Baylor's Palmer Williams is an athlete who just happens to punt

Palmer Williams will never look at a Razor RipStik the same way.

The summer before he was set to start playing football as a seventh grader in North Carolina, he was riding the flexible skateboard-like gadget down a hill when he fell and broke his arm and had to get a cast that went past his elbow.

“When I came out for football, the only thing I could do was kick,” Williams said.

The rest, as they say, is history.

Williams was one of the top punters in the country coming out of high school and immediately established himself as Baylor’s starting punter last season when he averaged more than 43 yards per kick last year.

He had his best game in a Baylor uniform last week in Salt Lake City, turning in the best punting performance in school history.

Williams boomed six total punts, all of which went more than 50 yards with two downed inside the 20-yard line.

He set a career-best four separate times, punting for distances of 57, 60, 76, and finally 79 yards. It was the first time a Baylor punter had bombed a punt more than 70 yards since Drew Galitz in 2017.

His average of 62.7 yards per punt was the best in a single game in Baylor history.

Williams said he’s been building to a performance like that since March, and he was extra fired up after his first punt of the season against Tarleton State netted 37 yards.

“It was one of those days where I was kind of just in the zone,” Williams said. “I’ve had a good couple of weeks. I think it was just a matter of time before I had a day like that. I think it was more important that I was turning the balls over.”

Through two games, his 57.9-yards per punt average is the best in the nation by more than seven yards per kick.

Baylor head coach Dave Aranda is not surprised.

He said Williams is consistent with his long kicks in practice, and for him to step up in a pressure moment like he faced in the Utah game is something the rest of the team should take heed of.

“For me, we always stand behind him whenever he punts, and I have to run the full distance because he flips the field every time,” Aranda said. “Everyone expects that, and he expects that of himself most importantly.”

Building a boomer

It takes a very specific mindset to be a college football specialist.

“If you’re just a kicker, you’re not gonna be very good, you (have to be) a football player that kicks,” Williams said. “I think you have to be an athlete. I like to say I’m an athlete that kicks, that’s super important.”

When he walked into Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City on Saturday, he couldn’t help but notice the fans. It’s not just road games, when he sees McLane Stadium before a game, the emotion of college football nearly brings him to tears.

But when he’s the one holding the ball and an entire defense is rushing at him, everything goes silent.

“It’s just me and the football,” Williams said.

Williams grew up with two older brothers, a pair of ACC shot putters, who would routinely bring their little brother along when they went to work out.

That helped Williams establish a routine at Baylor that consists of a light workout on Monday that builds throughout the week until the heaviest day on Thursday, which consists of lots of punting and a heavy leg day in the weight room.

If Williams is a finely-tuned sports car, Dan Orner is the mechanic.

Orner, a former kicker at North Carolina, has been coaching kickers and punters for nearly 20 years. He currently works with 65 active players at the college level and 10 specialists in the NFL.

Williams has been working with Orner since he was in eighth grade and still spends plenty of time with him during the offseason and bye weeks with the Bears.

“Palmer told me whenever an NFL guy is coming home to punt, he wants to be with them (because) he wants to know what they know and how they handle themselves and what makes them great,” Orner said. “He started to become a student of the game.”

Williams has since trained alongside Atlanta Falcons punter Bradley Pinion and former Chicago Bears and Denver Broncos punter Trenton Gill in any weather condition as he continues to get ready for the next level.

Orner said Williams can already hang with the NFL guys with his distance, the next step is working on increasing the hang time and getting that ratio right.

The fifth round of the NFL Draft is the ceiling for punters eyeing the next level, and Williams has all the making of meeting that benchmark.

“He is every bit of an NFL punter,” Orner said. “I want him to be around guys like that. The other benefit is seeing how they handle themselves on a good kick and a bad kick. You can’t be a pro with an amateur mindset, and that’s something he’s worked on.”

Daniel Sepulveda played for Baylor from 2003-06 and is currently the all-time leader in career punts (277), yards in a season (3,750), career yards (12,531), career yards per punt (45.24), career 50-plus-yard punts (94) among many others.

Williams has a few more years with the Bears until he fully turns his attention to the NFL, and said he wants to take down a few more school records in that span.

Perhaps no position on a football team gets less glory less often than the punter.

It’s a role Williams is more than happy to fill.

“The quarterback gets a lot of the credit, but everybody plays a role,” Williams said. “I’m not one of those guys running around telling everybody to look at me and how great I am. I think doing my job and helping the team out is all I need.”