Braden Mann becomes Texas A&M's first Ray Guy Award winner
The best punter in the nation plays in College Station.
Texas A&M P Braden Mann beat out Cincinnati’s James Smith and Utah’s Mitch Wishnowsky to win the Ray Guy Award, given to the nation’s top punter. He is the first Aggie to ever win the award.
“This is a huge honor and an absolute blessing for me,” Mann told the team webiste. “I have great teammates, great coaches and a great family behind me. God has blessed me to be able to have a season like this, but I wouldn’t have been able to do that without my teammates, coaches, family and the 12th Man behind me. I’m happy to finally bring the Ray Guy Trophy back to College Station for the first time after following in the footsteps of great punters before me like Shane Lechler, Drew Kaser and Shane Tripucka. It has been an honor to be in the conversation with punters like them and so many others. I really want to thank the 12th Man for giving me a lot of juice in games this season.”
It’s been a record-breaking season for Mann. He broke the record for high gross punt average (60.4)in a single game by averaging 60.8 yards per punt against Alabama on Sept. 1. Against UAB, he booted his 14th 60-yard punt of the season, a new record. He is also on pace to break the record average of 50.28, which belongs to Chad Kessler. Mann is averaging 51.5 yards per punt this season.