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QB Matthew Baldwin (transfer to TCU)

More background info on Baldwin.

Another success for Lake Travis’ quarterback factory

The Lake Travis pregame spirit crew ran from one Alamodome end zone to the other with six flags, one for each state championship.

And if quarterback Matthew Baldwin has anything to say about it, the local seamstress might want to get started on No. 7.

On a day when Cavalier alum Baker Mayfield received college football’s highest individual honor, Lake Travis’ latest field general moved his talented team one step closer to another gold ball.

San Antonio O’Connor was game.

Lake Travis was Lake Travis.

The 38-17 win in Saturday’s Class 6A, Division I regional final sets up an epic showdown with Katy at San Antonio’s Alamo Stadium at 3 p.m. next Saturday.

Baldwin completed 24 of 30 passes for 220 yards and a pair of touchdowns and added another score on a rush. Through three playoff games, he has completed 59 of 77 for 709 yards, nine touchdowns and just one interception. He missed the playoff opener against San Antonio Madison with an injury.

Numbers aside, Baldwin didn’t do it alone. Lanky junior speedster Garrett Wilson hauled in two touchdown passes and ran for another while the defense, led by tackle Kade Langston and ball-hawk backs Nathan Parodi and Brayden Roeder, held up strong against an unpredictable opponent that faked two punts, went for it on fourth down deep in its own territory and attempted an onside kick with 10 minutes, 12 seconds to go.

“My offensive line was huge,” Baldwin said. “They gave me time to make some adjustments early. They had a couple of absolute studs on the back end. It was the best secondary we’ve faced since Steele.”

In the end, the 12-2 Cavaliers had all the answers because they had the two best players on the field in Baldwin and Wilson.

“That’s my boy on and off the field,” Wilson said. “We’re with each other. We’ve got that connection every single time. I trust in him, and he trusts in me. It translates to the field.”

Wilson will have his pick of Division I offers, but Baldwin, a senior, will be the one signing first. The 6-foot-2, 200-pounder had already committed to Colorado State and was being courted by Texas State and UT-San Antonio, but when Ohio State’s Urban Meyer came calling, he had to change his course.

“Matthew is a great player, and he’s still getting better,” Lake Travis coach Hank Carter said. “He has only 14 starts under his belt. The sky is the limit.”

He isn’t a burner like J.T. Barrett and Braxton Miller, though he does have some wheels when called upon to scramble, and he’s already an accomplished passer in the mode of Mayfield by comparison. Recruiting services classify him as a pro-style quarterback, and it’s easy to see why. He has an easy throwing motion, and the ball comes out cleanly and gets there in a hurry.

Lake Travis fans will get at least one more week to enjoy his work, then perhaps another great college career like the one Mayfield has enjoyed.

“Baker has great pride in Lake Travis,” Baldwin said. “He will wear an LT hat in interviews every now and then. He loves it here and comes back here and works out with us and hangs out. A lot of us guys are good friends with Baker.”

Westlake produced the best quarterback in Austin history in Drew Brees and later a good one in Nick Foles, but Lake Travis is the 512′s resident QB factory. Baldwin will be the seventh Cavaliers quarterback to play for a Power Five university over the past 12 years, a list that has Charlie Brewer (Baylor); Michael Brewer (Texas Tech); Dominic De Lira (Iowa State); Garrett Gilbert, a Carolina Panthers backup who won the first of the school’s state titles after splitting time at Texas and SMU; Mayfield; and Todd Reesing (Kansas).

Baldwin is just getting started.

And the Lake Travis QB factory rolls on.


https://www.statesman.com/sports/20171210/golden-another-success-for-lake-travis-quarterback-factory
 
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Tua couldn't beat out Hurts. Lawrence couldn't beat out Bryant. McSorely couldn't beat out Hackenburg. Haskins couldn't beat out JT when he was on one leg. So, what?
Well, it IS the off-season. So HOT TAKES are gonna be a factor around here.

Here’s hoping that Baldwin is lights out and we have 2 really solid options for the near future.
 
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What it comes down too ..with the transfer environment you cannot stockpile QB talent. It’s kind of like the NFL now you make a mistake on your first choice it will be harder to recover.
At best you probably now need to rotate every other year: elite QB, good QB, elite QB, good QB. You may still be able to do that (if you can, of course). But I don't see how you can possibly get 3/4 years having a great QB like OSU has. That's why I'm not too worried about 2019 QB. But it may mean that if we're looking at an elite 2021 guy, you may want to grab 2.
 
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Tua couldn't beat out Hurts. Lawrence couldn't beat out Bryant. McSorely couldn't beat out Hackenburg. Haskins couldn't beat out JT when he was on one leg. So, what?
This!

People who say "Fields couldn't beat out Fromm" are just not paying close enough attention. There are literally hundreds of situations just like that one. How long did it take for Fick to realize Braxton was a better option than Bauserman? Remember when Chance Mock beat out Vince Young?
 
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Ohio State: Importance of Matthew Baldwin only increasing for Buckeyes
d6f494f5ddb5386c83d739e96f4ab631



By

Austin Ward

Published on January 16, 2019

The race is already down to two, and one of those options is still waiting for the NCAA to approve his appeal for eligibility this season at Ohio State.

As of this exact moment, there is nobody more important at quarterback for the Buckeyes than Matthew Baldwin. And there’s absolutely a chance that he could wind up being the guy to take the torch from Dwayne Haskins and become the next leader of the Ohio State offense.

Of course, there was always that possibility to begin with for a handpicked recruit of Ryan Day with a big arm, knowledge of the playbook and now a healthy knee after spending last season recovering from surgery. Baldwin had the ability to beat out Tate Martell before the other returning backup bolted for Miami late on Tuesday night, and he’s not just going to roll over for Justin Fields, either.

