Former walk-on Michael Dunn is Maryland football’s steadiest offensive lineman

Maryland's football season starts in 63 days. Until then, we're doing a player-by-player preview of the entire roster.

Michael Dunn, left tackle

Year: Redshirt senior
Height: 6’5
Weight: 312 pounds
High school: Whitman (Md.)
Jersey number: 76

How Dunn got to College Park

Dunn got to Maryland the same way a lot of kids do. He was from Bethesda, and he came to the flagship state school as a regular ol’ college student.

But then Dunn walked onto Maryland’s roster in 2012. After redshirting that year, a confluence of attrition, injuries and Dunn’s own development made him the Terrapins’ starting right guard in 2013. He was their starting left (and sometimes right) tackle in 2014, then started again on the left edge in 2015.

A career highlight so far

The best thing about Dunn’s play is that there are very few highlights of any kind. Maryland’s offensive line regularly got toasted over his first two years as a starter, but Dunn was rarely the guilty party. He doesn’t lay wowing pancake blocks on people, but he doesn’t get easily beaten by Big Ten defensive ends, either.

That’s what Maryland, more than anything, has needed: solidness. Dunn has offered it.

2016 prospectus

Maryland has two former blue-chip tackles in Damian Prince and Derwin Gray, but Dunn is a good bet to continue to start at either left or right tackle. (At worst, he’ll shift to right guard, a familiar position.) He doesn’t have Prince or Gray’s ceiling, but he’s hugely consistent and should be an asset for Walt Bell’s offense.

What a dream season would look like

Dunn starts every game. Maryland quarterbacks stay upright, and he gets some kind of All-Big Ten honor at the end of the year.

Next in the series...

... has changed positions a lot.

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