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Michigan State football's Bryce Baringer picked by Patriots in NFL draft Round 6
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- Michigan State football's Bryce Baringer picked by Patriots in NFL draft Round 6
Add another chapter to Bryce Baringer's improbable journey from the couch to an All-American punter for Michigan State football .
NFL draftee.
Baringer was selected in the sixth round of the NFL draft by the New England Patriots with the 192nd overall pick.
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He was the first punter taken in this year's draft. Four punters went in last year's draft, with Baltimore 's Jordan Stout and Tampa Bay's Jake Camarda each going in the fourth round.
The 6-foot-2, 216-pound Waterford native began his college career in 2017 as a walk-on at Illinois , where he took a redshirt. Baringer transferred to MSU in January 2018, with the hope of landing a spot with Mark Dantonio's team.
Though the former soccer player for Pontiac Notre Dame Prep did not get offered a spot after a tryout in the winter, fate intervened and put Baringer's dream back in motion. He watched the Spartans' game at Arizona State from his apartment on Sept. 9, 2018 when MSU lost punter Jake Hartbarger to a leg injury, four days before Baringer was to have a second tryout. He was dressed and punting that Saturday at Indiana and finished his first season averaging 32.4 yards on 15 punts in four games.
When Hartbarger returned in 2019, Baringer again found himself cut from the roster but stuck around the program taking photos for the team's website. Dantonio before he retired gave Baringer another shot to return as a player in early 2020; this time, the punter stuck and emerged for Mel Tucker as the starter that fall and averaged 43.6 yards on 37 punts in the pandemic-shortened season.
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In 2021, Baringer emerged as one of the nation's best. He led the Big Ten and ranked fifth in the country at 48.4 yards per punt, then opted to return for a sixth year of eligibility with the COVID waiver for 2020.
It turned out to be a smart decision. Baringer became a 2022 consensus first-team All-American by leading the nation with a school-record 49.0-yard average. He was named Big Ten punter of the year and was a Ray Guy Award finalist.
With 161 punts in 36 games as a Spartan, Baringer finished his college career with a Big Ten-record 46.0-yard average, sixth highest in Football Bowl Subdivision history among punters with between 150-249 attempts. Baringer landed 44 of his 109 punts the past two seasons inside opponents' 20-yard line and boomed 50 of them for more than 50 yards while taking just 12 touchbacks. He had four punts of 70-or-more yards, including a career-best 78-yarder in MSU's win at Michigan in 2020.
Baringer is the fifth MSU punter to get selected in the draft and the first since Brandon Fields went to Miami in the seventh round of the 2007 draft. He is the highest drafted Spartan punter since Greg Montgomery went in the third round of the 1988 draft to Houston at pick No. 72. Craig Jarrett in 2002 also was taken in the sixth round with the 194th pick.
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan State's Bryce Baringer goes to Patriots in NFL draft Round 6
