NO LONGER 'FREAKING OUT'
9/26/2024 2:21:00 PM | Football
Sophomore Palmer Williams leading the nation with 54.2-yard punting average
By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
When Palmer Williams entered college a semester early and struggled in the spring of 2023, he "freaked out," worried that Baylor was going to go find a punter in the transfer portal.
"Honestly, if I was the (special teams) coordinator, I would have brought in someone else. I was that bad," he said. "And I had doubts, like, 'Do I belong here?' I really freaked myself about that."
A little over a year later, those doubts now seem laughable.
After averaging 43.08 yards per punt last year as a freshman, Williams has certainly avoided any kind of sophomore jinx, averaging a national-best 54.2 yards per punt through the first four games of the season and helping the Bears rank No. 1 in the country in net punting (48.2).
"A huge kick with great coverage is what you're aiming for," Baylor head coach Dave Aranda said. "To do that consistently is a huge weapon, especially when you need to flip the field and we need to get momentum. The other side of that is, if things are leaking or things are going the other way, can this flip the momentum? A punt like that can certainly do that."
Williams jumped into the national spotlight in Week 2, when he averaged a single-game school-record 62.7 yards per kick with a career-long 79-yarder in a 23-12 loss at Utah. The native of Advance, North Carolina, broke his previous best four times, had two kicks over 70 and was named to the Ray Guy Award "Ray's 8" list that honors the nation's top eight punters of the week.
But it didn't surprise Aranda or Mark Scott, who's in his first year as the quality control coach for special teams.
"He practices like that continually," Aranda said. "I stand behind him whenever he punts, and I know that I have to run the full distance because we flip the field every time he punts like that. So, everyone expects that, and he expects that of himself, most importantly."
More by chance than plan, Williams became a kicker in middle school after breaking his arm the summer before seventh grade while riding a Razor RipStik (like a skateboard) down a hill. In a cast that extended past his elbow, "I couldn't really do a whole lot, so they made me the kicker. And I was pretty decent."
Hitting a "huge growth spurt" in high school, Williams said punting "just became easier, and I got pretty good at it. And I thought it was way more fun."
"In pee-wee football, I mainly just kicked off," said Williams, who had a 43.6-yard punting average as a senior and was ranked as the No. 3 punter in the nation by 247Sports. "We had a punt play, but I'm sure it would have been pretty bad if I had tried to punt. I was always more of a kicker. I didn't really like . . . no one ever just wants to be a punter. You kind of develop that."
With what he describes as a "decent arm," Williams was always a backup quarterback as well. "That was like my call to glory to let the guys know I'm not just a kicker, I'm a quarterback," he said.
"Obviously, I wasn't going to be a DI quarterback, but I always thought I was pretty decent," he said. "I don't know, my teammates in middle school might have disagreed."
Going to a kicking camp in eighth grade, Williams watched in awe as a kicker from Concord, North Carolina, named Mitch Jeter put on an exhibition.
"I was like, 'Why is this kid so good? I've never seen anybody kick the ball like this,''' Williams said. Through research, the Williams family found out that the future South Carolina and Notre Dame kicker was working under the tutelage of former North Carolina kicker Dan Orner.
Working with Orner since then, Williams said "it does help to have a coach back home that when I'm not here, I can see him. It's like fine-tuning your car or getting your tires realigned."
Orner, who works with 65 active kickers in college and 10 specialists in the NFL, said Williams is "every bit of an NFL punter."
On his trips home, Williams specifically enjoys kicking alongside former North Carolina State punter Trenton Gill and the Atlanta Falcons' Bradley Pinion, who played at Clemson.
"Punting is one of those things that there's no one way to do it," he said. "Everybody's kind of got their own tendencies. You see this guy grips the ball more underhand, he's on top of the ball, he swings a certain way, his steps are different. You take bits of that and see what works for you. But those two dudes, I really model. I like to think I have Bradley's grip and Trent's steps and follow through."
As far as his own kicking style, Williams says he tries not to be "so robotic."
"If you get too nitty gritty into the form, you're just going to be super uptight," he said. "I move my feet a lot. As (deep snapper Garrison Grimes) starts to snap the ball, I take a step back with my foot. Sometimes, it goes further right, it's kind of a feel thing to get my first step shorter. And then, the rest of it is just muscle memory. I'm a three-step punter, and then I'm looking at my spot on the ball and just turning it over."
Typically, on 60- and 70-yard kicks, the punter out-kicks his coverage. But Baylor's coverage unit has been phenomenal, limiting opponents to just 44 yards on eight returns with a long of 17 yards.
"First punt against Utah, it was pretty bad, right down the middle," Williams said. "I was like, 'Oh, shoot, that might be pretty bad.' But the cover team, guys like Micah (Gifford), Corey Gordon is down there taking shots, Josh White. And they're down there just blowing people up. They make my job a lot easier."
Aranda said there are guys on the punt coverage team "that play 100 miles an hour and want to hit people."
"We talk about running through smoke," he said. "Sometimes, when you're up against the smoke, you don't know what's on the other side. So, to run full speed into it – and with a couple of these dudes, maybe having their eyes closed in that process, and having no second thought about what's on the other side of it. That's what it takes to play in that unit."
With an eye on the future, the 19-year-old Williams said his Plan A is to make it to the NFL, but "I have a pretty good backup plan if that doesn't work out, getting a good degree from Baylor."
"But fingers crossed, NFL is the main goal."
Coming off an emotional 38-31 overtime loss on the road at Colorado, the Bears (2-2, 0-1) will host 22nd-ranked BYU (4-0, 1-0) at 11 a.m. Saturday at McLane Stadium in a game that will be broadcast by FS1.
Baylor Bear Insider
When Palmer Williams entered college a semester early and struggled in the spring of 2023, he "freaked out," worried that Baylor was going to go find a punter in the transfer portal.
