Chris Hardeman has already made his commitment to a school for the 2014 recruiting class. The Houston (Texas) Alief Taylor High prospect committed very early on in the process, verballing to the LSU Tigers back in July of 2012.
Hardeman visited LSU junior camp in early June and decided to become a Tiger the following month. Here's a little bit about Hardeman from And The Valley Shook.
Chris Hardeman scouting report: Aggressive 2014 cornerback
Cornerback Chris Hardeman is a 2014 prospect that has already made his commitment to the LSU Tigers. Find out the skills he will potentially bring to Baton Rouge.
Initial impression: looks tailor-made for the nickel. Very physical jammer. Solid tackler when he doesn’t go for kill shots. Plays the run well. Aggressive. Quick. Fast. Nice player.
Hardeman stands at 5’9 and 178 pounds and is considered a consensus four-star recruit. Hardeman is ranked as the 199th-best national recruit from Rivals, is considered the 37th-best cornerback overall and the 66th-best recruit in the state of Texas by 247 Sports. Hardeman is a three-star recruit and the 21st-ranked cornerback according to Scout and is a member of the ESPN Watchlist.
As of the start of March, Hardeman has offers from schools like LSU, Baylor, Georgia, Mississippi State, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Ole Miss, Purdue, Tennessee, Texas A&M, UCLA and West Virginia. You can follow Chris on Twitter at @Chris_Hardeman1. His junior highlights are available on Hudl.
SB Nation Recruiting analyst Wescott Eberts:
Experienced in playing man coverage both at the line of scrimmage and off opposing receivers, Hardeman has the quick feet and short-area quickness to turn and run with receivers in either situation and can plant his foot and close on the football. His physicality and willingness to mix it up may be his two best attributes, as he can disrupt the release of opposing wide receivers and defeat blockers in the running game or screen game.
As a result, he projects favorably as a nickel corner at the next level, were he would go up against opponents who are of a similar size in the slot since he does not have ideal size to play the boundary corner position. In terms of his build, he is about the same size as Texas star cornerback Quandre Diggs, who has been excellent in his two years in college playing the field corner position, though he could play some nickel this year.
Hardeman does have a tendency to get turned around while in coverage, something he will have to work on as he gets ready to transition to college, when wide receivers will be much more capable of taking advantage of small things like that.
He may also need some time to adjust to playing zone coverages in college because it appears that Alief Taylor plays predominantly man coverage.
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