EAST LANSING - Super blue chip running back recruit
Edwin "Rock" Baker of Oak Park High School had a good time attending Michigan State camps on back-to-back days, last Friday and Saturday.

"Rock probably had too good of a time," said Oak Park head coach Tim Hopkins. "For a minute there, Rock actually thought that he was already a Spartan for '08, and he would forego his senior year with us to go to Michigan State early.


"I need to talk with Coach Enos and Coach Dantonio," Hopkins laughed, "and make sure there is a letter of agreement that he is not to be touched until '09. We need him."

No letter of agreement will be necessary. But Baker, ranked the No. 7 running back in the nation by Rivals.com, still allowed himself to dream forward toward his college career while at MSU's camps.

"It was a fun experience," Baker said. "I got a good taste of what college will be like when I get here. I was excited. The coaches said I did real well and they can't wait until I get here."

On Friday, Baker participated in Michigan State's one-day elite camp. On Saturday, he and his Oak Park teammates played four games in the MSU seven-on-seven camp. At the seven-on-seven camp, Baker spent most of the day on the sidelines.

"At this time of year, we just use him as a decoy because we are trying to work on some of our younger kids and also get some formations together in preparation to play Brother Rice (in the opener on Aug. 30)," Hopkins said.

Baker tweaked his hamstring in the spring during track season. He has recently regained 100 percent health, but Hopkins and Baker don't want to put unnecessary stress on his wheels at this time of year.

"He had a little tweak in the spring, his hamstring kind of pulled so I shut him down," said Hopkins, whose background includes time as Wayne State's strength and conditioning coach. "Rock has been getting aquatic therapy, a lot more swimming, a lot more squat work. Not so much football work. He doesn't need that right now. That's second nature to him. We just want him to be 100 percent and healthy for the season.

"The aquatic work strengthens your quads and glutes and the hamstring. We can do a lot of explosion speed work in there, and also get the blood circulating in the hamstring area. He is back to 100 percent in terms of cutting and movement and whatnot. I just want to gradually turn him loose. He's on schedule.

"But the main thing I want him to do is have a good summer and stay healthy and get his feet under him and then be ready to go in August; nothing special this summer."

Baker was at full-go during Friday's elite camp. He was the first man in line for running back drills, administered by running backs coach Dan Enos. The other running backs were going as hard as they could, trying to impress Enos and MSU coaches, possibly for future scholarship offers. With the other running backs doing well, including junior standout Nick Hill of Chelsea, Baker often took it up a notch, putting his high percentile talent on display.

"He kind of worked out pretty heavy on Friday, and whenever he has a heavy day, like he did yesterday because he was excited, today (Saturday) was an opportunity to scale it back for him and allow the rest of the team to work on timing and things like that," Hopkins said. "Plus we were sharing the field with Brother Rice for one of our games, so we didn't want to show much and work on some basics."

On that occasion, Oak Park played against Orchard St. Mary's on one half of the field, dropping a 14-9 decision with scoring based on pass completions of specific yardage. On the other half of the Daugherty Practice Field, Brother Rice played DeWitt.

Brother Rice head coach Al Fracassa watched most of his team's game from the 50-yard line, which also gave him a chance to take more than a glance at his Aug. 30 opponent on the other half of the field.

"Yeah, I noticed he was watching," Hopkins said with a laugh. "I watched them too."

One day earlier, Dantonio got a satisfying eyeful of Baker.

"Dantonio said to just keep doing what I'm doing, and stay healthy and some day I'm going to be a real good prospect when I get here," Baker said.