deion sanders

Somehow Michigan just won a big recruiting battle over Ohio State before we even knew it was happening. Were you watching the delayed SWAC season this spring? Remember the big receiver on Deion Sanders’ team who was taking the top off of SWAC defenses? That guy. Baldwin entered the portal at the beginning of the month and started going on workouts. Ohio State offered last week. Michigan offered last Friday. Penn State was rummaging around in the drawer where they’re certain they keep the offers($), and the former Farmington, Waterford Mott, and Morgan State product decided to come home. He’s a grad transfer with two years to play. And it looks like he can play.

SIZE & RECRUITING RANKINGS

24/7 gave him a transfer rating of 88, which has Baldwin the current #5 wide receiver in the portal, two spots behind the Ohio State transfer to Bama, and one spot above the Ohio State transfer to Mizzou. Before that 24/7 had a page and a reference to a good day at the rising stars camp in 2016, but Baldwin was an unranked 6-3 cornerback when they left it in 2017, which was the same year Donovan Peoples-Jones committed.

As for size, his Jackson State roster page says he was up to 6-3/210 this spring. This video claims he’s 6-4/210:

“It’s 220 on the dash I just left the helicopter” ~ @ceobig30 pic.twitter.com/mYAk3sR4g9

— Deuce2️⃣ (@DaylenBaldwin10) May 11, 2021

Sam Webb has “in-state sources” who put it at 6-2/213.

We’ll have to use the awards instead. He was 1st team all-SWAC, the conference’s Newcomer of the Year, and a finalist for the Conerly Trophy for the best player in the state of Mississippi, spring edition. His previous transfer in 2019 didn’t register in the rankings.

SCOUTING

We’re all kind of making it up as we see it. Here’s Dan Hope, the recruiting kid for Eleven Warriors:

Baldwin was the Southwestern Athletic Conference's leading receiver this spring with 540 yards and seven touchdowns on 27 catches in just six games. At 6-foot-3 and 210 pounds, the Southfield, Michigan native demonstrated plenty of speed and downfield playmaking ability in his lone playing season at Jackson State after transferring from Morgan State.

24/7 national analyst Clint Brewster described an FCS version of THROW IT TO Nico Collins:

He's a strong receiver with outside vertical speed that can catch passes through contact. He consistently wins over the top and produced at a high-level last season. He's got excellent condensed area skills in the red zone with the ability to run the entire route tree. Baldwin plays with great toughness and desire to catch the ball over the middle and provide solid yards after the catch. He should immediately upgrade the wide receiver room at Michigan.

…with Chris Hummer adding “He’s the kind of presence who can change a game in an instant.”

Chris Fahr was Baldwin’s coach at Waterford Mott in 2016 and recalled a guy with the right attitude for Michigan football to Rivals’ Chris Balas:

“I don’t know if you’d say he’s a late bloomer, but he’s one of the hardest working kids I’ve ever been around,” Fahr reported. “Even when things didn’t go his way, whatever happened — good, bad or in between — he always kept working.  …

"That goes back to his whole story. Even if things might not go his way in the beginning, he’ll stay on track and keep going. He very rarely had bad days. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen him wake up on the wrong side of the bed … great smile, always happy to be coming to football, to be doing football stuff.”

Fahr added Baldwin has “very good hands” and is a “willing blocker.”

Baldwin’s own explanation for why he’s popping so late in his career is his body took longer than most athletes’:

"I was just a late bloomer," Baldwin said. "Just late, it took me a little bit longer to develop. That's what I think it was. I did alright when I was at camps, I was just undeveloped at that time so I feel like nobody was willing to take that chance on me."

He also told Sam he’s got two years of eligibility “but I could play one if I really want to.”

[Hit THE JUMP for offers, video, a greaseburger opinion and a mini-UFR.]

The crux. Adam Rittenberg has a extensive article on the Big Ten's decision to play after all. This is the heart of the matter:

"You're catching somebody with a positive before they're even contagious," said Dr. Jeff Mjaanes, Northwestern's head team physician and a member of the Big Ten's medical subcommittee. "That's a huge breakthrough in this. If we can do that on a daily basis, which is what's in our proposal, then we can identify people before they're even infectious, and we can remove them and really maintain the sanctity and the health of the team.

"With daily antigen testing, if you're able to identify somebody before they're actually contagious, and we can remove them, it almost completely eliminates the need for contact tracing."

The other key component was getting everyone access to the equipment OSU doctors used to find myocarditis in asymptomatic athletes:

Mjaanes said the Big Ten also was able to "secure some workarounds" so that every school could have access to cardiac MRIs. Penn State, for example, formed a partnership with Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center so that any athletes who test positive will drive the 90 minutes to Hershey, Pennsylvania, for their cardiac tests. Heading into the Aug. 11 vote, a few Big Ten schools couldn't easily process cardiac MRIs, which are key in detecting myocarditis and other heart issues.

Thus a delayed but extant football season.

[After THE JUMP: print out these hockey draft rankings and use them to build a horse]