Baylor’s preseason hardware haul starts with the specialist who has become one of the most reliable legs in the country.
Senior punter Palmer Williams was named a preseason All-American by Phil Steele and landed first-team preseason All-Big 12 honors, headlining a group of five Bears recognized by the publication. Defensive tackle Hosea Wheeler, linebacker Travion Barnes and long snapper Dylan Schaub were each placed on the third team, while offensive tackle Kaden Sieracki earned fourth-team preseason All-Big 12 notice.
Williams’ resume makes the selection easy to understand. He was an All-American and Ray Guy Award finalist in 2025 after helping Baylor finish first nationally in net punting at 45.0 yards.
He also took home Big 12 Special Teams Player of the Year honors from the league’s head coaches after averaging a conference-best 46.92 yards per punt. Of his 27 punts, 12 were returned for only 32 yards, 11 landed inside the 20 and seven were fair caught.
Another 11 went at least 50 yards, pushing him to 39 career 50+-yard boots, tied for seventh-most in Baylor history.
Over three seasons, Williams has punted 107 times for 4,981 yards and owns a 46.55-yard average that sits atop Baylor’s record book by more than a yard. He needs 10 more punts of 50-plus yards to move into second place in school history, though Daniel Sepulveda still holds the all-time mark with 94.
Wheeler brings a long track record to Waco. The sixth-year senior has played in 46 career games with 30 starts and has 139 tackles, four sacks, two forced fumbles and an interception.
He arrives after helping Indiana to a national championship and a 15-0 season in 2025, when he played in all 15 games with five starts, made 31 tackles, had four tackles for loss and recovered two fumbles. Before that, he spent time at Western Kentucky from 2022-24 and Sacramento City College in 2021.
Barnes’ season was cut short after four games in 2025, but his first stretch with Baylor still earned him preseason recognition. The redshirt senior linebacker made 11 tackles, including a sack, before suffering a season-ending injury against Arizona State.
His best outing came in Week 3 against Samford, when he posted six tackles. Barnes transferred in after a huge 2024 season at FIU, where he was the C-USA Defensive Player of the Year, finished fifth nationally with 129 tackles and ranked third in tackles per game at 11.7.
He also added 10 tackles for loss, three sacks, two interceptions and a fumble recovery.
Schaub was perfect in his first season as Baylor’s starting long snapper. The redshirt junior handled all 86 of his snaps on field goals and punts without an error and added three tackles in punt coverage.
Those stops came at Oklahoma State, against Kansas State and versus Utah. He also appeared in Baylor’s 2024 opener against Tarleton State as a reserve and took over as the starter for the final eight games of the 2023 season, when he recorded his first career tackles against West Virginia.
Sieracki rounds out the list after anchoring the right side of Baylor’s line. The redshirt senior started all 12 games in 2025, logged 948 snaps and spent 583 of them in pass protection.
PFF gave him a 63.0 offensive grade, along with a 56.8 pass-block score and a 65.5 run-block score. He did not allow a sack and gave up just two quarterback hits while helping Baylor post one of the nation’s most productive passing attacks.
The Bears finished No. 3 in passing offense at 309.6 yards per game, No. 12 in first-down offense at 297, No. 21 in total offense at 451.1 and No. 41 in scoring offense at 31.1. Sieracki has 22 career starts and has appeared in 37 games entering his fifth season in Waco.
Baylor opens the 2026 season against Auburn in the Aflac Kickoff Game at 2:30 p.m. CT on September 5 in Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium, with ABC carrying the game nationally. The Bears return home on September 12 to begin a three-game stretch at McLane Stadium against Prairie View A&M, followed by Louisiana Tech and Colorado on September 26 to open conference play.
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