Jackson’s Landon Duckworth chooses South Carolina over Auburn

By JIMMY WIGFIELD

JACKSON — Jackson quarterback Landon Duckworth committed to South Carolina on Friday, choosing the Gamecocks over Auburn in a decision he said has been set for a long time.

The four-star Duckworth (6-3, 195) — who is rated the nation’s No. 8 quarterback in the 2026 class by Rivals, the No. 6 dual-threat quarterback by ESPN and among the national Elite 11 — had committed to South Carolina as a freshman, then de-committed to explore his options.

“Landon’s turned into one of the best passers in America and he’s earned that,” said QB Country founder David Morris, who has worked with Duckworth since the third grade and developed a long line of luminary quarterbacks, including Eli Manning, Bo Nix, Mac Jones, Drake May, Gardner Minshew and Daniel Jones. “He can be an All-SEC-type quarterback. He’s that talented. He just needs to get in a system and settle in and learn and be coached up. The sky’s the limit.”

Duckworth, the reigning Class 4A Back of the Year in Alabama, was also offered by Georgia, Ole Miss, Florida, Arkansas, Mississippi State, Texas A&M, Vanderbilt, North Carolina, TCU, Oregon, Florida State, Georgia Tech and Nebraska but he didn’t find anyone better than the Gamecocks, who enjoyed their best season in four years under Shane Beamer in 2024, finishing 9-4.

“My mind was pretty well settled with just me already being committed there,” he said after announcing his decision at the Jackson Assembly House. “We already had a pretty good relationship. The way I decommitted, it was not, ‘I don’t want to play here,’ I just needed to open up my recruitment.”

Duckworth’s decision to go out of state was another setback for Auburn and coach Hugh Freeze, who has been widely criticized for the Tigers’ low national recruiting ranking this summer after back-to-back top-10 classes the previous two years. Auburn’s 2026 recruiting class generally ranks below 50^th nationally and Rivals and 247Sports rank it worse than any other SEC program except for Missouri.

Duckworth dismissed any blowback from his decision.

“I don’t play stuff like that,” he said. “I went to Auburn, it was good, but I just felt like South Carolina was a better place for me to play. It was nothing bad about Auburn, nothing like that. I love all the coaches there. It was just the environment (at South Carolina).”

Morris told Duckworth he should ignore those who find fault with his choice.

“Your decision will get scrutinized and picked apart,” Morris said in remarks before Duckworth revealed his decision. “Don’t pay attention to that … peace is letting people know they were wrong about you.”

Duckworth will go to a deeper quarterback room in Columbia than on the Plains and cited a strong relationship with Gamecocks offensive coordinator and former Alabama quarterback Mike Shula as one of the factors in his decision.

The Tigers have Oklahoma transfer Jackson Arnold and five-star true freshman Deuce Knight while South Carolina has four-stars Luke Doty and LaNorris Sellers, who is considered one of the nation’s top quarterbacks, three-star Cutter Woods and transfer Air Noland.

Duckworth is South Carolina’s second-highest-rated high school quarterback commitment since Ryan Hilinski in 2019 and is considered one of the Gamecocks’ top all-time recruits by Big Spur/247Sports. Hilinski transferred to Northwestern after two years.

Jackson coach Cody Flournoy and Morris expect Duckworth to be an SEC star.

“Landon’s got something that you don’t teach and that’s the ability to extend the play,” Flournoy said. “In the SEC, they’re really fast defensively and they fly around and the quarterbacks have to make plays. He’s got all the arm talent, he’s got all the leg talent, all the athleticism, he’s accurate, he can read the defense but when everything breaks down — because it breaks down — what can he do there? And that’s where I think you’ll see him continue to shine.”

Morris said Duckworth’s passion to be a great quarterback and his obsessive work ethic is unmatched and sets him apart.

“He’s very, very committed,” Morris said. “He has worked through the mountaintops and the valleys … He’s been working at it for a long time, taking a two-hour round trip to come train with us. Him and (former Saraland and current Texas quarterback) K.J. Lacey are probably the two guys I’ve seen the most over the last 10 years and it pays off. I just think he has a special work ethic. … He’s literally got better every day.”

Duckworth has won five state championships while at Jackson and is aiming for a sixth this season as the Aggies try to win back-to-back football Blue Maps. He has won consecutive basketball and outdoor 4×100-meter relay state championships. Duckworth plans to graduate early, so he won’t play basketball or run track for the Aggies in 2026.

Duckworth is 33-5 as Jackson’s starting quarterback and has passed for 5,735 yards and 69 touchdowns with a .636 completion percentage in three years. He has also run for 1,052 yards on 134 carries, averaging 7.9 yards per carry, and 20 TDs.

In last year’s 69-6 win over Cherokee County to win the Class 4A state championship, Duckworth had an immortal performance, completing 14 of 17 passes for 325 yards. He threw for more touchdowns (5) than incompletions (3).

Flournoy said South Carolina made an impression on Duckworth by seeing something in him as a freshman that other schools didn’t.

“The quarterback recruiting process is a lot different,” Flournoy said. “They show potential as a freshman, as a 10th grader, but are they good enough to be an SEC quarterback? That takes a couple years of really watching and seeing how they mature from one year to the next and Landon made all those jumps. Some of the teams came on him later that really liked him because he made those jumps but they were having a hard time.

“He’s a national quarterback. The whole time South Carolina’s done a good job recruiting him. That’s where out of state and in state kind of matters because the in-state schools like Auburn and Bama would not get on him early because they can’t miss because he’s an in-state kid. If South Carolina offered him early and then this kid doesn’t pan out, they’ll pull his offer. That’s just the nature of recruiting right now. The out-of-state teams actually were able to get on him earlier because the in-state schools, they had to make sure he was going to be who they thought he was. Of course, he is. Looking back on it in hindsight, we all knew. I’m not discrediting anybody. It’s just harder to pull that trigger in state on a kid that you’re not sure about, especially the quarterback position.”