Ohio
Will reigning champion Ohio State football land five-star lineman Jackson Cantwell?
Jackson Cantwell: Football prospect breaks down upcoming decision
Jackson Cantwell, the No. 1 football prospect in the 2026 class, updates his recruitment ahead of his upcoming decison.
Days after winning the College Football Playoff National Championship, Ohio State coach Ryan Day sat in the Nixa High School coaching offices alongside five-star prospect Jackson Cantwell. It was his first recruiting stop after lifting the trophy over his head.
Ohio State is one of four teams hoping the No. 1 recruit in the 2026 class will choose them come April 30. The Buckeyes are the only program that can sell Cantwell on being the reigning champion.
“They’re the best team in the country right now,” Cantwell said. “Ohio State’s a really good situation.”
The 6-foot-8, 300-pound Nixa High offensive tackle will select between the Buckeyes, Georgia, Miami (Florida) and Oregon. He’s made two visits to Columbus in the last five months while trying to gather as much information as possible about the turnover at the offensive line coach position.
Day, who is more hands-on with the quarterbacks, had to hire a new offensive line coach this offseason after Justin Frye left the program to take over the same position for the NFL’s Arizona Cardinals. Frye had been with OSU since 2022 and helped make offensive tackle Paris Johnson Jr. the sixth-overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft.
Frye’s departure led to three Ohio State hires who will impact Cantwell’s decision.
Tyler Bowen, formerly the offensive coordinator at Virginia Tech, was brought on as the new offensive line coach. Bowen hasn’t served as an offensive line coach since 2017, when he was at Maryland. Marcus Johnson, who was Purdue’s offensive line coach last year before the Boilermakers’ staff was fired, is the team’s assistant offensive line coach. Charlie Dickey will also serve as an offensive line assistant, having held main roles at Oklahoma State and Kansas State in recent years.
“They’ve hired a lot of great offensive line coaches,” Cantwell said. “They’re putting a lot of emphasis on it and are trying to make sure they develop those guys.”
What Jackson Cantwell has said about Ohio State football, Ryan Day
Cantwell in February: “Ohio State’s an interesting one for me. They have Ryan Day, who has done a fantastic job and is probably the most underrated coach in college football. He’s one of the best coaches in college football. I still sometimes don’t even think Ohio State likes him, and I couldn’t tell you why. I think they have a great offense year in and year out.
“Their offensive line did incredible last year, but I think the interesting thing is that they’ll have a different offensive line coach because he left to go to the Cardinals, and now they have a guy who hasn’t coached O-line since 2016. It’ll be interesting to see how that works out.”
When Ohio State football offered Jackson Cantwell
Ohio State offered Cantwell in October 2023. When announcing his offer, he said he received it from Buckeyes general manager Mark Pantoni.
When did Jackson Cantwell visit Ohio State football?
Cantwell has visited Ohio State twice in the last five months.
The first came in mid-December ahead of the Buckeyes’ first-round College Football Playoff win over Tennessee. He returned to Columbus for a two-day visit in March, where he was able to meet with Bowen, the new OSU offensive line coach, for the first time.
Ohio State football offensive linemen NFL Draft picks since 2020
Ohio State will likely have multiple offensive linemen selected in this week’s NFL Draft.
ESPN ranks Josh Simmons as the fourth-best offensive tackle, Donovan Jackson as the fourth-best guard and Seth McLaughlin as the second-best center.
- 2023 – Paris Johnson Jr. (Sixth overall pick)
- 2023 – Daward Jones (Fourth round)
- 2023 – Luke Wypler (Sixth round)
- 2022 – Nicholas Petit-Frere (Third round)
- 2022 – Thayer Munford (Seventh round)
- 2021 – Josh Myers (Second round)
- 2021 – Wyatt Davis (Third round)
- 2020 – Jonah Jackson (Third round)
Ohio State football 2025 offensive line roster makeup
- Seniors – 3
- Juniors – 4
- Sophomores – 5
- Freshmen – 4
Ohio State football 2025 offensive line recruiting class
Carter Lowe — Four-star offensive tackle ranked as the No. 72 player in the 2025 class.
