Montario Hardesty

Montario Hardesty

No. 31     Cleveland Browns
Running back
Personal information
Date of birth: February 1, 1987 (1987-02-01) (age 24)
Place of birth: New Bern, North Carolina
Height: 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)	Weight: 225 lb (102 kg)
Career information
College: Tennessee
NFL Draft: 2010 / Round: 2 / Pick: 59
Debuted in 2011 for the Cleveland Browns
Career history
Cleveland Browns (2010–present)
Roster status: Active
Career highlights and awards
2009 Shrine Bowl Offensive MVP
Career NFL statistics as of Week 7, 2011
Rushing yards	238
Rushing average	3.3
Rushing touchdowns	0
Stats at NFL.com

Montario Hardesty (born February 1, 1987), is a running back for the Cleveland Browns football team. Hardesty played college football at the University of Tennessee from 2005–2009, where he amassed fewer than 400 yards in each of his first four seasons before breaking out with 1345 yards and 13 rushing touchdowns in 2009, under the tutelage of first-year head coach Lane Kiffin and his pro-style offense.^[1]

High school career

Hardesty played football at New Bern High School. As a senior in 2004, he rushed for 2,002 yards on 272 carries. He had 19 rushing touchdowns. He was considered a four-star recruit and ranked 100th on the Rivals.com's list of the top 100 players in the class of 2005.^[2] He was recruited as an "athlete", with the potential to play both running back and safety. He was recruited and offered a scholarship by the University of Nebraska, University of North Carolina, North Carolina State University, Notre Dame, Ohio State University, University of South Carolina, and Virginia Tech. However, he chose to play for Tennessee.^[3]

College career

Hardesty was a three-year letter winner at Tennessee. He amassed 2,391 rushing yards on 560 attempts, 405 receiving yards on 38 receptions, and 26 total touchdowns.^[4]

Hardesty was granted a medical hardship for the 2005 season because of a knee injury he suffered against Ole Miss. He rushed 6 times for 18 yards before his injury. In 2006, Hardesty started off the season with a 43 yard touchdown run against the University of California. His best game of the season was a 74 yard performance against the Air Force Academy. He played in 13 games, starting 5 of them. He finished the season with 384 rushing yards and 4 touchdowns.

Hardesty's 2007 season wasn't quite as good as his 2006 season. He had a touchdown in the opening game of the season against the University of California once again. He finished the year with 373 rushing yards and 3 touchdowns. 2008 was the worst statistical season of Hardesty's career at Tennessee. He ran for 271 yards, finishing the season with 6 touchdowns. He passed the 1,000 career rushing yard mark against Vanderbilt University in the season's next-to-last game.

In 2009, Hardesty was 20th in the NCAA's Division 1-A FBS division in rushing yards, with 1345 yards in 13 games.^[5] He started the season off with 160 rushing yards and 1 touchdown against Western Kentucky University. He has passed the 100 rushing yard mark four more times in the 2009 season, against Ohio University, the University of South Carolina, Vanderbilt University, and the University of Kentucky. He was the Southeastern Conference's 2nd leading rusher in the 2009 season.

Statistics

	Rushing					Receiving
Year	Attempts	Yards	Average	Long	TD	Receptions	Yards	Average	Long	TD
2005	6	18	3.0	11	0	0	0	0.0	0	0
2006	107	384	3.6	43	4	6	54	9.0	23	0
2007	89	373	4.2	26	3	3	25	8.3	21	0
2008	76	271	3.6	27	6	4	24	6.0	12	0
2009	282	1345	4.8	43	13	25	302	12.1	47	1	[4]

Professional career

2010 NFL Draft

Hardesty was picked in the 2nd round of the 2010 NFL Draft by the Cleveland Browns. Hardesty was expected to compete for the starting running back position for the Browns, but was limited in pre-season due to injury. On September 2, in his first pre-season game against the Chicago Bears, he ^[6] suffered a torn left ACL, sidelining him for the entire 2010 season.

Pre-draft measureables

Ht	Wt	Arm length	Hand size	40-yd dash	10-yd split	20-yd split	20-ss	3-cone	Vert	Broad	BP
5 ft 11 3⁄4 in	225 lb	31 in	9 1⁄2 in	4.49 s			4.14 s	6.87 s	41 in	10 ft 4 in	21 rep
All values from NFL Combine

References

1. ^ "2 Montario Hardesty". utsports.com. http://www.utsports.com/sports/m-footbl/mtt/hardesty_montario00.html. Retrieved November 4, 2009. 
2. ^ "The Rivals100 2005", Rivals.com, January 24, 2005, http://footballrecruiting.rivals.com/viewrank.asp?ra_key=817 
3. ^ "Montario Hardesty Recruiting Profile". rivals.com. http://rivals.yahoo.com/tennessee/football/recruiting/player-Montario-Hardesty-28710. Retrieved November 8, 2009. 
4. ^ ^{a b} "Montario Hardesty Stats, Splits, News, Photos - Tennessee Volunteers - NCAA College Football - ESPN". espn.com. http://espn.go.com/ncf/player/profile?playerId=175660. Retrieved November 9, 2010. 
5. ^ "FBS (Division I-A) Player Rushing Statistics - 2009". espn.com. http://espn.go.com/college-football/statistics/player/_/stat/rushing/sort/rushingYards/year/2009/group/80. Retrieved November 9, 2010. 
6. ^ "Source: Montario Hardesty out for 2010". http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=5527761&campaign=rss&source=NFLHeadlines. Retrieved September 3, 2010. 

External links

• Cleveland Browns bio
• Tennessee Volunteers bio

Persondata
Name	Hardesty, Montario
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	February 1, 1987
Place of birth	New Bern, North Carolina
Date of death
Place of death