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RALEIGH — Toney Baker sweated out his fifth N.C. State football media day Monday, standing in the blistering midday sun for his fifth Wolfpack team photo before answering reporters' preseason questions for the fifth time in his injury-scarred career.

And there in the heat, he dropped a hint about a sixth media day, a sixth team photo and a sixth round of questions.

"Depending on how this year goes, I can petition for a sixth year. ... I will qualify for that," Baker said. "We'll just have to wait and see what happens this season. I can't do it until after the season ends anyway."

By now, the 23-year-old fifth-year senior from Jamestown probably thought he would be carrying the ball in pro games on Sundays. But two surgeries on his right knee robbed him of all but one game of the last two college seasons.

"Sometimes, it can get to you," Baker said. "I came into college (the same year as) Jonathan Stewart and (Rashard) Mendenhall. Those guys are in the NFL now, and I was playing with them in the (high school) All-American Bowl. ... It's just going to take me a little bit longer."

These days, Stewart is a second-year pro with the Carolina Panthers and Mendenhall is in his second season with the Pittsburgh Steelers.

"I'm happy for them, and it lets me know I can play on that level as well," Baker said. "But right now I've just got to focus on what I'm doing here."

Once upon a time, not so long ago, Baker was considered a better running back prospect than either Stewart or Mendenhall. With a stunning blend of power and speed, Baker came to N.C. State as North Carolina's all-time leading high school rusher. In four years as Ragsdale's starting tailback, Baker ran for 10,231 yards — the third-highest total in the nation.

Yet here he is, laboring in the August heat, sharing the Wolfpack backfield with incumbent starter Jamelle Eugene and talking about perhaps petitioning the NCAA for a sixth college season.

It all depends on his surgically repaired right knee.

Baker played 11 games as a true freshman in 2005. He started as a sophomore in 2006 and led the Wolfpack with 688 rushing yards, averaging 4.4 per carry.

He hurt his right knee in the first game of the 2007 season, and he needed surgery to repair articular cartilage damage. The surface of his knee bone was damaged, not the ligaments on either side of the joint.

"The cartilage was actually floating in my knee, so when I would try to bend it, it would get stuck and start popping," Baker said. " ... I just couldn't move my knee because something was in the way."

A second surgery on the same knee ended his 2008 season before it began. So now he's left to cram two seasons' worth of missed time into 12 games.

He'll play those games without a knee brace. He doesn't need one. The joint is stable because the ligaments were not damaged. And with healthy ligaments, his speed remains intact.

"Yes, I'm as fast as I was before (the knee surgeries)," Baker said. "Some of the workout times this summer show I'm even faster. That's really encouraging, because in the back of your mind, you still kind of have doubts. But then you look at the numbers on papers in the weight room that show your times from 2007 to now. When you look at it and see they're all better than before, it kind of trips you out a little bit."

For instance, Baker said the workout records show his 2007 shuttle time — a pro agility drill — was 4.42 seconds. This summer, he ran it in 3.94.

"It is a boost, mentally, because I know I can compete at the highest level," Baker said.

Will he get the chance? Only time will tell.

In the meantime, he'll compete for playing time in N.C. State's crowded backfield with the thought of perhaps a sixth college season in the back of his mind.

Contact Jeff Mills at 373-7024 or jeff.mills@news-record.com