On Jackson Cantwell...

DMoney

May 13, 2025 2 min read

This was a statement. It's been a couple years since Mario and Mirabal won a true recruiting battle. People were starting to whisper. Today was a reminder.

I've been following recruiting for 25 years, and it's hard to believe Miami went into Nixa, Missouri to land a five-star OT. It wasn't an emotional decision, either. Cantwell did his homework. He knew every starter on Miami's OL and their projected draft position. The Canes were the logical choice, and it's been a while since we could say that.

As a prospect, Cantwell is unique. He's 6'7 and 310 pounds at 16 years old. He has 33.5-inch arms, good testing numbers, and superhuman strength. For perspective, Jalen Rivers won states in the shotput with a throw of 54'4. Cantwell's personal record is 73'6. He also benches 500. In the classroom, he scored a 33 ACT as an eighth grader.

We know the bloodline is special. Both his parents are Olympic throwers. While Jackson is long and lean like a basketball player, his silver-medalist father is built like a professional wrestler. There is still plenty of room for him to add mass.

I expect Cantwell to compete for the RT job in 2026. He's raw as a pass blocker and struggled some at the Under Armour game. But he's such a diligent worker that I expect him to perfect his technique. He reminds me of some of the Iowa first rounders. Tall, lean, technical, and strong. The separator is his ability to move people with raw power.

Cantwell was set to commit to Miami in April before he pushed his date back. Miami has been telling people Georgia for the past week, but as I wrote this AM, something felt off. The staff kept the decision under wraps until an hour before the announcement.

Miami will take this momentum and push even harder in recruiting. We just produced the #1 pick in the draft and landed the #1 player in the country. Now it's time to get the elite South Florida recruits in Derrek Cooper and Calvin Russell.

More than anything, I just want to congratule Jackson Cantwell for his decision. He could've chosen Georgia or Oregon and nobody would've blinked an eye. He chose to be different and become a Hurricane. His faith will be rewarded.

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Comments (228)

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C
CANESCANES

May 14, 2025

TheOriginalCane said:
OT4? The current OT4 is ranked #21 (on 247, not the Composite).

So you think 247 could move THREE OTs ahead of Cantwell, and STILL keep him in the Top 10?

That's wild. Nothing personal, but I don't think that will happen.

I was just going off the video of them thinking those other 2 OTs were better than him

I wasn’t looking. At the rankings

Now that I peep the rankings, looks like they could drop him to OT3

But on the other hand, On3 has 4 OT in their top 10

bobbydigius

May 14, 2025

mirvin88 said:
God **** they got murked. I need to start paying more attention to On3

Its funny, cause many of us, including myself were clowning On3 during the 23 class rankings saying that while they may figure it out, they had yet to do so. Turns out that was a lie...

Manfred_Cane

May 14, 2025

mirvin88 said:
God **** they got murked. I need to start paying more attention to On3

My exact thoughts lol I remember when On3 was a little bit of a clown show at the beginning so just didn't pay them no mind. But they've also upped their talent on their staff and it's showing.

C
CANESCANES

May 14, 2025

DMoney said:
This was the on3 article. Ivins kind of confirmed it on the 105 podcast so I’m assuming it’s legit:

2025 draft data reveals On3's strength in predicting future NFL picks

On3's prospect rankings led the way in projecting 2025 NFL Draft outcomes with strong blue-chip and five-star accuracy.

www.on3.com

Wow, 247 got lapped hard

JamesQuall

May 14, 2025

Bender said:
WHY
IN THE FLYING ****
DO PEOPLE ON THIS BOARD
HAVE THE CONSTANT OBSESSION
OF PLAYERS TO DIFFERENT POSITIONS OTHER THAN THE ONE THEY PLAY AND HAVE EXPERIENCE WITH

FIFY

"Let's move this boundary CB to Nickel."
"Let's move this Nickel to Safety."
"Let's move this Safety to LB."
"Let's move this LB to DE."
"Let's move this DE to DT."

Now all of a sudden we have Lucas as our starting DT according to CiS.

D
DemCanes10

May 14, 2025

LMAO @ moving him to guard..

Miami Hurricanes Fan Coaches Association strikes again.

C
CANESCANES

May 14, 2025

DMoney said:
This was the on3 article. Ivins kind of confirmed it on the 105 podcast so I’m assuming it’s legit:

2025 draft data reveals On3's strength in predicting future NFL picks

On3's prospect rankings led the way in projecting 2025 NFL Draft outcomes with strong blue-chip and five-star accuracy.

www.on3.com

Fascinating stuff

JamesQuall

May 14, 2025

DMoney said:
For whatever it’s worth, 247 got beat up pretty good in the NFL Draft this year by on3.

Love our Miami 247 guys and am a fan of the national product but they have to do some soul searching on the rankings.

