The 2026 college football freshman class picked up a late jolt on Thursday when Texas commit John Meredith III reclassified and will now be eligible this fall.
Meredith, a five-star corner originally ranked by ESPN as the No. 2 overall recruit in 2027, gives the Longhorns another elite talent to track as they sort out a crowded defensive backfield. Rivals compared his “combination of stature, length and athleticism as a boundary corner” to Sauce Gardner, and that kind of praise usually follows a player for a reason.
Still, the path to snaps won’t be handed to him. Texas has five-star sophomore Kade Phillips and redshirt junior transfer Bo Mascoe projected as the starters at left and right corner, with sophomore Graceson Littleton - who had two interceptions last season - working in nickel packages.
After the reclassification news, Steve Sarkisian told reporters at SEC media days, “For us to get him now, we'll see how far it goes,” per 247Sports. He added, “We don't have an expectation on him of a timetable,” and, “When he's ready, I think he'll be good enough to play.”
There’s a similar wait-and-see feel around Vanderbilt quarterback Jared Curtis, though the upside is obvious. Clark Lea still hasn’t settled on who will replace Diego Pavia, and Curtis enters the race with the best ceiling in the room.
The five-star recruit flipped from Georgia last December and became the highest-ranked commit in Vanderbilt history. He’s competing with Blaze Berlowitz, Whit Muschamp and Jack Elliott, a trio of former three-star prospects who know the system better even if they don’t bring Curtis’ blue-chip profile.
Lea said, “He's got to show he's the best of the four” while also noting “there are certainly things that make him unique. His biggest hurdle is going to be pre-snap and post-snap processing,” Lea continued.
“He's got really good instincts.”
At Miami, Jackson Cantwell arrives with the kind of size and résumé that can change the look of an offensive line fast. The 6-foot-8, 330-pound tackle became the first offensive lineman to win Gatorade Player of the Year after a senior season at Nixa High School in Missouri that included 153 pancake blocks and even a touchdown in 13 games before a Class 6 state championship game loss to Lee’s Summit.
Now he steps into a 2025 national runner-up team as a top-10 overall prospect according to 247Sports, Rivals and ESPN, and he’s in position to start at left tackle with Francis Mauigoa and Markel Bell headed to the 2026 NFL Draft. The job is there, and so is the expectation.
Ohio State may have another freshman wideout ready to make noise behind Jeremiah Smith. Chris Henry Jr. is a 6-foot-5 target who could force defenses into impossible choices if they’re already leaning hard toward Smith.
The Buckeyes saw Smith explode as a freshman two years ago, and Henry has the tools to make his own immediate mark. One defender learned that the hard way in the opener of Henry’s senior year, and he was also the top performer in April’s Scarlet vs.
Gray spring game with four catches for 96 yards and a touchdown.
Alabama’s freshman spotlight falls on EJ Crowell, and the Tide could use the help. Their ground game was rough last season, finishing with 48 yards on 58 carries in the SEC championship game and College Football Playoff.
Over the full 2025 season, Alabama averaged 3.4 yards per carry, its worst mark since 1995, according to Stathead. Crowell, a five-star back from Jackson, AL, brings the kind of force that can help fix that quickly.
He showed off tackle-breaking power on his first carry of 2025 and later ran through half the defense for a touchdown. He also flashed second-level burst in the Alabama-Mississippi All-Star Game on a play that was wiped out by holding on the other side of the field.
Crowell finished that game with 61 yards and a touchdown on 10 carries and was named MVP one week after piling up 304 yards and five scores in a Class 4A state championship win. Kalen DeBoer said at SEC media days, “I'd like to think he's gonna be a piece of the puzzle when it comes to our running back position,” but Crowell looks capable of being much more than that.
In Other News...
Clark Lea Just Addressed Vanderbilts Biggest Post-Pavia Question
Clark Lea used his time at SEC Media Days to put Vanderbilts recent rise in perspective, pointing back to a season that changed the mood around the program and the steady climb that got the Commodores there. After years of trying to reset the standard, Lea said the work is still about building the best football program possible, and he made a point of crediting athletic director Candice Storey Lee for helping steer that turnaround.
The bigger question now is how Vanderbilt carries that momentum forward without Diego Pavia, last years SEC Player of the Year and the face of the breakthrough. Lea acknowledged the challenge of replacing that kind of presence, even as the Commodores try to keep their edge and prove the success of last season was not just a one-year spike. [Read more 🡒]
Diego Pavia Just Hit An Early NFL Reality Check
Diego Pavias first NFL stop has already turned into a reminder of how unforgiving the league can be for a quarterback trying to climb the depth chart. Baltimore waived the former Vanderbilt star after he had signed a three-year deal following the 2026 NFL Draft, ending his bid for the Ravens No. 3 quarterback job before it ever really got going.
For Commodores fans, the setback lands a little differently because Pavias rise in Nashville was one of the programs most memorable recent stories. He carried Vanderbilt to a program-best 10 wins, then went undrafted despite that breakthrough season, with his 5-foot-9 frame still looming over how NFL teams evaluated him. Baltimores move leaves him searching for his next chance, and it underscores just how steep the climb remains. [Read more 🡒]
Vanderbilt Opens SEC Play Facing One Problem Auburn Will Exploit
Vanderbilts SEC opener arrives Sept. 26 at Auburn, and the timing could hardly be trickier for a Commodores team still sorting out its new-look offense. With a nine-game league schedule ahead, the first road test already comes against a Tigers program that has also remade itself, bringing in new head coach Alex Golesh and a roster built to look much different than it did a year ago.
The matchup puts extra pressure on Vanderbilts offense to settle in quickly, especially with new starters across key spots and a quarterback picture that remains unsettled. Auburn, meanwhile, has the kind of fresh personnel that can make a season opener feel more like a referendum, with Byrum Brown leading the offense and a receiving group that should give the Tigers more options than they had before. [Read more 🡒]