MT May Have Found Hidden Gem in 2021 OL Alto Tarver

Middle Tennessee may have struck gold in south Florida. G5 programs have to scour the country looking for under the radar talent the big schools have missed - MT is no exception.

An "official" offer tweet slipped through the cracks on August 8th. We here at GoMiddle try to stay on top of all the offers the coaching staff sends out - but we missed this one.

Once we found the tweet, we went to the Rivals database to find Tarver's profile... no luck there.

We Googled to see if possibly we missed a prospect and one of the other competing recruiting services had his info, that is rare but can happen... no luck there either.

After texting with a source in the football program and confirming his info, we got Tarver's official Rivals profile created.

But we wondered: how did we miss a 6'5", 300 pound offensive lineman in Florida? How did every other recruiting service miss him?

Well, as it turns out, this 6'5" athlete did not play at 6'5" last season. According to the program source, "he was apparently 6'1" last year but he hit a growth spurt this summer."

"I played last year at 6'2", 260 pounds last season," Tarver said. "I'm now 6'5", 300 pounds.

MT Offensive Line coach Rick Mallory is credited with finding Tarver. He has a good relationship with Cape Coral High School's Head Coach who tipped him off to the prospect.

"I feel like me and Coach Mallory have a solid understanding of each other now. He is very genuine and straightforward and I love that. He took a personal interest in my life and my other sports and activities and that made me feel like I could honestly trust him."

Tarver boasts an impressive 4.63 GPA on his Twitter profile and is obviously a very bright kid. Academics are very important to him.

"After talking to Coach Mallory for the first time, the first thing I thought of was, does this school have a law program? I did some research and I was very pleased to hear that the law program and trial teams are pretty successful.

Education is what I’ve always leaned on the most. I rely on my brain to get me to college. But, when I got the offer I was more than excited. I was so happy that my work and dedication had finally paid off.

It was validating to me. I was fairly confident in myself already, but after I received the offer I thought to myself that if somebody else sees it in me that their should no reason I can’t see it in myself. All the blood, sweat, and prayers I put out came around full circle."

Tarver's intelligence will be very beneficial to whichever program he lands with at the next level. Countless QBs have commented on how much it helps when an offensive lineman can help them identify blitz assignments and defensive alignments.

Tarver is an impressive athlete, especially for his size. He also plays PF for the Cape Coral High School basketball team.

Given the growth spurt, Tarver would have very likely been a prospect whose stock would have blown up if he had been able to participate in a normal camp circuit. COVID destroyed that opportunity for him and countless other prospects, but a solid Senior season should draw more attention. He advised his high school is currently practicing as usual and they plan to move forward as scheduled with the season.

Tarver has noticed more college coaches have started to follow him on social media and are requesting film from his high school. "I’ve gotten more follows and looks, but no other contact [other than MTSU] yet."

When asked how he planned to move forward in his recruitment, he added, " I will give it a little time, but I really like MTSU."