College Update: Glendale Community College’s Baker makes splash among locals heading into bowl season
The following are updates on local athletes at the collegiate level.
Bobby Baker (Glendale Community College, 2012) Georgia State University football junior: It’s been an odyssey of sorts for the one-time Vaquero, who has been part of four college football programs in four years.
Baker and the Panthers will help open up the bowl season Saturday at 4 p.m. PST in the Cure Bowl at the Orlando Citrus Bowl versus San Jose State (5-7). The game will be televised on the CBS Sports Network.
This past season, Georgia State finished 6-6 overall and 5-3 in the Sun Belt Conference, which translated into a fourth place finish in a conference won by Arkansas State.
As for Baker, his debut game and debut season were one to remember.
Baker started in all 12 games for the Panthers and finished third on the squad with 66 tackles and was second with three interceptions, while he totaled eight passes defended, five breakups, one forced fumble and three fumbles recovered.
For his efforts, Baker was selected to the Sun Belt Conference All-Newcomer team in a season of highlights, including when he tallied nine tackles against PAC-12 powerhouse Oregon in a 61-28 loss Sept. 19.
Baker, though, had a game for the ages in the Panthers’ 23-20 season-opening loss to Charlotte in Atlanta on Sept. 4.
In that contest, Baker recorded a team-record five takeaways with two interceptions and three fumble recoveries that netted him Sun Belt Conference Defensive Student-Athlete of the Week honors.
“I was just trying to make a play and that was one of those games where everything happened for me,” Baker said via phone interview Friday afternoon after practice. “You never really expect to have a game like that.”
Baker’s arrival at Georgia State was unexpected considering that after a freshman season at GCC and a sophomore campaign at L.A. Pierce, Baker transferred to the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
After playing in three games for UAB in 2014, Baker suffered a season-ending injury that resulted in the defensive back using a redshirt year.
The action was his last at UAB, as the school ended its football program, leading Baker to join up with former Pierce quarterback Nick Arbuckle at Georgia State.
“If you would have told me this is where I’d end up after my first year in Glendale, I would have never believed it,” Baker said. “It’s been a great experience and all that’s left is Saturday. If there’s one thing I’m trying to do Saturday is score, that’s all I’m missing.”
Michael Davis (Glendale High, 2013) Brigham Young University football junior: Another year, another bowl game for Davis and the Cougars.
This year, however, the Glendale High alumnus and his teammates aren’t just in any game, but in a very special postseason edition of the “Holy War,” the state rivalry contest between BYU and Utah (9-3).
The teams will be meeting for the first time since 2013 on Saturday in the Royal Purple Las Vegas Bowl at Sam Boyd Stadium at 12:30 PST. The contest will be broadcast live on ABC.
Davis has had an up and down season as the junior defensive back has totaled 25 tackles with a team-leading 10 pass breakups with one forced fumble in 12 starts this season.
Off the field, the defensive back was charged with one count of Class A misdemeanor assault and one count Class B misdemeanor riot charge during a summer altercation in a Provo apartment.
According to the Salt Lake Tribune, the assault charge was downgraded to Class B, while the riot charge was dropped.
With that incident behind him, Davis is looking for his first bowl victory in a BYU uniform as the Cougars dropped the 2013 Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl (31-16 to Washington) and last year’s Miami Beach Bowl (55-48 in overtime against Memphis) in a game marred by a brawl.
BYU, an independent program, owns a 9-3 record.
Christopher Longo (St. Francis High, 2011) UCLA football senior: It’s the end of a successful career for the St. Francis product.
The long snapper and his Bruins will head north to take on Nebraska (5-7) on Dec. 26 in the Foster Farms Bowl in Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara. The game will air live on ESPN at 6:15 p.m. PST.
UCLA finished 8-4 overall and 5-4 in conference play for third place in the PAC-12 South Conference.
“For me as a fifth-year senior and for a lot of the other seniors who are leaving, we have a chance to win nine games for the first time in UCLA history for four years that we’ve been here,” Longo said. “It’s a good opportunity for us to leave our mark on the program.”
Longo participated in all 12 of the Bruins’ games and handled punts, extra points and field goals for UCLA. Overall, the Bruins converted 20 of 23 field goal attempts, all by kicker Ka’imi Fairbairn, and 44 of 44 extra-point tries, while UCLA punters averaged 38.5 yards per attempt.
Longo has participated in 38 straight games for the Bruins since 2013.
UCLA has won two straight bowl games, including last year’s Alamo Bowl, 40-35, over Kansas State.
“When [UCLA] Coach [Jim] Mora came in, he really turned things around,” Longo said. “You really felt a change in culture and everyone buying into the ‘Bruin Revolution’ as he likes to call it.”
Longo has also been named to the athletic director’s academic honor Roll six times, including most recently in the spring of 2015.
Craig Settles (Hoover High, 2012) Kansas State football redshirt junior: Settles and his teammates have one of the later bowl games of the season.
Kansas State will take on Arkansas (7-5) on Jan. 2 in the AutoZone Liberty Bowl in Memphis, Tenn. The game will start at 12:20 p.m. PST on ESPN.
The Wildcats finished the regular season 6-6 and took eighth place in the Big 12 Conference with a 3-6 mark.
Settles registered a sack and his lone tackle of the season in his only game Nov. 28 at archrival Kansas in a 45-14 victory for Kansas State.
