Recruiting Roundup: Five-star OT locks in official visit to Michigan

A five-star recruit recently locked in his official visit to Michigan in June, and he will also be in Ann Arbor in a few short weeks for an unofficial visit. We have that and more in today’s Recruiting Roundup:

Spring recruiting visits get started in just a few weeks, meaning an underrated chunk of the recruiting calendar is nearly here for Michigan. As the spring game inches closer — which is also always a huge weekend for recruiting visits — there’s plenty of news to get to. Let’s kick things off with the top-ranked recruit in the 2026 class.

Five-star OT has two Michigan visits coming up

Jackson Cantwell , a 2026 five-star offensive tackle and the No. 1 overall player on the 247Sports composite, will be at Michigan twice in the coming months. He has scheduled a spring visit for March 22 and will be back the weekend of June 13 for his official visit.

Cantwell already has visited Michigan once , so going on these follow-up visits is an encouraging sign. The Nixa, Missouri, native has other official visits scheduled for Miami, Missouri, Georgia, and Oregon, and will also set one for Ohio State in the future.

“Each official visit is very big,” Cantwell told On3’s Chad Simmons ($). “I don’t have a leader right now, but I should have one after these. On these visits, I want to see how much I can see myself wanting to play football and live years of my life at these universities.”

Cantwell also mentioned playing two sports in college isn’t out of the question, as he’s a very impressive shotput thrower .

If Michigan lands Cantwell — assuming he stays the No. 1 recruit — they’d be the first school to land No. 1 recruits on the 247Sports composite in back-to-back years since they started tracking prospect rankings in 2000.

Michigan among schools making four-star edge feel like a priority

Michigan is one of a few schools making Carter Meadows a priority, he told On3’s Simmons ($) . Head coach Sherrone Moore, defensive line coach Lou Esposito and general manager Sean Magee visited the DC native at a recent basketball game , with Meadows being a target for the Wolverines for a while now .

Meadows was recently bumped to a five-star on On3 , but is still rated as a four-star on the composite , ranked just outside the top-100 in the 2026 class.

Meadows will see those coaches again next month, as he’ll be visiting Michigan from March 21-23, as well as Penn State sometime in March and South Carolina in the middle of April. He said those are the three schools making him “feel like a priority.”

“I was at Michigan for the USC game and I liked how they all play for each other,” Meadows said. “The fan base and they had high energy. They all seemed to be together and I liked that. Michigan is a great academic school too, so I like that a lot.”

2026 WR commit recruiting top talent to Michigan

The Wolverines only have two commits in 2026, but one of them — three-star wide receiver Jaylen Pile — appears to be all in on Michigan. He’ll be visiting Michigan next month (March 20), as well as the weekend of June 20 for his official visit.

During those visits, Pile plans on putting his recruiting hat on and going after some of the guys that the Wolverines have been recruiting for a while.

“I am just going this spring to hang out and recruit. I love Michigan,” he told On3’s Simmons ($). “Now I want to recruit other guys to play there. Some targets are Javian Osborne, Zadem Krempin, Brock Harris, Mason James and Matt Ludwig.”

Pile is ranked just outside the top-500 on the composite and has been committed to Michigan since October . If he is able to help Michigan land some of those guys, that would go a long way in making Michigan one of the top recruiting classes in the cycle.

“We are the up and up in 2026 and we can build off the last class,” Pile said. “This 2026 class is like-minded and we will make a run at that national title. I love how the coaches are family-based and I talk to coach Bellamy every week. He is down to earth and we talk about everything.”

Quick Hitters

• 2026 four-star safety Jordan Deck included Michigan in his top-six, with an official visit set for May 30.

• Ian Premer , a four-star tight end in the 2026 class, is set to visit Michigan on March 22. His dad told Steve Wiltfong at On3 ($) the family is visiting Miami, Notre Dame and Michigan during their spring break before releasing a final schools list for official visits.
• Speaking of tight ends, 2026 three-star Colorado native Ty Goettsche recently picked up a Michigan offer.