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.
Out of prison, Indiana’s caviar king back on Ohio River to find fishing holes taken
David Cox, of English, Indiana, says once he began setting his nets again after a two-year prison sentence and a three-year ban on commercial fishing, all of his once-secret spots were taken.
Can you eat fish from the Ohio River?
In 1975, future presidential candidate Michael Dukakis, then governor of Massachusetts, bet 20 pounds of New England cod that the Red Sox would defeat the Reds in the World Series. If things went south for Boston, Ohio governor James Rhodes promised to send Dukakis 10 pounds of Lake Erie perch and 10 pounds of Ohio River catfish. The Reds ended up winning and the cod was sent to the Convalescent Home for Children, in Cincinnati.
At the time, people were still eating catfish from the Ohio without too much concern. The fish were also served at several restaurants along the river.
There were warnings in 1977
But two years later, in 1977, The Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission released the results of a study of contaminants found in the tissues of Ohio River fish. They warned anglers in cities such as Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Louisville, Wheeling and Gallipolis that man-made chemicals known as PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, had been discovered in the river fish. Later, high concentrations of mercury were discovered in the fish, too.
Thanks to the Clean Water Act of 1972 and the environmental regulations that followed, the river is now cleaner than it was in the seventies. And it’s still teeming with a variety of fish, including catfish, striped bass, drum and black bass, among other species.
But even though PCBs were banned by the Environmental Protection Agency in 1979, they are still found in fish, since they remain in the sediment in the bottom of the river. “Organisms live in the sediment and fish feed on them,” Rich Cogen, the executive director of the Ohio River Foundation told The Enquirer. Mercury is also a big problem, according to Cogen.
So the question is: Can you eat fish caught in the Ohio River?
The short answer is yes. But it depends on what species you are eating and where along the river you caught it.
There are also very strict limitations on how frequently you should eat them, according to the web site for the Ohio Sport Fish Consumption Advisory, part of the Ohio Department of Health.
In areas of the river between the Belleville Lock, located 204 miles downstream from the river’s origins in Pittsburgh, to the Indiana border, the advisory agency currently recommends consuming Ohio River fish no more than once a month max. That area includes Adams, Brown, Clermont, Gallia, Hamilton, Lawrence, Meigs and Scioto counties.
Here’s where to check
Recommendations change throughout the year, but you can keep up by visiting the Ohio Department of Health’s Sport Fish Consumption Advisory page, which provides updated information on when certain fish, usually bottom feeders such as carp, are deemed too dangerous to eat at all.
Here’s who should take a pass on Ohio River fish
The agency also warns that people who are more likely to have health effects from eating contaminated fish, includingchildren younger than 15 years old, pregnant women and women who are planning to become pregnant to avoid Ohio River fish altogether.
Just because you have to limit the amount of fish you eat, doesn’t mean the river is a bad place for fishing, as long as you limit your intake or do catch-and-release fishing. Just make sure you have a proper fishing license before casting your line.
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It isn’t over until it’s over. That’s the case for both the UCLA Bruins football program recruiting and for quarterback Brady Edmunds. Edmunds is currently committed to head to Ohio State but he took a visit from UCLA offensive coordinator Dean Kennedy earlier this week.
Kennedy met Edmunds on Thursday despite the fact that the quarterback has been committed to the Buckeyes since December of 2024 but could the UCLA Bruins be making a run at flipping the quarterback?
Edmunds has only had an official visit with Ohio State but could UCLA heave a heat check on the 6’5” quarterback? New UCLA head coach Bob Chesney is off to an unbelievable start to his recruiting with the Bruins and flipping a recruit of Edmunds’ caliber would be his most impressive move yet.
247 Sports has Edmunds as the No. 16 quarterback in the class, which would give UCLA a clear predecessor for Nico Iamaleava whenever the Bruins current starting quarterback decides to head to the professional level.
It’d be a full circle moment for the Bruins, as Edmunds was originally recruited to Ohio State by former UCLA head coach Chip Kelly, who bailed on UCLA to go run the Buckeyes offense. Ohio State is a great spot for a developing quarterback, as the Buckeyes produce tons of NFL talent, especially at the wide receiver position, which would help Edmunds put up some gaudy numbers in Columbus.
Chesney and the Bruins have geography on their side, Edmunds attends Huntington Beach High School in Southern California, which could potentially become a factor if Edmunds views UCLA as a program on the rise that’d be much closer to his friends and family than out in Ohio.
Time will tell if Kennedy’s visit will make a difference but UCLA’s recruiting has made waves in the first offseason under Chesney and the new regime.
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