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Baker enters final season with unfinished business
By Joe Scalzo
Ball State senior Sean Baker lives 51/2 hours away from Canfield High School and hasn’t played for those Cardinals in four years.
He doesn’t get home more than a few weeks a year and he’s got his hands full with his current Cardinals, not to mention finishing up his schoolwork so he can graduate in December.
But don’t think he doesn’t keep tabs on his former team.
“Oh, they’re 3-0,” he said. “They just beat Dover, my old roommate Dan Ifft’s team. His dad is the coach.”
Just goes to show you. You can take a football player out of the Valley, but you can’t take the Valley out of the football player.
“I had a lot of great coaches,” Baker said. “My high school coaches, my teachers, my mom and my dad all instilled that hard works beats talent every day.
“Really, that’s what made me the person and player that I am today.”
Baker, a second team All-Mid-American Conference safety last fall, has been a playmaker since his redshirt freshman season, earning conference freshman of the year honors in 2008 while being named to the Sporting News’ freshman All-America team.
He’s started 35 games over his career and holds the school record for career interceptions with 16, which he set last season against Buffalo. Yet when asked about it, he said, “I just do what they asked me to do. I’ve been surrounded by great players and great coaches my whole career.”
Baker broke his thumb in the middle of training camp this summer and has been wearing a cast that goes up to his elbow, but other than hampering his pass-catching abilities (“It’s already cost me one [interception] against Indiana”) he’s been the same, steady player, leading the team in tackles with 11 in last week’s loss to South Florida (11) and finishing third (eight) in an opening upset of the Hoosiers.
“That was just a perfect way to start our season,” Baker said of the win over Indiana. “We’ve been looking forward to that game since March or April and it’s a big in-state rival. Everyone on the team has a friend that goes to IU.”
After going 12-2, including 8-0 in the MAC, as a freshman, Ball State dipped to 2-10, 2-6 in 2009 and 4-8, 3-5 last fall. The Cardinals lost to Buffalo in the MAC championship game in 2008 and Baker said his only goal this season is to help the Cardinals get back to Detroit, and win.
“In the 2008, we beat Western Michigan at home in front of a sellout crowd to go 12-0,” said Baker, whose team begins MAC play on Saturday against Buffalo. “That was probably the highlight of my career.
“Hopefully this year ends in Detroit.”
After that? Well, the NFL is a possibility. (“If that opportunity presents itself, sure,” he said. “But I’ll look at that when it comes around.”) But Baker’s true calling is coaching.
“I just love college football,” he said. “The atmosphere, the traditions, the rivalries — stuff like that.
“I’ve been playing football for so long, I want to stay around the game. I love it.”