Baylor Football's Projected Award Winner Could Spell Disaster For Bears' Offense in 2026
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It's always nice seeing players from your favorite team win national awards, but sometimes, it spells bad things.
Following a 5-7 season, the Bears went out and landed former five-star quarterback DJ Lagway to lead Jake Spavital's offense in 2026, with Sawyer Robertson off to the NFL. However, Lagway had a very much up-and-down two-year career with the Gators, and while expectations are high in Waco — we don't truly know what to expect.
While we don't know how good the offense is going to be in 2026, we do know the Bears have one of the best punters in the nation and CBS Sports predicted Palmer Williams to win the Ray Guy Award.
"Williams was a finalist for the Ray Guy Award last year while posting a net average of 45.0 yards. If transfer quarterback D.J. Lagway doesn't take a step forward this year, Williams might get to show off his powerful leg more often," CBS Sports wrote.
More punting from Palmer Williams wouldn't be good for Baylor
Williams has been one of the top punters in the nation the past two seasons. He was an All-American last season, and in 2024, Williams led college football in punting. Putting together the best season in Baylor football history, averaging over 49 yards per punt, on 43 of them — he punted just 27 times last season.
While he can boot the ball, Williams would likely need to get back to nearly 40 punts for the season range to win the Ray Guy, which means Baylor's offense isn't sustaining drives.
Williams is an excellent weapon to have, you don't want to use him unless you have to. And the more drives the Bears can finish, the more points they will have on the board, and that's less Baylor's defense has to handle.
Similar offensive numbers from 2025 with better defense could spell wins
Baylor only won five games last season, but the Bears' offense did their job — for the most part. Turnovers became an increasing issue as the season went on, but Baylor did average over 31 points per game, which was the No. 33 scoring offense in the nation.
The defense struggled to stop the opposition, and between short fields from turnovers, and the inability to stop the run, Baylor allowed too many points. The Bears had the No. 122 scoring defense in the nation, giving up over 32 points per game.
But Baylor is looking to get back to winning at the line of scrimmage and making havoc plays under new defensive coordinator Joe Klanderman. Dave Aranda did some self-scouting in hopes of getting the Bears back to a winning season, and he opted to remove himself as being both the DC and head coach, and allowing someone else to run the defense.
Klanderman made changes this spring and if all goes to plan, Baylor should be better at the LOS in 2026. If DJ Lagway can resurrect his career in Waco, and Klanderman's defense improves, Williams won't need to punt often, and Baylor could find more wins on its record.
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Trent is the Publisher of Baylor Bears on SI and also serves as the Managing Editor for Michigan Wolverines on SI. His work has additionally been featured on Maryland on SI, Wisconsin on SI, and across the USA TODAY Sports network. Trent’s love of sports and being able to tell stories to fans is what made him get into writing.
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