NC State’s Baker-Williams had to quarantine for 2 weeks. He’s a man transformed since
Tyler Baker-Williams wasn’t hurt, but he couldn’t practice or play. He wasn’t sick, but he couldn’t be around his teammates.
This was the real-life nightmare the N.C. State junior defensive back was living through earlier this season. Dave Doeren said Baker-Williams was one of the most impressive players in fall camp, and Baker-Williams thought he had his best camp since he’s been on campus. A breakout season was on the horizon for the Southeast Raleigh graduate.
But if we’ve learned one thing about 2020 it’s that plans change in a hurry.
Baker-Williams (6-foot, 200 pounds) went from starting the first two games of his junior season to spending almost a month away from the team, isolated in a hotel, getting human interaction through face time conversations with his teammates.
Before the season started, Doeren raved about Baker-Williams having the ability to play multiple positions in the secondary. He was recruited to N.C. State as an athlete and even played some running back his freshman season. On the defensive side, he’s played safety and corner, then to nickel and even moved back to safety in place of Tanner Ingle recently.
Since returning Oct. 17, Baker-Williams has put together a string of impressive performances, including a 14-tackle performance against Miami, his best game to date. He followed that up with his first career interception a week later in a win over Florida State. That went along with seven tackles, starting the game at safety, not nickel, but showing off the versatility that Doeren raved about.
The player Wolfpack fans saw the last three weeks is a direct result of him getting back into game shape after so much time away. One of the older players in the secondary, Baker-Williams has been a steady presence for that unit, the one the younger players can lean on in crunch time.
But for two weeks, that voice wasn’t there, isolated and eager to get back on the field.
Quarantined for weeks
Baker-Williams didn’t test positive for COVID-19, but being exposed to someone who did via contact tracing, he had to isolate himself from his teammates.
He couldn’t even stay in his apartment with his roommates, shipped off to a nearby hotel as four walls closed in on him for 14 days.
“It was killing me for a long time,” Baker-Williams said. “Mentally, it was tough.”
When he wasn’t doing school work virtually, Baker-Williams was FaceTiming his teammates or girlfriend. He’d meet up with his mom and they would go for a run. On days he didn’t run, Baker-Williams would find an open field and do defensive back drills alone.
While N.C. State went on the road to upset Pitt and knock off Virginia the following week, Baker-Williams watched from his hotel room, allowing him to see the game from a different perspective. For one, his absence became a blessing in disguise for players like freshman Joshua Pierre-Louis, who started in his place and gained valuable experience, including his first-career interception against the Cavaliers.
Baker-Williams was taking mental notes the entire time and had some pointers for his pupil when he returned.
“I would bring little key nuggets,” Baker-Williams said. “It was little bits and pieces I brought back to the team that benefited us.”
Baker-Williams returned to the lineup for the home game against Duke. He was in for 73 plays and had four tackles and one pass breakup. He moved to safety against Miami and Florida State while Ingle, a team captain, remained out with an injury. Again, Baker-Williams was one of those players Doeren crossed-trained for multiple positions in the secondary, making the positional move not completely foreign.
“Tyler, he’s a huge player for us, he can do everything,” Ingle said. “As far as seeing him move from nickel to safety and performing just as well, it’s just kind of what we expected out of Tyler because we see it everyday in practice. Tyler’s played nickel, Tyler’s played safety, Tyler’s played running back, so he can do everything.”
Baker-Williams said he was able to play fast at safety because he’s comfortable with the scheme and there are similarities in his responsibilities. Part of the reason why he had such a good preseason camp was because he knew the defense so well and he was finally settled into a home on that side of the ball.
He played in all 12 games in 2019 with three starts on defense. As a true freshman in 2018, Baker-Williams played in eight games, starting his career off as a running back who moonlighted in the secondary in obvious passing situations.
“It was similar to high school,” Baker-Williams said. “It was fun to me, it was just playing football. I was just doing whatever the coach needed me to do, whatever the team needed.”
With Ingle healthy, Baker-Williams can move back to the nickel, giving the Wolfpack both its upperclassmen back on the field at the same time with two games remaining on the schedule.
Finishing strong
With 27 games under his belt and plenty more to go, Baker-Williams knows he hasn’t reached his peak, but he’s trending in the right direction.
Stats aside, he’s the guy younger players can communicate with in the game when they have questions.
“They can come to me about anything,” Baker-Williams said. “Ask me anything. It feels good that they can lean on me for anything they need.”
The team will lean on Baker-Williams to finish the season strong. N.C. State has two winnable games remaining on the schedule and a bowl game is on the horizon. Younger players were able to grow while Baker-Williams was forced to watch, but the return of the most versatile player in the secondary, the one Doeren wasn’t even sure where to play when he was recruited, is more valuable than the stats will show.
“He can do a lot,” Doeren said. “He can set the edge in the run game, he can blitz, play man (man-to-man defense). He’s getting better each week and he’s practicing well, he competes in practice every day. And so all those things are a part of why he’s playing the way he is now.”
Obviously, missing two games and not practicing, it took Baker-Williams a while to get back up to speed. In the Duke game, he felt more like himself, but it all came together three weeks ago against Miami.
“I feel like I’ve been getting my rhythm back,” Baker-Williams said. “Back into that groove that I was in coming into fall camp. The quarantine kind of set me back, but now I feel like I’m getting back into that groove, I’m feeling better, playing good and it’s because of my teammates for pushing me and stuff.”
Tyler Baker-Williams before and after quarantine
| Statistic | Pre-quarantine (2 games) | Post-quarantine (5 games) |
| Snaps played | 145 | 382 |
| Tackles | 8 | 38 |
| Interceptions | 0 | 1 |
NC State at Syracuse
- When: Noon Saturday
- TV: ACCN
This story was originally published November 27, 2020 at 12:04 PM with the headline "NC State’s Baker-Williams had to quarantine for 2 weeks. He’s a man transformed since."
