	37.7	14	34%	8%	−6.1
65	J. Schroeder	Western Michigan	40.0%	56	40.8	38.1	11	23%	13%	−12.5
66	Dalton Botts	Miami	39.5%	54	40.5	39.3	29	54%	6%	+11.3
67	Michael Palardy	Tennessee	39.1%	36	43.1	42.3	16	46%	3%	−0.7
68	David Baska	Air Force	39.1%	33	40.5	39.8	9	27%	3%	−3.9
69	Hunter Mullins	UAB	38.7%	50	44.8	42.1	15	30%	14%	−4.1
70	Kyle Dugandzic	Arizona	38.7%	48	43.4	42.8	21	44%	2%	+5.0
71	Brad Wing	LSU	38.6%	59	44.8	41.4	22	37%	17%	+12.7
72	Mike Sadler	Michigan State	38.3%	68	43.3	41.2	26	38%	7%	−1.6
73	Dylan Breeding	Arkansas	37.9%	53	45.6	43.6	20	37%	6%	+13.0
74	Ethan Perry	TCU	37.8%	56	45.2	41.6	22	39%	18%	+6.7
75	Will Atterberry	North Texas	37.5%	70	41.3	38.1	26	37%	16%	+2.4
76	Scott Garber	South Alabama	37.5%	72	39.6	39.0	19	28%	3%	−12.2
77	Cole Wagner	UConn	37.0%	78	40.5	38.5	29	37%	10%	+6.0
78	Landon Foster	Kentucky	35.3%	61	42.9	41.5	18	30%	7%	+3.8
79	Peter Boehme	Southern Miss	35.1%	63	40.0	39.1	18	32%	5%	−8.7
80	Alec Vozenilek	Virginia	34.9%	66	40.6	39.2	19	29%	6%	+3.5
81	Spencer Roth	Baylor	34.8%	32	44.2	42.3	12	38%	9%	+5.1
82	Zach Paul	Akron	34.5%	65	40.9	39.5	17	30%	5%	−3.4
83	Justin DuVernois	Illinois	34.0%	73	41.9	41.4	19	26%	3%	−1.3
84	Ben Skaer	New Mexico	33.3%	54	43.9	41.5	17	33%	12%	+4.9
85	Riley Stephenson	BYU	33.3%	51	47.3	45.0	28	55%	10%	+25.4
86	Jamie Boyle	UCF	32.6%	59	40.7	38.3	26	44%	12%	+6.5
87	Michael Bowlin	Washington State	32.3%	58	41.9	40.5	11	20%	7%	+2.7
88	Zac Murphy	Miami (OH)	31.4%	57	40.5	38.5	12	21%	11%	−7.9
89	Tommy Hibbard	North Carolina	31.3%	50	43.0	41.8	17	34%	6%	+0.6
90	Ian Campbell	UTEP	30.8%	66	42.6	41.4	20	34%	7%	+8.0
91	Tress Way	Oklahoma	30.8%	48	43.6	39.3	18	38%	17%	+7.3
92	Richie Hogan	Central Michigan	30.4%	47	40.8	40.4	16	40%	3%	−3.2
93	Tim Gleeson	Wyoming	30.3%	62	43.0	41.1	24	39%	10%	−8.2
94	Justin Doerner	Rutgers	30.0%	71	37.4	35.3	17	24%	10%	−25.5
95	Peter Picerelli	Tulane	29.2%	69	41.2	41.6	13	29%	0%	−4.1
96	Chase Lansford	UNLV	28.6%	65	41.8	39.8	23	35%	12%	+3.3
97	Will Hagerup	Michigan	28.6%	33	45.0	42.3	5	15%	12%	−5.3
98	Hendrix Brakefield	Western Kentucky	26.9%	40	40.9	38.9	12	30%	10%	+2.7
99	Will Monday	Duke	26.8%	66	44.1	42.3	20	30%	9%	+4.4
100	Vince Penza	Toledo	26.3%	52	40.6	39.4	21	40%	6%	+1.4
101	Tyler Williams	Marshall	25.9%	43	45.2	42.4	17	39%	9%	+4.5
102	Pete Kontodiakos	Colorado State	25.7%	59	46.5	40.0	19	35%	26%	+1.1
103	Trevor Harman	Boise State	25.0%	38	41.6	38.0	9	24%	18%	−2.6
104	Brett Maher	Nebraska	24.3%	58	41.7	40.8	19	33%	5%	−4.0
105	Matt Yoklic	Pittsburgh	23.7%	55	41.1	38.6	18	33%	9%	−6.4
106	Colter Johnson	Massachusetts	23.3%	66	43.6	41.4	12	24%	8%	−0.2
107	Tom Hornsey	Memphis	23.1%	60	43.4	42.3	29	47%	3%	+6.3
108	Pat O'Donnell	Cincinnati	22.9%	55	42.0	39.8	25	45%	11%	+3.1
109	Ryan Allen	Louisiana Tech	22.9%	45	48.0	45.4	22	49%	13%	+15.2
110	Trent Tignor	East Carolina	22.6%	59	42.4	38.7	12	24%	18%	−4.0
111	Harrison Waid	San José State	22.6%	51	42.4	40.2	16	34%	11%	−0.3
112	Mike Loftus	SMU	21.7%	47	42.5	41.2	10	23%	5%	+2.3
113	Andrew Shapiro	Fresno State	21.6%	58	42.4	40.0	17	29%	12%	+2.9
114	Will Scott	Troy	21.6%	54	41.0	40.1	21	40%	4%	+0.1
115	Seamus McMorrow	San Diego State	21.1%	35	41.9	38.6	13	38%	18%	+1.2
116	Sean Kelly	Florida Atlantic	20.8%	68	39.9	36.5	10	25%	10%	−12.7
117	Gerald Levano	Boston College	20.0%	57	42.0	40.5	12	20%	5%	−8.0
118	Chase Tenpenny	Nevada	20.0%	43	42.9	39.6	12	28%	16%	+1.6
119	Brian Schmiedebusch	Bowling Green	17.8%	65	41.8	38.3	23	35%	18%	+0.8

All 2012 College punter rankings

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