FRIDAY, OCTOBER 12 | SERVING TEXAS A&M SINCE 1893 | © 2018 STUDENT MEDIA
TEXAS A&M VS SOUTH CAROLINA SATURDAY, OCT. 13 @ 2:30 P.M. SEC NETWORK
MANN WITH A PLAN
Cassie Stricker — THE BATTALION
Junior Braden Mann has broken multiple punting records this year, including single game punting average and is on pace to break more as the Aggies start the second half of their season.
Aggies find unassuming star in junior Braden Mann, one of the best punters in the NCAA By Abigail Ochoa @AbigailOchoa88 Humble and talented — two words closely associated with Texas A&M’s junior punter Braden Mann. With a standout year that has included record-breaking performances and two consecutive SEC special teams player of
the week mentions, Mann has become a staple figure for the team, and people are taking notice. In his three years at A&M, Mann has been the chief kickoff specialist, but he’s taken up a new responsibility this season, serving as both a punter and kickoff specialist. He said the success he’s had as an Aggie is something he’s worked toward since high school. “I was just trying to be better than I was before,” Mann said. “Every day I’d go out and film myself in high school and just try to be better than I was the day before that. I don’t know if I ever really stopped to think about wanting to be better than
anyone else — just better than myself.” Mann began his freshman year at A&M averaging 63.9 yards from 76 kickoff attempts and 47 yards in his only two punts that season. While his sophomore year didn’t quite reach these numbers, Mann still averaged 62.4 yards on 73 kickoff attempts and collected 4,553 yards with 33 touchbacks, all from kickoffs. In his six games this season, Mann has already improved his average to 64.7, making him seventh in the country in terms of MANN ON PG. 2
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Director of orchestras Travis Almony conducts the Texas A&M Orchestra while they perform in Rudder Theatre.
Cassie Stricker — THE BATTALION
Sophomore wide receiver Kendrick Rogers celebrates after A&M scored the game tying touchdown against Kentucky on Oct. 7 in Kyle Field.
Next stop: South Carolina Texas A&M kicks off road game series with matchup against the Gamecocks By Grant Spika @GrantSpika One of the toughest stretches of the season begins this weekend for No. 22 Texas A&M. After two straight SEC wins over Arkansas and Kentucky, the Aggies will go on the road for three straight SEC games with an open week on Oct. 20. The first of the three comes this weekend as A&M travels to Columbia to take on the South Carolina Gamecocks. Since the two schools were made permanent cross-division rivals in the SEC, the Aggies have won all four matchups, and they’ll look to make it five this weekend. In the first four games of the season, sophomore quarterback Kellen Mond and the A&M offense outshined the defense, averaging 545.5 yards a game. But in the last two games, the A&M defense ran the show, securing two of
A&M’s victories. Then No. 13 Kentucky was averaging 407.2 yards per game on offense before running into the A&M defense, which allowed the Wildcats 178 yards overall and only 66 yards in the last three quarters. “As a defense, we tackled very well in space,” A&M head coach Jimbo Fisher said. “We were great against the run, we covered well, we pressured the quarterback, and they did a good job in overtime. We did well on third down getting them off the field. They didn’t cross the 50 the whole game.” Defensive coordinator Mike Elko has the A&M defense all the way up to No. 23 in the country in total defense, despite a lack of depth at linebacker and relatively weak secondary play. South Carolina was ranked 24th in the country in week two before losing in a blowout to No. 2 Georgia. Since the loss to Georgia, the Gamecocks have defeated Vanderbilt on the road, lost to Kentucky on the road and earned PREVIEW ON PG. 2
Captivating an audience A&M orchestras prepare for their first performance of school year By Salvador Garcia @SalGarJr From Baroque to Bernstein, Texas A&M’s string orchestras will open up their fall concert series with diverse music anyone can enjoy. The Philharmonic Orchestra and Chamber Orchestra will play their first concert of the semester in Rudder Theatre on Oct. 14. The orchestras will perform Baroque and early Romantic era music, as well as 20th-century music by Spanish and American composers, including a selection from Leonard Bernstein’s “West Side Story.” The Chamber Orchestra will follow with Irish and English folk inspired music, ending the concert with Antonín Dvorák’s “Serenade for Strings.” Director of orchestras Travis Almany said the music is chosen to provide student musicians with a challenge that is manageable in a short time frame, while giving the public something attractive to listen to. “The first thing I always look at is it has to be good music,” Almany said. “I don’t want to waste the students’ time with something that’s just trash.”
The orchestras are made of about 110 students that are divided between the two, Almany said. “It’s very representative of the overall demographics of the university,” Almany said. “If you boil the 65,000-person university down to 110 people, it would probably look very similar to our orchestras.” Almany said the orchestras at A&M are different than other universities in that his students are not music majors. “[The students] are just here because they want to play,” Almany said. “Whereas a school of music might throw some ‘avant-garde’ stuff because it’s good for the students to know it. … Here the focus is to get all these [students] a time that they can just come relax and enjoy making music.” Mechanical engineering Ph.D. student Timothy Kroeger said he has found the time to play viola in the orchestra every semester since 2011, when he started his bachelor’s degree. Kroeger said he is looking forward to playing Dvorák’s “Serenade for Strings.” “The serenade is great,” Kroeger said. “I really like non-German European music. I like the more obscure European music. … I love Dvorák, who is Czech. I think the Eastern European flare is interesting.” Applied mathematics and computer MUSIC ON PG. 4