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June 20, 2008

Jeff's Baker will play for Indiana

Red Devil quarterback offers verbal commitment to Hoosiers

By MIKE HUTSELL

Edward Baker just couldn’t shake the feeling.

No matter how many offers poured in for the Jeffersonville High School senior quarterback, one school continued to stand out for the Red Devil standout.

“I just gave a verbal commitment to Indiana,” said Baker. “That’s where I’ve been thinking I was going to go — it was just time to make it official.”

Baker told Hoosier Head Coach Bill Lynch and the rest of the IU staff of his decision on Friday after making a visit to Bloomington with Jeffersonville coach Steve Cooley.

“I’ve been pretty close to making the announcement for about a week now,” said Baker. “They were one of the first schools to offer and I’ve enjoyed getting to know the program. I had dinner with my family and coach Cooley and told them this is what I was probably going to do and they were all very happy for me.”

Baker finished the 2007 season by completing 121-of-225 passes (53.8 percent) for 1,582 yards and 21 touchdown. He also eclipsed the 1,000-yard mark on the ground, gaining 1,197 yards on 182 carries and 19 TD’s while helping Jeff win the Class 5A Sectional title for the first time this decade.

His name began to grow throughout recruiting circles this offseason, as he garnered scholarship offers from Indiana, Kentucky, Louisville, Michigan State and most recently Purdue — a school that he visited on Thursday.

Baker has been clocked running a 40-yard dash of 4.5 seconds and many of the big-name program that had made offers viewed him as a blue-chip athlete.

Several programs though felt he would likely have to shift to defense to play at the Division I level. Indiana told him he would be given a chance to compete for a spot at quarterback.

“They were the first school who would give me that shot at quarterback,” Baker said. “There were a few others that made that offer after they did, but IU was the first one who said I’d have that chance to play there.”

Cooley said he helped put together a sales pitch to find a school willing to look at Baker as a signal caller.

“We went through and looked for schools who we knew ran the same type of spread option offense that we run,” Cooley said. “It’s a system that has grown at a lot of colleges run now and we put together tapes of Edward for them and I called most of them to try to get him a look.

“Once we found schools that were interested in Edward and schools that Edward was interested in, we started lining up visits. I know he liked IU very early on and they like him — I’m very excited for him.”

Baker will be the third Red Devil on the Hoosier roster when he enrolls next fall. Running back Trea Burgess is entering his sophomore season and linebacker Brandon McGhee will be a freshman this season after redshirting last fall.

He is the first player for 2009 to committ to Indiana. By rule, coaches are not allowed to comment on recruits until they have signed a national letter of intent. Signing day for college football is in February, 2009.

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