Jake Cook — Three-star interior offensive lineman.
Jayvon McFadden — Three-star offensive lineman.
Ethan Onianwa — Offensive tackle transfer from Rice.
Phillip Daniels — Offensive tackle transfer from Minnesota.
Columbus, Bexley, and Worthington schools among plaintiffs suing state
Thomas Suddes is a former legislative reporter with The Plain Dealer in Cleveland and writes from Ohio University. tsuddes@gmail.com.
In a late-June ruling, a Democratic Franklin County Common Pleas judge outlawed spending Ohioans’ tax money to help parents pay private school tuition for the state’s K-12 pupils via the state’s EdChoice school voucher program.
Because Judge Jaiza Page issued her sure-to-be-appealed decision amid the General Assembly’s budget-writing frenzy, some voters may have missed it. And that is, or should be, a problem for Ohioans who like to keep an eye on how the politicians on Capitol Square spend the people’s money. That’s especially so given the sneaky way that voucher fans expanded voucher spending during the 30 years since vouchers first surfaced in the 1995-97 state budget.
For one thing, as inaugurated then, vouchers could only be used by pupils living in the Cleveland school district. And the total amount of tax money the Republican-run legislature agreed to spend on Ohio’s first “school choice” venture in the 1995 budget amounted to about $5.25 million, The Plain Dealer reported. In terms of today’s population, that’s about 44 cents per Ohio resident.
The budget Gov. Mike DeWine just signed allots about $2.44 billion for voucher programs over the next two years — or about $205 per Ohio resident, an incredible increase resulting from stealthy, year-by-year legislative scheming.
Page’s decision was a clear-cut victory for the public school systems supporting the Vouchers Hurt Ohio coalition (lead plaintiff in the lawsuit: the Columbus schools). Among the coalition’s many other members: The Bexley, Upper Arlington and Worthington schools; the Dayton schools; and such Greater Cleveland districts as Brecksville-Broadview Heights, Cleveland Heights-University Heights, Mayfield, Richmond Heights and Shaker Heights schools; DeWine’s Greene County school district, the Cedar Cliff schools; and Republican Ohio House Speaker Matt Huffman’s hometown district, the Lima schools.
How vouchers violate Ohio’s constitution
Reduced to essentials, the judge ruled that Ohio’s school voucher spending violates the state constitution on a number of fronts. That’s the state constitution that Ohio’s 99 state representatives and 33 state senators must swear to uphold before they can take their seats in the General Assembly.
The state will appeal Page’s decision to the Ohio 10th District Court of Appeals, which encompasses Franklin County. If the all-Democratic appellate court upholds the Common Pleas ruling — it likely will — the state would undoubtedly ask the Ohio Supreme Court, with a 6-1 Republican majority, to save the voucher program. And the Supreme Court’s GOP incumbents have shown zero appetite for challenging the similarly Republican-run General Assembly.
Page sided with the voucher foes on three of the arguments they made.
First, the plaintiffs argued that vouchers breached the Ohio Constitution, which requires the General Assembly to create and fund “a thorough and efficient system of common schools throughout the state.” But she found that “the evidence … [showed] that, in expanding the EdChoice program to its current form, the General Assembly has created a system of uncommon private schools by directly providing private schools with over $700 million in funding.”
Page said the plaintiffs had also shown the state had additionally violated Ohio’s constitution to maintain a “thorough and efficient” school system when General Assembly Republicans decided against fully funding what’s known as the Cupp-Patterson Fair School Funding Plan. Result: Ohio public schools received $6.48 billion in state aid instead of $7.24 billion for fiscal year 2022. She said the difference was close to the amount of state voucher funding that same fiscal year.
Finally, the judge agreed with voucher foes that because the program “provides private religious schools with approximately $1 billion in public school funds [the voucher program] violates … the Ohio Constitution by giving a religion or other sect the exclusive right to, or control of, a part of the school funds of Ohio.”