“It’s going to take a lot to [win the job],” Baldwin said. “The work is cut out for me. Dwayne has set the standard so high. … But I’m very confident. Coach [Ryan] Day didn’t recruit me to sit down and watch other guys. That’s just my mindset.

Matthew-Baldwin-Ryan-Day-by-Birm_lauosi.jpg

Matthew Baldwin was targeted by Ryan Day as a recruit to potentially lead Ohio State at quarterback. (Birm/Lettermen Row)

“I mean, [sitting the first season] was always the thought right when I got here. I thought there wasn’t a great chance of me playing. You always want to play, but we knew that this coming year was when I could really try to make a mark.”

The urgency has obviously increased as the Buckeyes narrow down their options. But truthfully, the list of candidates was never all that likely to include Martell to begin with since his transfer has been a potential outcome almost since the moment he stepped foot on campus. Ohio State remains extremely confident that Fields will be given the green light to play this season, and while it would still like to have four scholarship passers on board, Day can feel relatively good about his two options on top of the depth chart despite the relative inexperience.

Fields is going to be the favorite to win the spot, make no mistake about that. He arrived at Ohio State as the most decorated recruit in the history of the program, and the transfer from Georgia has a set of tools that have long had coaches across the country drooling over his potential.

The Buckeyes also pursued him for a reason, and it wasn’t because they expected him to sit on the bench for a season. But Fields still needs assistance from the NCAA, he still needs to learn the playbook and he still needs to go out and compete in spring practice and training camp.

Matthew Baldwin is going to be right there alongside him. And he’s more important to the Buckeyes than ever.

https://lettermenrow.com/ohio-state...FPIxealwyHVgODVzZa9s2T3wHXheoGKpqU3qBSy5tnfd8
 
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Unfinished business: How Garrett Wilson and Matthew Baldwin found their way to Ohio State

IMG_1679-180c0oe-530x397.jpg


In his first season as the offensive coordinator at Ohio State, Ryan Day led the Buckeyes to the No. 1 scoring offense and the No. 1 total offense in the Big Ten. The majority of this success came from the ground game, which averaged 243.2 yards per game and 5.8 yards per carry.

Even with the success, running quarterback J.T. Barrett and the combination of J.K. Dobbins and Mike Weber, this was not the offense Day wanted to run. It was also not the offense he pitched to five-star wide receiver Garrett Wilson when he visited Austin, Texas.

Day told Wilson he envisioned an Ohio State offense that utilizes its passing game a lot more, one that would use a receiver like Wilson immediately upon arrival.

“Coach Day knew what I wanted in a school, and he pitched that to me,” Wilson said. “He wasn’t lying about it.”

With quarterback Dwayne Haskins at the helm, Ohio State held the No. 2 pass offense in the country, averaging 364.3 yards per game while throwing 51 touchdown passes, 23 more than any other team in the Big Ten.

“Seeing it actually happen, you know, that was even more important,” Wilson said. “I just wanted to see it happen, and once it did, I was excited to play in a couple of years.”

This kind of passing game was what Wilson was used to at Lake Travis High School. It is the passing game in which his quarterback, Matthew Baldwin, thrived.

The stories of Wilson and Baldwin could not be more different.

Lake Travis head coach Hank Carter remembers the first time he ever saw Wilson play. The wide receiver was in sixth grade in a seven-on-seven game.

“[Wilson] caught a touchdown pass and went up and dunked it over the goalpost on our practice field,” Carter said. “To say that I was surprised to see a sixth grader do that would be an understatement.”

To many, Wilson was the future college star, showcasing athleticism, either on the football field or the basketball court, and an ability that allowed him to choose where his future would take him.

Baldwin, on the other hand, had to wait his turn.

While Wilson started at wide receiver during his sophomore season with the Cavaliers, Baldwin sat behind Charlie Brewer, the future starting quarterback at Baylor, waiting until his senior season, his only season as a starting quarterback.

“No one really knew him,” Thomas Jones, community sports editor at the Austin American Statesman, said. “He wasn’t on anyone’s recruiting radar.”

Baldwin came into his senior season with one Division I offer: Colorado State, which he committed to on July 14, 2017.

But as he went through his senior season, completing 71.8 percent of his passes for 3,842 yards with 44 touchdowns and six interceptions, Baldwin showcased a pure passing ability that interested Day and Ohio State, as well as many other programs around the country, Carter said.

To the Lake Travis head coach, who had known and coached Baldwin since third grade, this was not something he was surprised by.

“Matthew can make every throw,” Carter said. “Matthew Baldwin has an NFL arm right now. There are guys in the NFL that don’t throw it any better than Matthew.”

Wilson said Baldwin was everything he wanted in a quarterback, with a “cannon” for an arm and a knowledge of the responsibilities for each member of the offense.

Baldwin also took advantage of Wilson’s athleticism. If he saw Wilson was in single coverage during his junior season, Baldwin would target Wilson every time, Jones said.

“I think that obviously Garrett loves the fact that Matthew will be able to put the ball wherever he wanted to and could stretch the field to him,” Carter said.

With Baldwin at quarterback during the 2017 season, Wilson recorded 96 catches for 1,764 yards, catching a career-high 26 of Baldwin’s 44 touchdown passes.

“He’s the most talented receiver I have ever seen,” Carter said. “I’ve never seen a high school player with the catch radius.”

Entire article: https://www.thelantern.com/2019/02/...atthew-baldwin-found-their-way-to-ohio-state/
 
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