Player's Club: Baylor Embracing Urgency, Mental Preparation Ahead of Auburn Opener
It’s finally game week for the Bears, and there’s a noticeable buzz inside the practice facility ahead of Saturday’s nationally televised season opener against Auburn.
“You can definitely tell the sense of urgency has gone up,” senior punter Palmer Williams told the media on Tuesday in a press conference. “Coach Aranda talks about a ‘loose focusness,’ and I think everybody's got that. You can tell that it's game week, in a good way. Everybody's ready to play. It's been a lot of practice this offseason, but I think everybody's ready to go out and hit somebody that's not wearing the same jersey.”
Throughout Aranda’s tenure, particularly since the 2021 season, the Bears have struggled to start games fast. Baylor has often looked tentative and sluggish in the opening stages. Aranda, however, wants to buck that trend this fall and ensure his team is ready to go from the opening kickoff.
“Coach Aranda's put a lot of emphasis on our visualization and all that,” Williams said. “The team's done a good job of preparing mentally. I feel like this team is in a good spot. There's not a lot of anxiety. We're doing a lot of visualization. We even got videos of the locker room and the walk-in in Atlanta. Everybody's going through their process. I feel like when we get there on Saturday, this isn't gonna be the first time we played this game.”
Originally, Baylor’s matchup against Auburn was slated for Jordan-Hare Stadium, but the game has since been moved to Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta. Even with the change of venues, the Bears are still expecting to walk into a hostile environment.
“Playing at Auburn would be pretty crazy, but I think it's still going to be a lot of orange in the stands,” Williams said. “It's what we're expecting. We're all treating it like a true away game. That hasn't really changed our preparation or anything.”
As for the actual on-the-field play, junior linebacker Kyland Reed is looking to avenge Baylor’s home loss to the Tigers last season, 38-24, where the Bears allowed Auburn to rush for 307 yards.
“That's definitely something that's on my mind,” Reed said in response to last year’s matchup. “Just the way I played in that game, I'm looking forward to playing better, being a better person for my team.”
Auburn will look much different than it did a year ago. The Tigers hired first-year head coach Alex Golesh from USF, and senior quarterback Byrum Brown followed him to the Plains. Brown threw for more than 3,000 yards, rushed for more than 1,000 and accounted for 42 touchdowns last season.
Baylor’s defense is up for the challenge of containing Brown, with Reed saying, “We're definitely ready. They’ve got some good components and some good players. But at the end of the day, it's football. We’re prepared. I think our coach does a good job of getting us ready. We're gonna go out there and play hard.”
Even Baylor’s revamped defense under first-year coordinator Joe Klanderman faces a difficult challenge in containing Golesh’s up-tempo offense. On the other side of the ball, the Bears may have to score plenty of points to keep pace, but Williams wouldn’t mind staying on the sideline.
“I like winning as much as I like punting,” he said. “If we're scoring touchdowns and I'm out there just holding PATs, that's all right with me. I'm a team player. I want to win more than anything. So if we're getting the dub, I don't need to go out there and punt at all if I don't have to.”
Williams, Reed and the rest of the Bears will kick off the season against the Tigers at 2:30 p.m. CT at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta on Saturday, Sept. 5. The game will be nationally televised on ABC.
