NIXA, Mo. — Jackson Cantwell stands at an intersection of college football recruiting today. Ranked by Rivals as the nation’s No. 1 overall football prospect for 2026, he will make his college commitment at a 3:45 p.m. EDT ceremony from a pristine performing arts center at Nixa High School.
He has gone media-silent over the last few days, which only adds to the intrigue.
The 5-star offensive tackle will share that decision at a fissure for the game that hugs a line between old-school values like relationships and new-wave NIL and revenue-share balance sheets that have NFL superagent Drew Rosenhaus at the table for Cantwell.
He has led the negotiations with a finalist group that includes Georgia, Miami, Oregon and Ohio State. Published reports have stated that the numbers on the table for Cantwell have reached $2 million per season this spring.
That’s quite a lot, but Cantwell is a supersized prospect, if there ever was one. The nation’s No. 1 OT, according to Rivals, had 158 pancake blocks last fall. Those double-digit pancake games were about as common as the many custard shops that dot the streets of his community.
He pairs that with a 500-plus pound bench-press. The 16-year-old has earned the right to have “Security Guard Service” listed atop his bio on his X account.
Nixa High School head coach John Perry offered up the perfect description of what all that size, strength and explosive athleticism looks like between the lines.
“For football purposes, he will drive a kid 20 yards off the field and slingshot him and shot put him through the sideline,” Perry said. “So, as a coach that is getting on up in age, you have to be very careful where you stand during the course of a game. Or you might get a body tossed into you.”
It is a marvel to behold.
“To see people thrown around like he’s throwing them around is crazy,” Perry said.
Nixa is a fitting home for the 6-foot-8-plus, 320-pound rising senior. While driving into town, it is impossible not to see at least four gigantic water towers poking into the horizon.
Cantwell looks like a water tower in real life. That was evident by the viral social media pics from last weekend of him standing next to 6-4 Georgia QB commit Jared Curtis on his 11th-hour unofficial visit to UGA.
The Cantwell bio has even more details that read like a Hollywood script. He’s the son of two former Olympians, but has decided that football will be his path. That’s even though he has stacked up Missouri state championships in the shot put and discus in his first two years of high school track.
No high schooler in the country has thrown the shot farther (73 feet, 6.75 inches) than Cantwell has this spring. It is logical that no one should when factoring in his genes and the fact that both parents threw the shot for the U.S. Olympic team.
Cantwell’s father, Christian, won the silver medal at the 2008 Summer Olympics. Then he won the IAAF world championship in the shot in 2009. He finished fourth in the 2012 Summer Olympics.
The 5-star recruit was originally set to make his commitment on April 30, but needed more time. That required taking one last look at Georgia last weekend.
It was a last look at the program that’s felt like a very good fit for a long time. The lure for UGA with Cantwell has to do with relationships and NFL development.
“I visited, I believe it was on July 27 of 2023,” Cantwell told DawgNation last week. “It was the first day I was down there, and ever since then, they said I was the No. 1 guy on their board. Which I don’t know how true that is. Um, I’m assuming it is from how they’ve recruited me since. But since that day, they said I was at the top of their 2026 board, and I’ve felt that way the whole time. I was very, very humbled when I heard that originally, and it’s held true throughout.”
Since Georgia head coach Kirby Smart arrived in Athens for the 2016 season, his program has seen 16 OLs taken in the NFL Draft. That includes four first-round tackles, one second-round pick and a trio of third-rounders.
When Cantwell named his final six schools, he used an edit featuring a Waffle House. It was enough to make those in SEC Country wonder how in the world he could do that and then go on to play ball in Eugene, Columbus, or Miami?
That answer will vary this morning depending on which national recruiting service one might subscribe to. Miami, the perceived highest bidder, is either out of it, or the Hurricanes are the sleeper in this thing.
Oregon was at Cantwell’s school for one last pitch on Monday afternoon. Most of the published reports have Georgia as the team to beat.
Will that hold up? We will all find out later today.
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