"Honestly, if I was the (special teams) coordinator, I would have brought in someone else. I was that bad," he said. "And I had doubts, like, 'Do I belong here?' I really freaked myself about that."
A little over a year later, those doubts now seem laughable.
After averaging 43.08 yards per punt last year as a freshman, Williams has certainly avoided any kind of sophomore jinx, averaging a national-best 54.2 yards per punt through the first four games of the season and helping the Bears rank No. 1 in the country in net punting (48.2).
"A huge kick with great coverage is what you're aiming for," Baylor head coach Dave Aranda said. "To do that consistently is a huge weapon, especially when you need to flip the field and we need to get momentum. The other side of that is, if things are leaking or things are going the other way, can this flip the momentum? A punt like that can certainly do that."
Williams jumped into the national spotlight in Week 2, when he averaged a single-game school-record 62.7 yards per kick with a career-long 79-yarder in a 23-12 loss at Utah. The native of Advance, North Carolina, broke his previous best four times, had two kicks over 70 and was named to the Ray Guy Award "Ray's 8" list that honors the nation's top eight punters of the week.
But it didn't surprise Aranda or Mark Scott, who's in his first year as the quality control coach for special teams.
"He practices like that continually," Aranda said. "I stand behind him whenever he punts, and I know that I have to run the full distance because we flip the field every time he punts like that. So, everyone expects that, and he expects that of himself, most importantly."
More by chance than plan, Williams became a kicker in middle school after breaking his arm the summer before seventh grade while riding a Razor RipStik (like a skateboard) down a hill. In a cast that extended past his elbow, "I couldn't really do a whole lot, so they made me the kicker. And I was pretty decent."
Hitting a "huge growth spurt" in high school, Williams said punting "just became easier, and I got pretty good at it. And I thought it was way more fun."
"In pee-wee football, I mainly just kicked off," said Williams, who had a 43.6-yard punting average as a senior and was ranked as the No. 3 punter in the nation by 247Sports. "We had a punt play, but I'm sure it would have been pretty bad if I had tried to punt. I was always more of a kicker. I didn't really like . . . no one ever just wants to be a punter. You kind of develop that."
With what he describes as a "decent arm," Williams was always a backup quarterback as well. "That was like my call to glory to let the guys know I'm not just a kicker, I'm a quarterback," he said.
"Obviously, I wasn't going to be a DI quarterback, but I always thought I was pretty decent," he said. "I don't know, my teammates in middle school might have disagreed."
Going to a kicking camp in eighth grade, Williams watched in awe as a kicker from Concord, North Carolina, named Mitch Jeter put on an exhibition.
"I was like, 'Why is this kid so good? I've never seen anybody kick the ball like this,''' Williams said. Through research, the Williams family found out that the future South Carolina and Notre Dame kicker was working under the tutelage of former North Carolina kicker Dan Orner.
Working with Orner since then, Williams said "it does help to have a coach back home that when I'm not here, I can see him. It's like fine-tuning your car or getting your tires realigned."
Orner, who works with 65 active kickers in college and 10 specialists in the NFL, said Williams is "every bit of an NFL punter."
On his trips home, Williams specifically enjoys kicking alongside former North Carolina State punter Trenton Gill and the Atlanta Falcons' Bradley Pinion, who played at Clemson.
"Punting is one of those things that there's no one way to do it," he said. "Everybody's kind of got their own tendencies. You see this guy grips the ball more underhand, he's on top of the ball, he swings a certain way, his steps are different. You take bits of that and see what works for you. But those two dudes, I really model. I like to think I have Bradley's grip and Trent's steps and follow through."
As far as his own kicking style, Williams says he tries not to be "so robotic."
"If you get too nitty gritty into the form, you're just going to be super uptight," he said. "I move my feet a lot. As (deep snapper Garrison Grimes) starts to snap the ball, I take a step back with my foot. Sometimes, it goes further right, it's kind of a feel thing to get my first step shorter. And then, the rest of it is just muscle memory. I'm a three-step punter, and then I'm looking at my spot on the ball and just turning it over."
Typically, on 60- and 70-yard kicks, the punter out-kicks his coverage. But Baylor's coverage unit has been phenomenal, limiting opponents to just 44 yards on eight returns with a long of 17 yards.
"First punt against Utah, it was pretty bad, right down the middle," Williams said. "I was like, 'Oh, shoot, that might be pretty bad.' But the cover team, guys like Micah (Gifford), Corey Gordon is down there taking shots, Josh White. And they're down there just blowing people up. They make my job a lot easier."
Aranda said there are guys on the punt coverage team "that play 100 miles an hour and want to hit people."
"We talk about running through smoke," he said. "Sometimes, when you're up against the smoke, you don't know what's on the other side. So, to run full speed into it – and with a couple of these dudes, maybe having their eyes closed in that process, and having no second thought about what's on the other side of it. That's what it takes to play in that unit."
With an eye on the future, the 19-year-old Williams said his Plan A is to make it to the NFL, but "I have a pretty good backup plan if that doesn't work out, getting a good degree from Baylor."
"But fingers crossed, NFL is the main goal."
Coming off an emotional 38-31 overtime loss on the road at Colorado, the Bears (2-2, 0-1) will host 22nd-ranked BYU (4-0, 1-0) at 11 a.m. Saturday at McLane Stadium in a game that will be broadcast by FS1.
Players Mentioned
Smoooooooth 🌀 | DJ Lagway to Taz Williams Jr.
Wednesday, April 01
Willis Connection | DJ Lagway to DeBraun Hampton
Wednesday, April 01
BEAR JACKS 🔊
Wednesday, April 01
Dawson Pendergrass Media Cameo
Wednesday, April 01