Good thing they're downgrading Cantwell on Monday to try to move him out of the #1 spot

Dr. Citizen Cane

May 14, 2025

His pops is a beast! 630lb bench...geezus

aelmiami

May 14, 2025

ZeroBeachCane3 said:

I’m sure it would’ve been he’s got a huge ceiling, all world tackle type of traits. Or some jargon like that had he committed to UGA yesterday.

TheOriginalCane

May 14, 2025

CANESCANES said:
I was just going off the video of them thinking those other 2 OTs were better than him

I wasn’t looking. At the rankings

Now that I peep the rankings, looks like they could drop him to OT3

But on the other hand, On3 has 4 OT in their top 10

OK, fair enough. Gaby made it sound like they were just barely moving Cantwell down.

It's definitely the normal 247 ****ery. These kids haven't played football in 6 months, but suddenly 247 has new ideas...

TheOriginalCane

May 14, 2025

bobbydigius said:
Its funny, cause many of us, including myself were clowning On3 during the 23 class rankings saying that while they may figure it out, they had yet to do so. Turns out that was a lie...

In the past 2 years, on3 has continued to add writers and analysts.

Today, on3 is much better than they were in 2023.

bobbydigius

May 14, 2025

TheOriginalCane said:
In the past 2 years, on3 has continued to add writers and analysts.

Today, on3 is much better than they were in 2023.

Sure but the discussion is about their rankings in 21 and 22.

TomAce

May 14, 2025

TheOriginalCane said:
In the past 2 years, on3 has continued to add writers and analysts.

Today, on3 is much better than they were in 2023.

If not mistaken, didn't the same group start at Rivals, create 247, and then move on to on3? They have been the best at each of their stops.

clg003

May 14, 2025

His personal best shot put would have him second on our Olympic team. We won gold and silver in the Olympics. 33 act as an 8th grader? Benches 500? 16 yrs old… what the actual f is going on here.

hoops156

May 14, 2025

hoops156 said:
i have a feeling **** still be OT1, but wont be 1 overall is what i took from Gabys post.

fwiw, i believe on3 has him lower than 247 does?

hoops156

May 14, 2025

TheOriginalCane said:
OT4? The current OT4 is ranked #21 (on 247, not the Composite).

So you think 247 could move THREE OTs ahead of Cantwell, and STILL keep him in the Top 10?

That's wild. Nothing personal, but I don't think that will happen.

gaby insinuated that he will be top 10 overall just not 1 overall. **** still be OT1 as he should.

i think its likely to get him in line with the other sites. i assume on3 will have him around top 5-7 in their next drop.

gogeta4

May 14, 2025

Bender said:
Oh yeah, the team with Lane Johnson and Jordan Mailata, the two best tackles in professional football who were moved to the interior and not Mekhi Becton, who was slow, overweight and couldn't get out of his stance quick enough to be a tackle.

If we have a three star tackle being moved to guard because something in his game is off, I'd consider it an accurate comparison. This board wanted to move All-ACC tackle and 5th round pick Jalen Rivers, All-ACC tackle and projected first round pick Francis Mauigoa and now the 3rd overall player in the country and NUMBER ONE TACKLE PROSPECT to guard.

Having great to elite tackles in college football is a luxury very very few teams have, we have the luxury that we have fairly consistent production in that area over the past couple of seasons and the one response on here from that is that we should've moved all of them to guard.

What the ****.

ive full on stop conversating with them because this thought process has become complete bufoonery.

You laid it out as good as you can.

Its almost hte same as the grassy early cis days and ANY WR over 6'2 they wanted moved to TE maybe its the same guys that have this ncaa playstation urge to just move high end tackles in to chip on a dt and work up to backer lol

TheOriginalCane

May 14, 2025

bobbydigius said:
Sure but the discussion is about their rankings in 21 and 22.

Again, the draft has about 250 players drafted. The services evalute thousands of players.

The reality is that people were largely pointing out their substantial development on various blue-chippers. And how on3 did not even have a full complement of website yet. So they had about 30 university-coverage websites, thus they had better intel for some regions of the country than for other regions.

Sure, on3 is going to blow their own horn, based on a handful of the recruits they evaluated. Meaning, they took 250 guys and said "we were more accurate on THESE 250", but they don't analyze whether they overvalued guys who were not even drafted. Which, by comparison, there are thousands of OTHER evals for which we have no data on how accurate they might have been compared to other services.

Whatever. Yay on3. Pick up your trophy after the awards dinner.

gogeta4

May 14, 2025

BoxingRobes said:
Joe Thomas was a shot put thrower. Lane Johnson. Brandon Scherff was a 60+ foot thrower.

Tons of future Top 10 picks were shot put or discus throwers in HS. Bodes well for this freak.

The best ive ever seen as my dad was a hs track coach in s.fla ...i threw as well but sucked.

But the best we saw down here was ...Vince Wilfork. Remember being at the meet with my dad and then later realizing he was the dt we had later while watching a game and my dad saying that was that big joker that threw the shotput far as **** that one meet. lol These dudes usually have stone hands...literally.