STARKVILLE — Baker Swedenburg earned a title this month that is a source of pride.

It isn’t All-American, All-Southeastern Conference or starting Division I punter. 

Swedenburg, a third-year sophomore punter, is a graduate of Mississippi State. He was one of eight members of the MSU football team who recently received his bachelor’s degree. 

Swedenburg, a Heritage Academy graduate, says he isn’t close to being anything other than the starting punter for MSU for the next two seasons. The next few weeks are all about preparing for his first bowl game against Wake Forest (6-6) in the Music City Bowl at 5:40 p.m. Dec. 30 (ESPN).

“I’m sure I could put a résumé together and get a really good job, but I’m not ready to stop being a kid,” Swedenburg said. “I have no desire to grow up yet.”

Swedenburg graduated in three years with a degree in business information systems. He has been accepted to graduate school at MSU to pursue a master’s degree in business administration. He is one of the few players MSU coach Dan Mullen has had who has earned his bachelor’s degree in less than the four years. 

“I remember I was so stupid to take 19 (credit) hours two years ago while playing football as a true freshman, with Accounting as one of those classes,” Swedenburg said. “I just remembered thinking, ‘Why did you do this to yourself?’ and never again will this happen.”

Mullen said the last player he can remember graduating early was University of Utah quarterback Alex Smith, who opted to leave school early because he was going to be the top pick in the NFL draft. 

“Alex had a high GPA in economics,” Mullen said. “I remember he came back and did the graduate school thing for a semester before he went to the NFL draft process. I’m proud of all my guys when we can earn their degree.”

Scout.com ranked Swedenburg ninth nationally (Rivals.com had him No. 24) in its list of the top punters and kickers coming out of high school. This season for MSU (6-6), he averaged 41.9 yards per punt, which put him seventh in the Southeastern Conference but only 3 yards away from the league leader.

“In high school, I studied (how to punt and the mechanics) an awful lot and it’s ingrained in my brain,” Swedenburg said. “The biggest difference was — believe it or not — the speed of the game. I could take like four steps and be fine. At college, I have to get it off and hit it at a specific spot so it’s not blocked and land it in a specific spot, so it’s challenging.”

Fourteen of his punts have gone for more than 50 yards, and 17 kicks have been downed inside the opponent’s 20-yard line.

“I usually can take a good bit off it and shorten up my steps, which decreases the length of the kick, and I can hold the ball up higher so the ball will go higher,” Swedenburg said. “In certain situations I can try and not make it turn over so it just goes up, like a pop fly, and that will make the football bounce sideways or die where it lands.”

Swedenburg said he often will try to diagnose problems himself when he is struggling with his technique. Most of the time at practice, Swedenburg will work with the long snappers and kickers Derek DePasquale and Brian Egan on a separate field.

“I learned at a lot of camps when I was in high school and that you have to know how to fix yourself,” Swedenburg said. “All of us will sit down and discuss things, talk about, show it on film. It can be a group effort among us.”

Swedenburg said his 11-yard punt against the University of Georgia in a 24-10 loss was his worst kick of the year. He tapped into what his knowledge and had punts of 45 and 58 yards on his next two attempts to pin Georgia deep in its territory. 

“From that point on I just said to myself how I kick now will determine how good I really am because you never know what you can be until you fail or do something poorly,” Swedenburg said.