WACO, Texas – Baylor football senior punter Palmer Williams has been named a Preseason All-American and four additional Bears have earned Preseason All-Big 12 praise, as announced by Phil Steele.
Williams was tabbed a third-team All-America selection and the first-team punter on the preseason All-Big 12 team, while sixth-year senior defensive tackle Hosea Wheeler, redshirt senior linebacker Travion Barnes and redshirt junior long snapper Dylan Schaub picked up third-team preseason All-Big 12 honors. Redshirt senior offensive tackle Kaden Sieracki rounds out the preseason all-conference selections as a fourth-team pick.
One of the nation’s top players at his position, Williams was an All-American and Ray Guy Award finalist in 2025 after helping the Bears lead the nation in net punting (45.0 yards). He was voted as the Big 12 Special Teams Player of the Year by the league’s head coaches after averaging a conference-best 46.92 yards per punt. His 27 kicks traveled a total of 1,267 yards, with just 12 of his punts being returned for just 32 yards. Eleven of Williams’ punts landed inside the 20 and seven were fair caught, while 11 traveled at least 50 yards, giving Williams 39 career 50+-yard boots, tied for the seventh-most in Baylor history.
In his three-year collegiate career, Williams has punted 107 times for 4,981 yards, averaging 46.55 yards per punt which tops BU’s program record book by over a yard. Williams needs just 10 punts of more than 50 yards to move into second place all-time in Baylor history, though he trails the all-time record holder and two-time Ray Guy Award winner Daniel Sepulveda’s 94 career such kicks.
Wheeler enters his first season with the Bears after playing in 46 career games with 30 starts and totaling 139 career tackles. The native of Sacramento, Calif., has four career sacks, two forced fumbles and an interception. In 2025, Wheeler helped Indiana to a national championship and perfect 15-0 season, having played in all 15 games with five starts. He made 31 tackles, four of which went for loss, and recovered two fumbles for the Hoosiers last season. Wheeler made previous stops at Western Kentucky (2022-24) and Sacramento City College (2021) before coming to Waco to finish his collegiate career.
A product of Almonte Springs, Fla., and former transfer from FIU, Barnes played in the first four games of the 2025 season for Baylor before suffering a season-ending injury vs. Arizona State. He made 11 tackles, including a sack, in his limited action, highlighted by a six-tackle performance in Week 3 against Samford. Barnes joined the Bears after starring as the C-USA Defensive Player of the Year in 2024 for the Panthers, where he ranked fifth nationally in total tackles (129) and third in tackles per game (11.7). He also racked up 10 TFLs, three sacks, two interceptions and recovered a fumble.
Baylor’s starting long snapper in 2025, Schaub completed all 86 of his total snaps on field goals and punts without any miscues. He made three tackles in punt coverage after snapping a total of 27 times, including stops at Oklahoma State, against Kansas State and versus Utah. Schaub also played in the 2024 season lid-lifter against Tarleton State as a reserve and took over the starting job for the final eight games of the 2023 campaign as a true freshman, where he made his first-career tackles versus West Virginia.
One of two Sieracki brothers on the BU offensive line, the elder Sieracki started all 12 games for the Bears in 2025 at right tackle, logging 948 snaps with 583 in pass-blocking situations. According to PFF, Sieracki graded out with a 63.0 offensive rating, posting a 56.8 pass-block and 65.5 run-block score. He did not allow a sack on the year and surrendered just two QB hits, helping pave the way for one of the nation’s most prolific passing offenses as the Bears checked in at No. 3 in passing offense (309.6 yards per game), No. 12 in first-down offense (297), No. 21 in total offense (451.1) and No. 41 in scoring offense (31.1). Sieracki has made 22 starts in his career and appeared in 37 games entering his fifth season in Waco.
Baylor opens its 2026 season in the Aflac Kickoff Game against Auburn at 2:30 p.m. CT on September 5 in Atlanta at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, with national coverage provided by ABC. BU returns to Waco on September 12 to start a three-game homestand at McLane Stadium against Prairie View A&M, then hosts Louisiana Tech a week later and Colorado on September 26 to begin conference action.
