The mild-mannered 5-foot-10 rusher from metro Detroit will arrive at MSU this summer as the jewel of an impressive 2009 recruiting class. He and fellow four-star running back Larry Caper, a senior at Battle Creek Central High, will be the most hyped tailbacks to sign with MSU since Kalamazoo native T.J. Duckett 10 years ago.

Baker, known to friends and teammates as “Rock,” burst onto the high school football scene last season by averaging more than 200 yards per game in six games before suffering an injury.

“My game is pretty simple,” Baker said. “I’m fast, explosive, quick, have agility — everything a running back needs to have to play this game.”

The compact running back with feet lighter than a feather soon garnered national attention from a who’s who of schools, including Southern California, Georgia, Florida, Texas and Tennessee, Baker’s favorite team growing up.

Yet, Baker needed only one campus visit before deciding which school to attend.

“Michigan State, when I first went down there, I felt home,” Baker said. “Coach (Mark) Dantonio is a man that doesn’t push you to go to his school. He comes at you like you’re already a player and he just makes you feel right at home. I felt a family of love from all the coaches and players around me, so that was where my heart was at to go.”

Looking ahead

Even as a high school senior, Baker’s visions for his MSU career have already started.

He sees himself taking a handoff and bouncing it outside, tiptoeing along the sidelines, blazing past defenders in pursuit, listening to the 75,000-fan crowd roaring. He’s running toward the end zone, a Big Ten championship, a national championship and MSU’s first Heisman Trophy.

If his high school coaches are right, Baker’s premonitions could come to fruition.

“Some people say I’m crazy when I say he’s a Bo Jackson type of runner,” said Howard Kent, an assistant coach at Oak Park who has tutored Baker the past three years. “Once he hits the edge, he’s gone. You’re not going to get him.”

While his physical gifts are abound, Baker’s dedication to football leads those around him to believe the hype.

When Baker’s father, Edwin McDonald, told his 4-year-old son he couldn’t drink soda if he wanted to be an athlete, the young boy swore it off.

No Coca-Cola, no Pepsi, no Sprite. Not even one can since then.

When other elementary schoolers were scampering aimlessly around the football field, Baker was a teacher wise beyond his years, instructing kids on how to take a proper handoff.

To this day, Baker makes a point to run one mile each off day to keep up his stamina. He also adheres to a strict diet, which makes grocery shopping even more of a chore for his mother, Dashia Baker.

“He’s a hard worker that’s always displayed the commitment and dedication it takes to be a complete player,” said Oak Park head coach Timothy Hopkins, who coached MSU junior defensive end Trevor Anderson and Michigan defensive end Brandon Graham in high school.

“There was a lot of hype surrounding him and he deserves it.”

Staying grounded

While MSU is the future for Baker, there was still the matter of his senior season at Oak Park. He would need to prove his six-game streak in 2007 wasn’t a short spurt.

After one win and loss to start the season, there was a mid-September tilt against the Lake Orion High Dragons, an Oakland Activities Association stalwart. Beneath skies as gray as an elephant, it would be up to Baker to carry his team, a ragtag battalion of about 30 players, through a battle against the Dragons’ army of more than 50 athletes dressed in bright white.

Wearing an imposing, form-fitting red-and-black jersey, Baker took his usual spot in the Knights’ backfield. In a few snaps, though, it would become clear that unless Rock could fly, he wouldn’t break the Dragons’ defensive line.

Try as he might with swift cuts, elusive moves and cold shoulders to the chest of defenders, Baker couldn’t break loose for the heroic runs that had defined his rise from unknown to untouchable.

Lake Orion head coach Chris Bell’s game plan to stop Baker was working — hit him hard, early and with a lot of defenders.

After 91 yards, a lone touchdown in the fourth quarter and a 34-14 shellacking in the face of intermittent showers, Baker left the field with his head parallel to the ground and a dejected look on his face.

If there’s one truth about the running game, it’s that the greatest tailback — even a 5-foot-10, 205-pound all-state recruit — gets nowhere without beef up front.

“They’re struggling up front and teams are stacking the line of scrimmage to stop the run,” said Bell, who added he would hand the ball off to Baker at least 40 times per game if Baker were a Dragon.

If only for one Friday night, Rock looked weathered by a smothering defense.

The senior season

Baker’s final year of high school has been an up-and-down excursion as uneven as the football field at Oak Park. Against Lake Orion, he was stuffed for less than 100 yards. Two weeks later, he went to Royal Oak High and exploded for 462 yards.

After the record-setting performance, Baker didn’t play the rest of the season, missing four games with a knee injury.

His team lost all four games by a combined score of 133-8.

Through Oak Park’s 2-7 record and his 225 yards per game average in five outings, Baker has kept his sights set on trading in black and red for green and white in 2009.

He figures to compete against Caper and four current Spartan backups to replace graduating tailback Javon Ringer for the starting spot next season.

As a freshman, Baker wants to continue MSU’s success in 2008 by shredding opposing defenses the way he has in the past two seasons.

“It’s a great feeling knowing that I’m going to be a part of something that’s going to be great and carrying on more traditions with more championships,” Baker said. “That’s what I’m about.”