Am I writing a piece about a punter who played the majority of his career before I was born? Yes I am. Why, might you ask? I really find his career and story an incredibly fascinating one. I deem it worthy of the National Football Foundation (NFF) College Football Hall of Fame.

Case DeBruijn is one of the four punters listed on the Divisional Player Ballot (Aka FCS and below). He’s one of the 100 players nominated. As a voter for the NFF College Football Hall of Fame, you can only pick four players on this ballot of 100 to get into the Hall.

You’ll see Case’s bio in the 34-page document from the NFF, giving you a little blurb about his career and a few of the accomplishments that landed him on the ballot.

This is Case’s bio on the ballot below.

On its face, Case has a pretty solid resume to get into the Hall of Fame. However, he was a punter and honestly, we don’t necessarily honor punters as a part of the Hall of Fames too often. Matter of fact, there is only one punter in the College Football Hall of Fame, Ray Guy. They also list Randall Cunningham on the Punter search too.

So the Hall of Fame has one punter, who they named the punting award after, and a Quarterback who also punted. It must be lonely in the Hall for Ray Guy. He needs another punter in the Hall of Fame with him.

Now, if you’re reading this you likely don’t have a ballot to case for the National Football Foundation, but this blog will tell you a story about a fascinating Punter who played for Idaho State from 1978-1981.

If you do have a vote for the Hall of Fame, thank you for reading this for whatever reason you are reading my silly blog. I will try my best to be as persuasive as possible to get you to cast one of your four votes for Case DeBruijn - the former Idaho State punter.

Case’s Journey to Pocatello.

Case was born in The Hague, Netherlands, the city, not the actual Hague. His father was a well known amateur soccer player in the Netherlands, who taught him how to kick a soccer ball as a toddler. When he was young, his family moved to the Washington, D.C. area, and he grew up in Manassas, Virginia. He played football in high school as a running back, kicker and punter. His Wikipedia states he earned all county and all district honors. His High School coach sent several letters to coaches all over the nation, and an assistant coach from Idaho State invited him to Pocatello to try out for the team. He did well enough to earn an invitation to join the team was a walk-on. Case has got that walk-on to the Hall of Fame story potential here.

The PUNTING and KICKING Begins for the Idaho State Bengals.

Idaho State’s first game in 1978 was in Nishinomiya, Japan, against Utah State, which they lost 10-0 in heavy rains. I’m trying to wrap my head around being a walk on punter from the Netherlands, growing up in Virginia, going to Idaho State and your first college game was in Japan. It would wind up being a pretty long year for Idaho State, as they finished 2-9.

Case’s freshman year, he was partially the kicker and punter for the year. His Freshman year, he went 3 for 5 on Field Goals and 5 for 7 on Extra Points. Case was named All Big Sky Conference Punter of the year. He finished Second in the Nation with a punting average of 41.2. He was only beaten out by fellow conference mate Nevada (FCS at the time) by one tenth of a yard, with a 41.3 punt average. So close. (Keep in mind all these stats are based on FCS/I-AA)

The next year, the bottom fell out for Idaho State in 1979. A dreadful 0-11 season, and they’d go on to set a then I-AA/FCS record for 18 straight losses two games into the 1980 season. Case had a really solid year, all things considered, even though the team wasn’t doing well. He was 4 for 7 on Field Goals and a perfect 11 for 11 on Extra Points. He finished Second in the Nation with a punting average of 44.7. Furthermore, he was only beaten out by another fellow conference mate with a 45.6 punt average. Close again. Also, he was not named to an All Conference team this year… for the last time in his career.

A New Regime arrives in Pocatello.

After an 0-11 season, Idaho State Head Coach Bud Hake resigned. He was succeeded by Dave Kragthorpe, the offensive line coach (and assistant head coach) at Brigham Young University. Kragthorpe turned around the Bengals from 0-11 in 1979 to 6-5 (4-4 in the Big Sky) in 1980.

Case’s junior year, he finally led the nation in punting average with 44.0 per punt. He hit 8 out of 15 field goals and 28 out of 31 extra points. Case was named an Honorable Mention All American in 1980. Case was named to the Big Sky All Conference Team as a Punter and as a Kicker. Doubled up on the Conference Awards here. That makes up for not winning an honor in 1979.

Magic Happens in 1981

The Idaho State Bengals caught lightning in the bottle in 1981. Dubbed as the Throwin’ Idahoans, the Bengals started 5-0 and knocked off in-state rival Boise State in the process, putting them in the driver seat for the Big Sky Conference title. Their starting QB was out for the game with mononucleosis (I’m not linking the Sam Darnold pic here) for the game in Montana, and they fell 24-21 on a last second field goal. The Bengals rattled off three straight wins, including over another in-state rival Idaho.

