Braden Mann is a legitimate game-changer — and well on his way to several all-time records.

While the Texas vs. Texas A&M rivalry sits dormant on the field, the schools are now competing with each other on a separate issue:

Which program can produce the most dominant punter?

You are familiar by now with Michael Dickson, the Texas punter who is now a star for the Seahawks.

Seattle traded up to draft the Australian, and it actually made sense, we wrote immediately.

The 2017 Longhorns had been No. 1 in Punting Success Rate, an advanced stat that measures how well punting units flip field position. The Texas Bowl MVP was third in the country at 47.4 yards per punt, a total he pulled off over 84 punts. (Texas punted a lot!) The only guys ahead of him beat his average boot by tenths of a yard and only achieved that over 70-ish punts. And to give Dickson some added credit, he was amazing at pinning short-field punts down near the goal line. He put 41 punts inside the 20.

Well, Texas A&M’s punter is on pace to have an even better year statistically. He might be having the best punting season in college football history.

Meet Braden Mann, the Aggies’ junior punting maestro. Through six games, Mann’s averaging 54.8 yards on his 23 punts. The highest punting average ever (minimum 40 attempts) is 49.8, set by Iowa’s Reggie Roby in 1981. Mann’s got some work left to do to keep his numbers at record levels, but he’s already built some cushion.

Mann’s already broken one record for sure. His five punts for 304 yards (a 60.8 average) against No. 1 Alabama were the highest average ever in one game for someone punting at least five times. It narrowly beat the 60.4 mark that two guys had previously posted. He had four different 60-plus yard punts in that game, and while the NCAA doesn’t track that record on a per-game basis, it’s hard to imagine Mann didn’t at least tie it.

The records are cool, but you have to actually watch Mann punt to grasp how unusual he is.

In Week 6 against Kentucky, Mann uncorked an 82-yard masterpiece. It was the longest by an Aggie in 74 years, the school said. The poor Kentucky returner thought the ball was heading out of bounds or into the end zone. Neither was true.

Whoops, sorry, that was just a 65-yarder the same night. This was his 82-yarder:

Again, watching the returner’s hilarious. This guy’s setting up shop at, like, his own 25. He has no sense of possibility that a punt leaving Mann’s foot at his own 8-yard line could possibly go over his head. But it does, landing like 75 yards from the spot where Mann kicked it.

That’s the rare “touchback that still nets you 62 freaking yards” punt. Mann’s 82-yarder was his 11th punt of more than 60 yards this season, in half a season. The FBS record for 60-plus-yard punts in a whole season is 13, set by Wake Forest’s Ryan Plackemeier in 2005. Mann is going to break that in his sleep, maybe as soon as Week 7.

Mann also put on a total punting clinic against Clemson back in Week 2, at one point sending back-to-back punts that went a combined 142 yards.

“He doesn’t get bored,” head coach Jimbo Fisher told reporters after the Kentucky game. “How many times did Tiger Woods change his swing? They get bored and they go, ‘Well, I’m going to do this a little bit and that helps me on this and that helps me on that,’ and kickers can get a hair off. I tell him every day ‘Don’t get bored. Keep doing exactly what you’re doing.’”

A&M has converted Mann’s atomic punting into a huge advantage.

The Aggies are fourth in punting efficiency. It’s wild that they’re not first. But Mann’s punting is a primary source of this incredible field position disparity:

A&M’s average starting spot on offense is its own 26.3 (121st in FBS)

A&M’s average starting spot on defense is the opponent’s 25.4 (12th in FBS)

The Aggies get backed in pretty significantly when they’re playing defense. Then Mann comes out with his golden leg, and suddenly the field’s completely flipped. Having Mann can change the outlook of entire games for the A&M O and D.

The average Mann punt nets A&M 46.4 yards. The next highest-netting punter, Oklahoma State’s Zach Sinor, is at 44.7. The national average is 37.7. So, thanks to Mann and the guys covering his punts, the Aggies more or less need one fewer first down to score points on their average drive. Nobody will ever know if the Aggies would’ve beaten Arkansas and Kentucky (by a combined 13 points) if not for that edge, but it’s a fair question.

Punting isn’t even Mann’s only trick. He also handles A&M’s kickoffs ...

... and does a hell of a job on them. A&M’s 14th in kickoff efficiency as a team, and Mann’s ninth among individual kickers in average distance (64.7 yards). That also contributes to the field position aid he gives the Aggies.

In short, Mann is one of the most (uniquely) valuable players in the country. He makes the Aggies so much better that he could legitimately win them a few games this year. He might have already done that.

But that’s not the most important thing here.

The most important thing is that Texas had one of the great punters in history, and now A&M’s turned around in one year and gotten a punter who’s statistically out-punted him.

If the Longhorns want retribution, perhaps they should schedule the Aggies.