Recruit of the Week: A 300-pound limbo champion? Meet college football's next elite LT, Mark Matthews
Miami currently holds a 247Sports crystal ball prediction for the elite offensive line prospect, with LSU, Texas A&M and Georgia all in Matthews' final four as well
CBS Sports is highlighting a 2027 recruit each week who could play a large role in the direction of the cycle. This week we start with one of the largest (literally) prospects of the 2027 class, Mark Matthews
Few things are more important for an offensive tackle than their ability to bend.
Winning the down-to-down battle on the edge is about leverage. Pass rushers need bend to dip under blocks at high speeds and maintain stability. Offensive tackles need hip and knee flexibility to maintain their stance in a kick-slide to preserve power and balance against the defender.
There isn't an offensive tackle in the 2027 class that bends quite like Mark Matthews.
Just watch the No. 3 overall player in the country win a limbo contest at a recruiting event.
My back cracked just watching that video.
Matthews, all 6-foot-6, 300 pounds of him, made it look easy.
That functional athletic ability is one of the most intriguing things about Matthews.
He wasn't always an offensive tackle. He wasn't even always a football player, spending most of his time on the basketball court. Matthews didn't begin playing the sport until his freshman year at Florida powerhouse St. Thomas Aquinas.
Matthews was supposed to play junior varsity as a ninth grader. That didn't last long. He got the callup to varsity the day before St. Thomas' season opener.
That football journey actually began on defense. It's what he played as a freshman. One year later he began his sophomore season with a sack in St. Thomas' season opener against Las Vegas' Bishop Gorman High School in a nationally televised game on ESPN.
Once Matthews began playing offense, he emerged as close to ideal as an offensive tackle prospect gets.
"Everyone wants him, and that's because he's one of the few guys in the class that has the chance to be a left tackle," 247Sports National Scouting Director Andrew Ivins said.
The elite traits
When Ivins watches Matthews, he sees Tristian Wirfs, or at least the traits that made Wirfs such an intriguing four-star prospect coming out of high school.
Back then, Wirfs stood 6-foot-5, 290 pounds. An Iowa signee at the Navy All-American Bowl, Ivins said Matthews and Wirfs' measurements are very similar. Height, weight, hand size and length – Matthews compares very favorably.
But what Ivins will always remember about Wirfs is watching him do a handstand walk at the All-American Bowl check-in. It's a freakish athleticism at his size that's made Wirfs one of the NFL's best tackles. It's also a trait that makes Matthews so fascinating, even if he's reasonably new to the position.
"You see all this upside, all this loads of potential, and just like with all these other, you know, high profile athletic big men there are going to be lumps and growing pains," Ivins said. "But he flashes an elite kick step. He's got all the tools to be a guy that's going to go Day 1 three or four years from now."
The Contenders
Matthews has a public final four of Miami, LSU, Texas A&M and Georgia.
The three SEC teams have made a push for Matthews, all of them receiving visits this spring. But there's one obvious contender looming over Matthews' recruitment -- the Hurricanes.
Matthews goes to school 45 minutes away from Coral Gables. Miami was one of his first big offers. The Hurricanes have a history of offensive line development under head coach Mario Cristobal and offensive line coach Alex Mirabal.
Miami has shown no hesitation to spend big in the offensive tackle market out of high school. The elite offensive linemen cost well over a million a year in the high school ranks, and the Hurricanes have signed three five-star offensive tackles since the 2023 cycle – a sixth of the available five-star tackles in that period.
It's a recipe that might make Miami hard to beat as Matthews barrels toward a decision, which could happen this spring or stretch into the summer if he decides to take official visits.
"(Miami) was the first school out of his mouth when we first started doing the 2027 rankings," 247Sports National Analyst Tom Loy said. "And I can tell you from Miami's perspective that confidence is extremely high he'll end up in Coral Gables. To be completely clear, I'd be shocked if he ended up anywhere other than the Hurricanes."
That's where the Crystal Ball sits at 247Sports at the moment, too.
