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Home > Terence Moore > Archives > 2008 > September > 12
Friday, September 12, 2008
Falcons’ Baker has warning for UGA fans
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Flowery Branch — Take it from somebody who knows: Come next week, when Georgia’s No. 2-ranked football team plays at No. 15 Arizona State, the Bulldogs should prepare as if they’re traveling to LSU, Tennessee or some other SEC place where fans aren’t exactly shy.
Said Falcons rookie offensive tackle Sam Baker, an expert on Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe after visiting there as an opposing player, “It’s a tough place to play, because most of its fan base is students. A place like Notre Dame, it’s more of an alumni crowd, where they kind of sit back in their seats. At Arizona State, those students get very, very into the game.”
Like an SEC crowd. Before we continue, you have to excuse Baker for raising his eyebrows whenever somebody punts too deeply into the finer aspects of SEC football. He is new to the area, and he played for that other USC.
Ever hear of it?
We’re not talking about the USC in Columbia, S.C., where Georgia is Saturday. All 6-foot-5 and 312 pounds of Baker eased into a chuckle, before saying, “It doesn’t matter where I go. People say, ‘Oh, you’re big. Did you play college ball somewhere?’ And I’ll say, ‘Yeah, USC,’ and they’ll go, ‘Oh, South Carolina.’ It’s just tells you that around here, no matter what we do, it’s like they don’t hear anything about USC.”
Baker meant “USC,” as in Southern Cal, where he was a three-time All-America selection on the first team, started 49 of 52 games and played on powerhouses that lost just five times in his four years as a starter. After each of those seasons, they won the Pac-10 — Arizona State’s home conference — and they finished in the top-five. They also won a national championship Baker’s freshman season, and they nearly grabbed another before losing a Rose Bowl thriller.
Nobody cares about those things around here, especially since SEC teams have taken the BCS championship game three of the past five years, including the last two (LSU and Florida).
More specifically, Georgia folks are more into English bulldogs than white horses.
“Out here, I’m outnumbered, so I really can’t say anything,” said Baker laughing, while glancing around a locker room loaded with SEC partisans. Then he thought about tonight’s monster game at Southern Cal between the No. 1-ranked Trojans and No. 5-ranked Ohio State. “I’m still outnumbered, because of all the Ohio State guys here compared to USC (four to one). We’ve got (team) meetings Saturday night, so I’ll see only a little of the game.”
Those meetings will take place in Tampa, where Baker will attempt to continue his impressive start as an NFL left tackle on Sunday against the Buccaneers. Given his athleticism and accolades through the years, you’d think he was born and raised in SEC country instead of Orange County.
Then again, to hear Baker tell it, that other USC and your elite SEC teams are synonymous.
“They’re pretty similar, especially when it comes to speed, because they both recruit the same kind of athlete,” said Baker, who once saw as much up in person. He traveled with the USC big boys as a scout-team member in 2003 when they clobbered Auburn 23-0. He also knows about SEC football in another sense. Among those seeking his services after high school was Florida, Georgia’s Great Satan.
“Is it really?” Baker said.
He’s still learning.
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