Hello, I am still alive and doing well. As for my absence for the past month, as it may of possibly been known, I am Enrolled in EMT School. During this time, I have non-stop been studying, in school, or on Ride-Alongs with Ambulances. I just wanna give a personal thank you to all of my brothers and writers at SU who have been behind me for this past month. I have not been active on the site, lacking on twitter, and semi active in Slack. However, My class is now in the final weeks, I am slowly going to be getting back into the groves of things. Pro: Once I finish school, I’ll be sitting in an Ambulance or Station for 50% of my time aka Writing time. Con: I will never get sleep again. So, when you start noticing me writing more at 3am or giving medical advice to the fellas on Twitter, just know that I am not an insane Insomniac.
**Clears Throat** Ahem. It’s been a hot minute since I have wrote about a QB, let alone one of the most electric players in college football.
So, obviously, I am going to write about Braden Munn, aka the greatest punter to ever live (CC: Pat McAfee). Also, as I have been semi-MIA from this website for a month, so if you’re asking your self if I’m back…
So, yesterday was the College Football Awards sponsored by whatever credit card or soda, and this already had me #MadOnline:
JACE STERNBERGER WAS THE BEST TE IN FOOTBALL THIS SEASON SO TAKE YOU’RE JOHN LACKEY AWARD IOWA AND SHOVE IT. But thats for another day. We are here to talk about Special Teams, aka the forbidden arts in both college and professional football. It is the most overlooked aspect of football ever. Everything from being an Upside-Down-QB to rocking 50 yard field goals and whipping out the finger pistols.
Now, as an Ex-All League QB/Holder (Humble Brag), some of my favorite moments were on FG. Screwing around at practice with coaches screaming and jumping to try to throw you off, watching the most nonathletic player from the waist up become a badass for his/her (it’s 2018 folks) for 15-20 seconds, or the top tier…Fake FG’s.
This being said, ever since a certain someone (aka one Patrick McAfee) igniting the punt has taken over the football scene, with everything being #ForTheBrand and #PeopleArePuntersToo.
Insert Braden Mann, aka my lord and savior this season. In CFB, punting is shunned and called a failure for the team. Not the case for my Texas A&M Aggies this season.
Where other teams might of seen punting as a way to stop the bleeding of a failed drive, Mann would turn it into his own way of defense and somehow make a drive look even better than before. And it wasn’t just a one game explosion either…
Mann has 47 punts on the year with an average distance of 51.1 yards. He holds a NCAA record of 60+ yard punts by booting 14 this season. His 51.1 YPP would break the NCAA record by a whole yard. He led A&M to the nation’s best punting game in FBS history, with all of these records being previously held by a punter at Southern Miss…
His name was Ray Fucking Guy…
Spoiler Alert: Mann won the Guy. And is having one of, if not THE, greatest punting season in football history. And here you people are ignoring it for some guy who could go play for an Oakland Baseball team and a Lefty Hawaiian guy…Couldn’t be me.
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So, while this year’s Heisman Finalist may have been announced (go ahead and lock in Kyler) and sadly the Heisman is a QB/RB award, the voters should open their eyes next season if Mann or anyone else has an outstanding special teams season, I better see them raising up that dammed bronze trophy next December.
Also Also, Texas A&M is now “Punter U”.