The Last Game of the Regular season, Idaho State, welcomed Weber State to Holt Arena for a de-facto Big Sky Championship game. Case played a huge factor in helping the Bengals win their conference title. The game against Weber State would become the Big Sky Conference’s first ever overtime game. Matter of fact, it was their first triple overtime game, too.

After Weber State’s kicker hit a 51 yarder to send it to overtime and had a chance to win in double overtime but missed his 33 yard attempt. They sent out Case immediately in the third overtime, and he nailed the 32 yard kick to clinch the Big Sky Conference Title and the automatic berth to the I-AA/FCS Playoffs. You could call him Clutch Case.

Idaho State rolled through the I-AA/FCS playoffs en route to their first ever National Championship after defeating Eastern Kentucky 34-23. Case wasn’t asked to do much on the playoff run, but he did nail all four extra points in the Championship game.

Case’s senior season was a busy one. He led the nation in punting average for the second straight year with a 45.9 punting average. He was named First Team All-American in 1981. Not only that, but he was named Big Sky All Conference Punter. Case went 15 for 26 on field goals and 48 for 51 on extra points, including the Triple Overtime game winner for the Conference title.

He finished his college career as the all-time conference leader in punts (with 256), punting yards (with 11,184), and highest average per-punt (43.7).

If you want a fantastic story for the Hall of Fame induction. You got a walk on punter from the Netherlands, who played his first game in Japan, went 0-11 in his sophomore year, then went 12-1 and won a National Championship in his senior year. You really can’t write it any better than this here.

However, if you need some fancy punting numbers, don’t worry, I got you here.

THE NUMBERS CASE FOR CASE

The Big Sky Conference the total amount of punts and yardage record STILL STANDS today.

That’s right, the total amount of punts at 256 and yardage at 11,184 still stands as a Big Sky Conference Record. That is a record set in 1981, and it’s been standing for 44 Years! (just like Commish)

Now for Case’s Field Goal Kicking Career you may think a total of 30 for 53 (56.6% accuracy) is not that great. I am going to put the NFL Accuracy Rate for kicking below here. The NFL accuracy rate wasn’t much higher! It was 63.1% to 65.9! We’re talking FCS/I-AA kicking accuracy, too! If Case made one more kick a year he would have been at 64.22% matching the NFL rate, not that far off at all! Also, he made 92% of his Extra Points going 92 out of 100. Matching NFL levels of Extra Point kicking accuracy.

Now for the Punting Stats

He set the FCS/I-AA career record at 43.7 yard per punt average in 1981. The record wasn’t broken until 10 years later by someone named Pumpy Tudors in 1991 with a 44.7 yard average. Case stayed in second all the way until 2003, when Mark Gould of Northern Arizona set the record at 44.8 yard career average. He wasn’t knocked off the FCS Podium until 2006, 25 years after his career. He currently sits tied for 14th. Only 13 punters have been able to beat his career average in 44 years. If you think about the influx of punters from around the world and the actual training they have now compared to when he punted. It’s amazing his numbers have lasted this long and is currently sitting in the Top 15 career punting average wise.

That’s how good he was.

His senior year was incredible punting wise. He set the record at 45.9 yard per punt average. His record wasn’t touched by anyone until Harold Alexander of App State ten years later. Again, it took a decade to take down Case’s record. The average Case set wasn’t topped again until 1998. Nearly 20 years later!

Looking at his entire punting career, only three punters have punted more times for more yardage compared to Case. This is 44 years after his playing days.

1. Alex Pechin, Bucknell (2015-19) 296 punts, 13,174 yards, 71 long, 44.5 avg

2. Tate Lewis, So. Utah (2011, 14-16) 264 punts, 11,538 yards, 81 long, 43.7 avg

3. Brady Schutt, South Dakota (2016-21) 263 punts, 11,355 yards, 67 long ,43.2 avg

4. Case de Bruijn, Idaho St. (1978-81) 256 punts, 11,184 yards, 76 long, 43.7 avg

Case still holds the Big Sky Conference record here with these stats and is 4th overall in FCS with all of these stats combined. If you notice, here it took until 2016 for someone to break Case’s records. His punting records for total punts and yards STOOD FOR 35 YEARS. Only one of these punters have a better punting average and only one of these punters have a longer punt.

If you have a vote for the National Football Foundation College Football Hall of Fame, I ask you to pledge one of your four selections for Case DeBruijn in the Divisional section. 

Hell, if you don’t you can click, pledge and vote (Yes this costs money for membership).

I’m going to leave you with an interview Case did in 2011 with Idaho State reflecting on his career. Read it and enjoy.

VOTE FOR CASE!!

CASE CLOSED!!!