JACKSON CANTWELL
JOHN PERRY
If you spent any time on X (formerly Twitter) over the past couple of weeks there is a good chance you saw post after post about high-level college football coaches making their way to Nixa High School.
They are all lining up for a chance to talk with 6-foot-8, 300-pound sophomore left tackle Jackson Cantwell, who is the No. 2 rated prospect in the Class of 2026 according to Rivals.
“He (Cantwell) is what you look for. He is as strong as anybody in the country. He is athletic as you can see by his track and basketball skills. He is what they (college coaches) all want at left tackle,” Nixa head football coach John Perry said.
That size and athleticism has kept Cantwell very busy over the past couple of weeks. Coaches from Oregon, Arkansas, Nebraska, Kansas State, Georgia, Mizzou, Ole Miss, USC and other major programs all made the trip to Nixa over the past couple of weeks. Some of those coaches visited twice.
“I felt like I barely got a break from people coming in. There were so many (coaches) pretty much every day,” Cantwell said.
Cantwell is up to 25 total offers featuring virtually every big-name program in the country, but this week was just a preview of what is still to come for him over the next two years.
“Most people in the universe haven’t experienced what it will be like with Jackson because there are not many times you can say you have the No. 1 or 2 player in his class,” Perry said. “What is crazy is that the amount of traffic that has come through so far and he is a 10th grader. It’s not really even gotten started yet.”
As things do amp up for Cantwell, Perry will be there to help guide one of the most coveted recruits in the Class of 2026.
“I would think my role is pretty much like an Uber driver. An Uber driver’s job is to get you somewhere safely and maybe have a good conversation along the way to make your ride enjoyable,” Perry said, “My job is to make the ride enjoyable, help him (Cantwell) get somewhere safely and try to put them together like an Uber drive does. I have never driven for Uber, but I think this experience might lead me to a little bit of that when I get done.”
This particular Uber ride is far from over, as Cantwell is not close to narrowing down the list of schools to a final set.
“My recruitment is pretty wide open, so there really isn’t a true favorite. There are a lot of schools that are going relatively hard right now. Obviously, I am not an official recruit yet, so it is not really as hard as they (will) go,” Cantwell said. “It will be a while (before Cantwell narrows his list). Around the time I can take official visits is when I am going to start narrowing stuff down so I can be at practice over the summer and not be somewhere every single weekend. I think before that there is no reason to make any decisions or cut anybody out. I am going to hear what everyone has to say.”
While the college coaches lining up for Cantwell’s services can’t go as hard yet as they will go, fanbases of those colleges are under no such limitations as evidenced by mentions under Cantwell’s posts about visits on X.
“It (interactions with fanbases) is really interesting for sure. I did not know it was that big of thing with fanbases. The Oklahoma people go pretty hard. The Mizzou fans probably go the hardest of anybody honestly. Mizzou Twitter is incredibly big,” Cantwell said. “There are lot of really big fanbases on Twitter. It is really interesting to see how many of these people have support for a university. It shows how broad college football can be.”
While the offers continue to roll in, Cantwell will be putting in work to continue his rise as one of the top football players in the country. This year as a sophomore, he broke out in a big way with 91 pancakes and no sacks allowed for the 11-1 Eagles.
“Technically he has improved loads. He came in as a ninth grader not knowing a whole lot about offensive line play. In eighth grade, he played tight end and defensive end, and we moved him to left tackle. He has had to learn so much,” Perry said. “He is so intelligent and works so hard and does so much digging on his own. He wants to be great. On just the technical side of football, he has grown so much exponentially.”
The line of college coaches coming through the doors of Nixa will only continue to grow, which will mean good things for both Cantwell and his Nixa football teammates.
“One of our first conversations we had with our parents was don’t let the hype that surrounds Jackson affect you in a negative way. We know how our minds work. Our minds can work like ‘why is he getting all this attention’. Scratch that though and replace that thought with ‘I am grateful that Jackson Cantwell is on our team’. What Jackson is going to do is bring a lot more eyes to everybody else on our team,” Perry said. “Ray Lewis was not recruited to go to Miami. Ray Lewis was seen because Jimmy Johnson showed up to recruit another kid and he (Lewis) stood out that night. It is great for our program and great for our kids. There will be other kids get chances because of it.”
