Texas A&M Aggies

Under Armour All-American punter Shane Tripucka had several schools to choose from. But something about Texas A&M just felt right.

So on Thursday, he committed to the Aggies.

Tripucka, a 6-foot-3, 210-pound punter from Allen (Texas) High School, will join the Aggies as a preferred walk-on next season after informing head coach Kevin Sumlin and special teams coach Jeff Banks that he's A&M-bound.

"A&M, I talked to the coaches, I know they want me," Tripucka said. "They come down and see me, they call me all the time. It really felt like a good place to be....It feels like a great place to play football and a great choice for me."

Tripucka had a scholarship offer to Sam Houston State and had preferred walk-on opportunities to Texas, Texas Tech and Boston College.

Tripucka attended an A&M kicking camp over the summer and was originally recruited by former Aggies' special teams coach Brian Polian. Banks picked up where Polian left off when Polian left to become Nevada's head coach, making Tripucka one of his first calls.

"Both special teams coaches knew what they were doing," Tripucka said. "They knew about the position and cared about having good special teams and good kickers because it was important to them.

"When coach Polian left to Nevada, coach Banks called me right away. He just went from there and he was great and I really like him because he's a coach who has been in my situation before, being a punter. He knows what he's talking about and the technical parts of punting and kicking and I just really liked him."

At Allen, Tripucka was part of a team that won the Texas Class 5A Division I state championship this year. He averaged 42 yards per punt for the Eagles and his father Chris, who played for Boston College, said opponents have no punt return yardage against Shane in two seasons because of his consistent hangtime.

"It takes a huge weight off my chest," Tripucka said. "For the last two years, I've been working my butt off to get noticed by these schools. To finally have a decision, it makes you feel a lot better."

Tripucka is the second specialist in the 2013 class to receive a preferred walk-on opportunity at Texas A&M. Dallas/Jesuit kicker Cody Wicker, teammate of Texas A&M linebacker signee Jordan Mastrogiovanni, accepted an opportunity to be a preferred walk-on at Texas A&M as a placekicker according to his coach, Brandon Hickman.

COLLEGE STATION, Texas -- It took a little bit for the Texas A&M offense to get kick-started, but once it did, it was smooth sailing.

The No. 8 Aggies recorded their fourth straight win, a 47-28 victory over the FCS's third-ranked team, Sam Houston State, before 87,101 on Saturday at Kyle Field.

Let's glance at the notables from the game:

It was over when: The Aggies' offense stepped on the field for the third quarter. Already holding a 34-point lead, A&M quickly turned it to 47-0 by scoring on its first two plays of the second half -- an 89-yard touchdown pass from Johnny Manziel to Uzoma Nwachukwu and and 80-yard touchdown pass from backup quarterback Jameill Showers to LeKendrick Williams.

Game ball goes to: Stop me if this is beginning to sound like a broken record ... Manziel. The redshirt freshman quarterback didn't really do anything to hurt his Heisman Trophy candidacy as he was 14-of-20 passing for 267 yards and three touchdowns. He also ran for 100 yards and two touchdowns on 16 carries. He became the first freshman in NCAA history to throw for 3,000 yards and rush for 1,000 yards and also broke the FBS freshman rushing and total offense yardage marks.

Key stat: 20.6, the average yards per completion for the Aggies. Big plays were the theme for the Texas A&M offense, particularly in the passing game. In addition to two third-quarter touchdown passes, Mike Evans had receptions of 33 and 20 yards.

What it means: The Aggies are now one win away from 10. If they are able to get a win next week versus Missouri, it would be the first time since 1998 that the Aggies have won 10 games in a season. A win would also ensure the Aggies finish no lower than second in the SEC West, which is well above the preseason expectations many pundits had.