Georgia football and the rest of the college football world are entering a recruiting dead period that will last for about a month. That means that recruits are not allowed to visit schools right now which means fans will likely get less updates on how recruitments are going.
However, on the day before this dead period begins, Kirby Smart and Georgia just received great news (and potentially a hidden message) from the top ranked player in the country.
BREAKING: Five-Star Plus+ OT Jackson Cantwell is down to 6 Schools, he tells me for @on3recruits
— Hayes Fawcett (@Hayesfawcett3) February 2, 2025
The 6’8 315 OT from Nixa, MO is ranked as the No. 1 Recruit in the ‘26 Class (per On3 Industry)
Where Should He Go?👇🏽https://t.co/jqOcsEYc5A pic.twitter.com/AcQV81jvLW
5-star OT Jackson Cantwell
Jackson Cantwell is a five-star offensive tackle from Nixa, MO. According to the 247Sports composite rankings, Cantwell is the No. 1 player from Missouri and the top ranked offensive takle in the 2026 class as well. That clearly is extremely impressive, but to take it a step further, Cantwell is also the No. 1 player in the country.
Cantwell just released his top six schools, and according to Hayes Fawcett with On3, Georgia made the cut. Michigan, Miami (FL), Missouri, Ohio State and Oregon are the five other teams included in Cantwell's top six as well.
It's clear this recruitment will be extremely difficult to win based on this competition, but it is a big deal that Georgia is still in the running. However, based on a social media post from Cantwell himself, Georgia may just be the team to beat.
Journey is almost over…where’s home?#GoDawgs#ItsAllAboutTheU#GoBlue#MIZ#GoBucks#ScoDucks https://t.co/7GrtMyZCEL
— Jackson Cantwell (@jcantwell2499) February 2, 2025
In the above post, Cantwell is reacting to the original tweet from Fawcett announcing his top six. On the surface it seems like Cantwell is just giving love to the six schools still in the running in his recruitment. But at second glance, Cantwell might be sending a message to Georgia.
Georgia's "Go Dawgs" hashtag just so happened to be listed first by Cantwell. Now this may mean absolutely nothing considering Georgia was also listed first by Fawcett in his top six graphic, but the order of teams listed by Cantwell does not follow the order displayed by Fawcett. This means that Cantwell chose on his own to list Georgia first.
Now it's more than likely that this was random and has no meaning whatsoever. But it's impossible to deny that there isn't a chance that Cantwell is indicating UGA is his top school right now.
Time will tell if that is the case or not, but at the very least Georgia is still in the running which is a big win.