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2026 Jackson Cantwell 5* OT from Nixa, MO

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TemplarCane said:
Agreed.

The word evaluators is overdone these days. With all the combines and all the camps and all the science are there really that many under the radar talents? All the top schools are all recruiting all the top kids. I imagine it’s fairly rare for any school to find one no one else has heard of. And if they do offer, it’s public and now everybody knows about the kid.

I do think, some coaches are better than others at projecting how much a player can improve. Much like NFL GMS and scouts, college coaches fall in love with traits and fail at the psychology game. Other than injury what prevents an elite high school player from developing into the same level of college player? He is a head case. He’s now playing with a lot of players as good as he is and isn’t mature and tough enough to adapt. Or he’s not that bright and can’t step up to a more complex game than he played in high school.

Same in the NFL. All these guys drafted yesterday and today and tomorrow are all big, fast, and run. They can do all the things. Those that fail either get hurt or mentally or emotionally cannot compete.
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I do agree that evaluation is a crapshoot. You can’t blame bad evaluation when an elite prospect, that every program in the country wanted turns out to be a mediocre player.

However, the portal is always full of G5 and lower tier P4 guys who get snapped up by the big boys. I mean, one of our starting safeties next year will be a guy who was at Jacksonville State. So it’s clear that even with all the scouting involved there’s tons of guys who still get missed every year.

Fans give coaches like Nick Saban and Kirby Smart way too much credit for evaluation. Those guys don’t know anything that everyone else doesn’t already know. They just have the luxury of being able to play the numbers game. If you sign twenty blue chip players every year, it won’t matter if half of them bomb.
 
DTP said:
I do agree that evaluation is a crapshoot. You can’t blame bad evaluation when an elite prospect, that every program in the country wanted turns out to be a mediocre player.

However, the portal is always full of G5 and lower tier P4 guys who get snapped up by the big boys. I mean, one of our starting safeties next year will be a guy who was At Jacksonville State. So it’s clear that even with all the scouting involved there’s tons of guys who still get missed every year.

Fans give coaches like Nick Saban and Kirby Smart way too much credit for evaluation. Those guys don’t know anything that everyone else doesn’t already know. They just have the luxury of being able to play the numbers game. If you sign twenty blue chip players every year, it won’t matter if half of them bomb.
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There are players who are late bloomers or for perhaps academic reasons aren’t recruited by FBS and P4 universities. Sometimes players are downgraded because of their competition, the school they played at, or the system they played in.

Our last starting quarterback was a zero star recruit and was just selected number one overall in the NFL draft.
 
TemplarCane said:
There are players who are late bloomers or for perhaps academic reasons aren’t recruited by FBS and P4 universities. Sometimes players are downgraded because of their competition, the school they played at, or the system they played in.

Our last starting quarterback was a zero star recruit and was just selected number one overall in the NFL draft.
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That and sometimes coaches just miss the eval. I used Zechariah Poyser as an example. He played as a freshman at Jacksonville State. He’s only a sophomore now. The guy is a clear P4 quality player. We’ve also been chasing CharMar Brown from North Dakota who was the FCS freshman of the year last season. The portal means a lot of these guys will eventually wind up at top programs but there are plenty of high school kids falling through the cracks.
 
DTP said:
That and sometimes coaches just miss the eval. I used Zechariah Poyser as an example. He played as a freshman at Jacksonville State. He’s only a sophomore now. The guy is a clear P4 quality player. We’ve also been chasing CharMar Brown from North Dakota who was the FCS freshman of the year last season. The portal means a lot of these guys will eventually wind up at top programs but there are plenty of high school kids falling through the cracks.
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I wouldn’t disagree one bit.

Where did Poyser play high school ball? In Florida? Why did he end up at Jacksonville State? Academics? Did he play at a very low level of competition? Was he injured?
 
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TemplarCane said:
I wouldn’t disagree one bit.

Where did Poyser play high school ball? In Florida? Why did he end up at Jacksonville State? Academics? Did he play at a very low level of competition? Was he injured?
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He played in Wildwood Fl which is near Gainesville but it’s in the middle of nowhere so I bet that played a part. He was a zero star prospect despite being an athletic 6’2” safety.
 
JeffreyG said:
It sounds crazy but what makes me confident is the fact he DOESN'T have a Miami visit scheduled.
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He played the game well. Said he didn't need to visit anywhere and was ready to commit. That was all for getting a bigger offer. Georgia and Oregon took the bait and here we are.
 
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