Two Biggest Decisions Joe Klanderman Made in Baylor Bears' Victory over Iowa State
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Coach Joe Klanderman is now 2-0 since taking over after Dave Aranda was fired. The Bears are now bowl-eligible and are guaranteed to finish no worse than .500 on the season, having picked up their sixth win of the regular season. The ceiling for Baylor still has the Big 12 Championship within reach (though some help may be needed), and even an outside chance of a CFP berth.
The win against Iowa State wasn't exactly the prettiest, as their RB Aiden Flora was fantastic. The Bears' defense gave up more rushing yards to a single back (182) than they have all season, but were able to hold firm when it came to crunch time. DJ Lagway had another showcase performance for the Bears offense where he would account for 3 touchdowns (2 pass, 1 rush) and 0 turnovers, throwing for 229 yards and rushing for 119. But those were just byproducts of Coach Klanderman's best decisions in this game.
Willingness to Punt and Play Field Position
The best punter in college football 💪@palmerw87 has been named to the @RayGuyAward Midseason Watch List. pic.twitter.com/jeNwwv3SXJ
— Baylor Football (@BUFootball) November 6, 2026
If I've said it once, I've said it nearly every chance that I could; Palmer Williams is the best punter in college sports today. He's on the mid-season watchlist for the Ray Guy Award for a reason; when Williams punts the ball, field position gets flipped on its head. With his power control and seemingly pinpoint accuracy, Williams punted 6 times against ISU for an average of 43.7 yards each and only surrendered 21 yards on 3 returns.
Coach Klanderman isn't afraid to punt the ball away, even if the metrics say to "go for it." Against ISU, Baylor accomplished a feat that they hadn't since Nov. 25, 2022 in a loss against the Texas Longhorns. 46 straight games with at least one attempted 4th down conversion with Dave Aranda at the helm. Whether this is an outlier or a sign of things to come, it is a drastic change from how things were for so very long.
Increased Pre-Snap Discipline
Let's face it, the Bears have given up entirely too many penalty yards this season. 68 penalties through their first 8 games is an average of 8 a game for an average of 75 yards forfeited. However, when you realize that if you remove the much more disciplined performance from the Bears in their game against ISU (Total: 1 penalty for 15 yards) and examine the other 7 games of the season, the Bears averaged more than 9 penalties a game.
No false start penalties committed by the Bears' offensive line in this game is another big deal. After the first few months of the season, I had become accustomed to hearing the ref's whistle blowing the play dead before it ever gets to actually begin at least once a drive. It had been another long drought since an offensive lineman hadn't been called for a false start penalty, dating back to Nov. 18, 2023 in a losing effort to TCU.
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Brad is a writer and contributes to the Baylor Bears on SI, with aspirations to share his own unique thoughts and perspectives with fans. Whether through the facts and figures of the past or the untold potential and triumphs of the future, sports have always been a large influence on Brad's storytelling and life overall. His inspiration to write began while watching sports when he first noticed the highs and lows of each game, each quarter, each play; there's a story in each of them worth telling, and he wanted to tell them.
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