Maryland Picks Up 16th 2013 Commitment, Lineman Tanner Hartman

Tanner Hartman, a class of '13 lineman from Liberty Christian Academy (Lynchburg, Va.), has committed to the Terps, continuing the recent recruiting spree for Randy Edsall and co. The news came out last night via IMS.

Hartman is a 6'4/5", 250(ish) pound lineman who apparently runs a sub-5.0 40 and can play on either side of the line. Rivals has him as an (unranked) offensive tackle, while 24/7 rates him as a three-star strong side defensive end/offensive tackle. About a week ago, IMS had a separate offer on Hartman when he picked up his offer from the Terps, and he said it didn't matter to him what position he plays in college.

Maryland was the first real major program to offer Hartman - he also listed scholarships from Temple and FCS programs Liberty and Richmond. The other offensive tackle at Liberty Christian Academy is Braxton Pfaff, a Virginia Tech commit.

Rivals lists Hartman as an offensive tackle, but defensive end makes significantly more sense, both with his skillset and the Terps' depth at the two positions. Hartman is a little undersized for a collegiate tackle, and has the speed to play defensive end in a 3-4.

We've talked a lot about Maryland's lack of offensive tackles in our Profiles in Terpage series and their relative depth at the defensive end position, but you have to consider the talent coming in to the program. Mike Madaras is coming in this year, and the hope is that he can lock up the right tackle position for years to come. Most of the guys at the position now are relatively young, like Ryan Doyle, Jake Wheeler, and Andrew Zeller, and the Terps have two offensive tackle commitments in the 2013 class in Derwin Gray (arguably the star of the class) and Jajuan Dulaney.

At defensive end, there are three sophomores at one of the two positions, and three upperclassmen and a freshman at the other. Malik Jones is the only other defensive end recruit in the current class, and putting Hartman there would give them another possible option for the future, and help out with depth.

Another solution is guard, where the Terps only have two underclassmen on scholarship, with one (Nick Brigham) coming this fall. I don't know nearly enough about offensive line mechanics to tell you if that move would work, but I know it makes sense with the roster.

As djcarv2005 pointed out in a FanPost, this could be seen as a replacement for Mike Williams, the Archbishop Spalding lineman who decommitted two weeks ago. As he also pointed out, it might be around the time that Maryland focuses more on the more highly-hyped recruits, as the scholarships available in the class continue to dwindle.

Hartman brings Maryland up to 16 commits for 2013 if you include Deon Long, and 17 if you include Michael Parker (not suggested if you value your mental health).