Georgia did everything right with Jackson Cantwell and still lost

Kirby Smart did everything right.

The Georgia coach, who has won two national championships, had five-star offensive tackle Jackson Cantwell on campus six times.

The Nixa, Mo., standout spent tons of time with position coach Stacy Searels. He had the opportunity to feel what Georgia football was all about – all the winning, the competitiveness, the NFL development, the SEC.

Following his visit back to Athens over the weekend, a source said they were very confident Georgia was far-and-away the leader.

On Tuesday, Cantwell, the No. 1 player in the 2026 class, committed to Miami over Georgia, Oregon and Ohio State.

“I don’t know what happened,” the source said.

To say Cantwell’s entire decision centered around NIL would be unfair because the five-star offensive tackle bonded so well with Miami coach Mario Cristobal and position coach Alex Mirabal. Cantwell is a relationships guy, an affable kid who wants to be around people he has a connection with.

But to say Cantwell’s decision was not influenced by NIL – reportedly in the $2 million range and some have heard even a touch more – then you’re being naive or willfully ignorant to the state of college football recruiting.

A top athlete doesn’t sign with agent Drew Rosenhaus if they’re not looking for some cheddar. Which is perfectly fine, perfectly legal and perfectly within the parameters of today’s recruiting world.

It’s just not the way Smart is going to play ball.

To put Smart’s sensibilities into perspective on this topic, here was the Georgia coach in March leading into spring practice about what he was looking for from his team.

Mind you, this is someone who tasted the elixir of back-to-back national championships in 2021 and 2022 only to see Michigan and Ohio State win the last two. The Dawgs are coming off a three-loss season.

“I want to see the fire,” Smart said. “I want to see the passion, the energy. I want to see who wants to be a good football player. Who really cares about this game. Like, they care more about the game than they do their NIL revenue stream.

“Like if you really, really, really care about the game and want to be good it doesn’t matter about any kind of money. It matters how I play the game and more and more we’re seeing across college football, the purest, the ones that care about the game the most, play the hardest.

“And usually the team that plays the hardest wins. I know everybody thinks it’s just whoever is more talented but there is a whole lot to how hard you play and how much you care about it.”

Georgia might not have Miami, Oregon, Texas, Texas A&M kind of NIL money backed up by shoe companies or oil reserves. But the Bulldogs have some bank. They might not tap a tech billionaire like Michigan did for five-star QB Bryce Underwood but the Dawgs are well-heeled.

Smart is just not going to push his entire stack into the middle on one player, say, Cantwell. If the Bulldogs can circle back on five-star Immanuel Iheanacho or make a less-costly run at four-stars Carter Scruggs, Malakai Lee, Ekene Ogboko and others, that might be more rewarding in the end.

At least, that’s the bet Smart is making.

With more NIL money freed up as Cantwell packs his flip flops for South Beach, Georgia can spread more around to multiple offensive linemen, to four-star tight end Mark Bowman, to four-star all-purpose back Derrek Cooper, to five-star linebacker Tyler Atkinson and others.

Or the Bulldogs can go for some veterans in the portal. Former five-star Zachariah Branch has game-breaker ability. Adding players there can be costly as well.

We have all played fantasy football. We all know the guy that drastically pays up for one player early in the draft only to have that player get hurt or not pan out and their season is over. Smart is doing the intelligent thing – spread the money across multiple bets and coach them up. Find that fire, passion and energy he’s talked about so often.

Plus, it feels like Kirby is just not going to bow down. He comes from the Nick Saban line of coaching and NIL is one reason Saban retired – people coming into his office with their hand out, not to see all the title rings and to shake it but looking for some dough.

Right or wrong, this is how Smart is going to run his program. It’s worked out pretty well so far as he’s winning nearly 85 percent of his games and has two championships already.

Cantwell chose Miami. Georgia (and Smart) will live to fight another day.

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