Voucher partially to blame for rising property taxes
What the judge didn’t say, but fairly might have observed, is that the creation and steady increases in Ohio’s state-tax-subsidies for non-public schools has been Statehouse government by stealth: start small, then, budget-by-budget, year by year, divert more and more public school money for the benefit of private schools. The resulting financial squeeze on public school districts is a big reason why skyrocketing property taxes are hammering Ohio homeowners — property tax burdens the General Assembly is making heavier by steadily diverting public school money to private schools.
Thomas Suddes is a former legislative reporter with The Plain Dealer in Cleveland and writes from Ohio University. tsuddes@gmail.com.
Ohio State has struck out on another key edge-rushing target with the news that 4-star 2026 defensive end KJ Ford has verbally committed to the Florida Gators over the Buckeyes. It’s unfortunately news that continues the trend of Ohio State not being able to land several of its priority edge rushers in the 2026 class, and a bit of a continuation over the last couple of years.
Out of Duncanville, Texas, Ford is ranked as the No. 15 edge rusher and 116th overall prospect in the 2026 class according to the 247Sports composite rankings. Ford chose the Gators over OSU and Texas A&M.
So far in the 2026 recruiting cycle, Larry Johnson and Ohio State have missed out on other priority defensive end targets Luke Wafle (USC), Carter Meadows (Michigan) and Landon Barnes (Ole Miss). They do have one high-profile edge rusher with the commitment of Khary Wilder, but the number of targets available that Ohio State would love to land on the edge is dwindling fast.
The Ohio State football 2026 recruiting class still sits with 21 commitments in the class, one that is currently inside the top ten. As any more significant news on the recruiting side of things becomes available, we’ll bring it to you.
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It comes as no surprise that Ohio State is seen as Michigan football’s archvillain in ESPN’s estimation. After all, for nearly two decades, the Buckeyes were impossible to beat for the Wolverines — no matter how good the team appeared to be. The maize and blue have since righted the ship, rattling off four straight victories over the scarlet and gray, but the hate for all things OSU now permeates Schembechler Hall in a way that it hadn’t previously.
On the flip side, despite crossing out all of the Ms on campus in Columbus and singing songs about how they don’t care for the whole state of Michigan, it was all somewhat rote for Ohio State. Michigan wasn’t much of a threat, and beating the Wolverines felt more like a birthright in the state of Ohio. However, things changed in 2021, and thus, the archvillain for the Buckeyes isn’t just Michigan as a whole; it’s Sherrone Moore, ESPN says.
Michigan coach Sherrone Moore has become a problem for the Buckeyes. He might not wear the villain outfit quite as well as predecessor Jim Harbaugh did, but Moore’s rise in coaching — as Wolverines offensive line coach, offensive coordinator and now head coach — has coincided with Ohio State’s longest losing streak (four games) to its archrival since 1991. Moore served as acting head coach during Harbaugh’s Big Ten-imposed suspension in 2023, as Michigan punched its ticket to the Big Ten championship game. He then earned the permanent role and pulled off one of the more stunning upsets in the history of The Game in November in Columbus. The story of Moore’s coaching career at Michigan is really just beginning, but he has already demonstrated his ability to win the biggest games.
It’s a pretty accurate stance. Michigan didn’t start winning in the series until Moore was promoted and given a bigger role with the team. He’s beaten OSU twice in a head coaching role — once when it was completely unexpected. He’s managed to push the right buttons, ranging from the offensive line (the team’s identity in 2021-23) to the head coaching role.
Of course, Ohio State fans will likely screech more about Connor Stalions and sign stealing, while misrepresenting what is actually under investigation by the NCAA, which may mean that facts are also a villain for self-proclaimed Buckeye Nation. But also, given how much OSU fans have talked about the Wolverines in the immediate aftermath of winning a national championship, don’t let them make you think they don’t have an overall insecurity about Michigan.
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