Indiana Football Freshman Byron Baldwin Had 'Heck of a Training Camp' Before Injuries

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Though the first half of Indiana safety Byron Baldwin's freshman season was deterred by an undisclosed injury, the fall camp buzz he generated was legitimate.

In August, senior linebacker Aiden Fisher said Baldwin, who enrolled in January, changed his demeanor matured quickly during the offseason. Fisher expected Baldwin to be "a guy that really helps us this year," while junior safety Amare Ferrell added Baldwin was "ready to play right now."

And according to Indiana safeties coach Ola Adams, Baldwin was in position to do exactly that.

"He had a heck of a training camp," Adams said Thursday night during the Inside Indiana Football Radio Show. "Was with the ones (for) half of training camp. He was starting."

But a late-camp injury forced Baldwin to stay on the sidelines.

Fisher's comments regarding Baldwin's readiness came four days before Indiana's season-opener against Old Dominion on Aug. 30, when Baldwin was a surprise inclusion on the availability report. He remained out with an injury for the Hoosiers' first six games, and while he was medically cleared to play in Indiana's seventh game, a 38-13 win over Michigan State, he didn't see the field.

The 6-foot-2, 194-pound Baldwin debuted during Indiana's 56-6 win over UCLA on Oct. 25, and he made three total tackles — two on defense in the fourth quarter and one on kickoff coverage late in the second quarter — while playing six snaps at slot corner and nine snaps on kickoff coverage.

Baldwin, a consensus four-star prospect and Indiana's highest-ranked recruit in the class of 2025, impressed the Hoosiers' coaching staff as much with his tools as his intelligence.

"Really talented player," Adams said. "Already physically able, and mentally is able to pick up what we're putting down a lot faster than most freshmen. That's usually the hardest thing is just learning the way to do things when you get here. And we run a lot of defense, so it's not easy."

Baldwin grew up in Baltimore, less than an hour northeast of College Park, Md., where the No. 2 Hoosiers (8-0, 5-0 Big Ten) resume their march toward an unblemished season against Maryland (4-3, 1-3 Big Ten) at 3:30 p.m. Saturday inside SECU Stadium.

But Baldwin likely won't be part of Indiana's starting trio of safeties. Ferrell and redshirt senior Louis Moore man the back end while redshirt senior Devan Boykin plays rover, an iteration of the nickel corner which Indiana coach Curt Cignetti groups into the safety position.

Cignetti expressed displeasure with his safeties during the first month of the season, oft citing issues with communication, adjustments and weekly preparation.

The unit has flipped the page. Moore leads Indiana with 54 tackles and four interceptions, while Ferrell has made three interceptions and has a team-high six passes defended. Boykin was the Hoosiers' Defensive Player of the Week against UCLA after notching a season-high seven tackles and recording his first interception as a Hoosier.

Stats aside, Cignetti believes Indiana's safeties have quality ball skills, and the more snaps and familiarity the trio gets together, the better each have played.

"You can just see as time goes on, they become in tune with one another," Cignetti said Thursday on his radio show. "The communication, the checks, the alignments and things are really picking up back there."

There was a point where Baldwin factored into the Hoosiers' starting rotation. Instead, due to injury misfortune, he's been relegated to a reserve role, one that appears to feature special teams snaps and occasional defensive action once the score is out of hand.

It's not the season Baldwin appeared headed toward, but it's the one in which he finds himself entering his personal Maryland homecoming.