SOUTH BEND — A bottle of water never mattered so much to Notre Dame football fifth-year offensive lineman Tosh Baker as it did the morning of the last day of winter.
On the practice field for barely 90 minutes in the second spring workout, the mammoth 6-foot-8, 321-pound Baker afterward was a perception of perspiration. Beads of sweat gathered and danced across and down his forehead. His blue T-shirt was soaked. His padded hands were saturated. All after another session of doing what he absolutely loves to do, even after all these years of waiting to do it on an extended basis for Notre Dame.
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Early wakeup to get to the Gug for position meetings? A couple practice periods out in the cold March morning of Michiana? More posts-practice work outdoors on technique and critique? All worth it for Baker.
“I love putting on the helmet,” he said. “There’s nothing better than that. We all joke around, not really a joke, but, best job we’ve ever had. You get to put on a helmet and hit people.
“Like, how fun is that?”
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It’s a ton of fun for Baker, more than the previous four seasons, but we’ll get to that. First, the water bottle.
It’s standard operating procedure for players picked to do post-practice media to have a bottle of water waiting for them at their designated interview area on the upper floor of the Irish Athletic Center. Most ignore it, choosing instead to plow through their questions and answers and quickly as possible.
Baker lumbered up the stairs, eyed his name on a placard, spotted the bottle and smiled a big smile. To him, it was a treat.
“We get water, too?” he said. “Awesome.”
Baker then sat for 14 minutes and opened up about his game, about his path to playing, about his time at Notre Dame. Prior to that day, he was a blank slate. He had never done a group interview. Spend 10 seconds with him and you feel like you’ve known Baker for years, like you could talk with him about anything.
On this day, Baker talked about everything from offensive line minutiae (yawn) to concussions to … Guitar Hero (yo!). As offensive linemen go, he’s as easy-going as anyone. Chill, even for someone that size.
Baker’s journey as a college offensive lineman didn’t follow a linear path to playing time. Few do. There were twists and turns and ups and downs and good days and bad days and moments when Baker wondered if it all was worth it.
There rarely was a day when Baker pondered packing up and heading home to Scottsdale, Arizona. Something head coach Marcus Freeman said to the team one day, what he still says to the team these days, resonated with Baker far more than chasing snap counts and starts.
“The future’s uncertain,” Baker said. “You have to love the journey. I think that’s the best part. It’s a day-in and day-out (deal). You can’t take it for granted.”
But …
“I,” Baker said, “didn’t always love the journey.”
This has always been home
Baker didn’t love the journey because he didn’t understand the journey. Or embrace it. In 2021, he was a redshirt freshman trying to figure out what an offensive lineman must figure out when he was thrown into a role that he probably wasn’t ready to play.
Freshman Blake Fisher started the season opener at left tackle at Florida State but was shelved by a knee injury. Michael Carmody started the next week at left tackle against Toledo but sprained an ankle. Third and fourth weeks of the season, Baker made the only two starts of his career at left tackle.
Baker didn’t know what he didn’t know. It was a wing and a prayer and a pass block and hope for the best. He started those two games before a concussion knocked him from the lineup heading into the home game against Cincinnati. It was the first — and only — concussion for Baker.
“It’s part of the game,” he said. “It sucks that that’s when it happened, but I was able to grow so much from the experience and over these past couple years. That’s what’s really benefitted me.”
Carmody returned to start that Cincinnati game before the ankle sent him back out. That’s when the Irish turned to their fourth left tackle in six weeks the following week. That’s when Joe Alt stepped into the starting lineup and never left.
Alt became a likely Top 10 NFL draft pick while Baker worked as a backup. At tackle. At guard. He saw time on special teams, but that was about it.
For Baker, that was OK.
“I don’t want to say (I) took it for granted,” Baker said of starting. “I just think that I was young. I was a young guy. Now that I’ve grown up and gained that maturity and understand football way better and understand my body way better and my technique has improved, I think it’s way better an advantage for me.”
Baker is working in spring as the starting right tackle, again because of Fisher. Baker started at left tackle, in part, because Fisher suffered that knee injury. When Fisher opted out of the 2023 Sun Bowl against Oregon State, it opened the door for Baker to compete with Aamil Wagner for that spot.
Baker started the Sun Bowl and was part of a revamped offensive line that helped the Irish to 24 first downs, 236 rushing yards and 468 total yards in the 40-8 victory. It was a fun day for the Irish. It was a fun day for Baker, whose confidence that he could compete was buoyed by one play.
It was an inside zone read to the right. Baker fired out and blocked a guy; right guard Billy Schrauth fired out and blocked another guy. Jadarian Price took a handoff and raced 54 yards. The play didn’t go all the way, but it gave the Irish some breathing room after starting deep into their own territory.
“We were high fiving down the field,” Baker said. “That was just kind of that moment we’re like, ‘All right. We’re rolling. All good.’”
It’s all good these days with Baker, who has shared first team reps at right tackle with Wagner. With Alt and Fisher off to the NFL, the 21-year-old Baker has become the old head of the O-Line room. On this day, Alt and Fisher were back on campus for Pro Day. That allowed Baker to ask Alt about how to better see the game and to ask Fisher about how to get an even quicker release off the line.
Often, he’s the one tutoring the young guys.
“Tosh has been able to help me a lot,” Wagner said. “To have an opportunity to work closely with a guy who’s been here a long time, he has a wealth of knowledge. Being able to bounce ideas off him is big.”
Baker’s come a long way since those two starts in 2021, but he also is the first to admit that there’s a way to go. An offensive lineman’s job is never done. There’s always another rep to take, another aspect of your game to tweak, another area that needs to be addressed. Even for Baker, there’s always something to tune — body movement, mechanics, footwork, hand placement, eye placement, eye progression.
For someone who didn’t know what he didn’t know, Baker now knows. So much so that if he looks back at the player — and the person — he was in 2021, he wouldn’t recognize him. Like, who’s that … kid?
“I’m so much of a different person just mentally and physically that it would almost be like, I can’t,” he said. “I know a lot more ball than I did then. I feel more comfortable in my body, my pass set and my run blocking.
“Everything just feels better.”
It feels right, but in a lot of ways, it’s always felt like that for Baker. He could have left. He probably should have left. He stayed because of the bigger picture. Because of the journey.
“I’m so glad that I’m still here and still competing for Notre Dame,” he said. “This is the spot I want to be.”
Follow South Bend Tribune and NDInsider columnist Tom Noie on X (formerly Twitter): @tnoieNDI. Contact: (574) 235-6153.
2024-03-26 12:16:23
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