2026 four-star QB recruit Landon Duckworth
247Sports
Landon Duckworth is a top-10 quarterback in America. Not that long ago, that title merely brought with it hype and expectations.
No doubt, as Duckworth — a four-star prospect from Jackson, Alabama — is expected to sign with South Carolina on Wednesday, hype and expectations will follow. As will the NIL money. How much? Enough to worry his mom.
“I don’t care what nobody says,” Tiffany Campbell, Duckworth’s mom, told The State. “As a parent, kids having access to that type of money is scary.”
Throughout his recruitment, Campbell tried to shield her son from as much financial talk as possible. She didn’t allow any school to discuss money with her or Duckworth until he was a senior in high school, knowing that a younger kid is going to hear big numbers and run toward them.
She also knows that money is not some foreign object to her son. They did not grow up rich, Campbell said, but she owns an income tax preparation office and two tax services, setting up one as an Amazon Partner Hub.
“I’ve been able to afford the things that he’s always wanted,” she said. “Like I told him, ‘You’ve already had access to certain things so, you know, just live like you’ve been living.’”
All of which meant: Duckworth went through the recruiting process unencumbered by which school was tossing around the biggest NIL package. Which helped lead him to the place he felt most comfortable: South Carolina.
“Landon was never looking at money,” Campbell said. “Because if he was, he would be at other places.”
Campbell declined to detail the NIL package South Carolina presented to Duckworth, but noted that he has a two-year deal with the Gamecocks. He will enroll at South Carolina in January and, by then, should have an idea if starting quarterback LaNorris Sellers will return for another season.
Regardless, per the 247Sports Composite rankings, Duckworth comes to South Carolina as the highest-rated quarterback signed under coach Shane Beamer. And, if nothing else, he’s a winner.
He was part of two Jackson High basketball state title teams. He was a part of the state-title-winning 4×100 relay team. And, as a junior, Duckworth led Jackson to a 4A Alabama state championship in football and will try and make it back-to-back state titles on Friday night.
This season, Duckworth has completed over 60% of his passes for 2,160 yards and 20 touchdowns while throwing nine interceptions. In addition, he’s run for nearly 600 yards and 11 touchdowns.
“He’s a competitor,” said Duckworth’s QB coach, Davis Morris, who owns the renowned “QB Country.” “He hates to lose and it bothers him to lose. It bothers him not to play at a high level.”
Landon Duckworth looks on before the Gamecocks’ game against Vanderbilt at Williams-Brice Stadium in Columbia on Saturday, September 13, 2025. Sam Wolfe Special To The State
Good thing he’s been playing at a high level for a long time. Morris, who’s trained such NFL quarterbacks as Eli Manning, Bo Nix, Drake Maye and others, started working with Duckworth when he was a third-grader. And, for almost a decade, Duckworth — or Campbell, or a Jackson coach — has driven an hour and 15 minutes to Mobile for training sessions.
“The thing that stands out to me about Landon is his consistency,” Morris said. “Whether that means showing up to train or, you know, throwing the football accurately, like he’s a consistent guy … that’s what the best ones have.”
It helped him gain college attention basically from the moment he began high school. And, for what it’s worth, that’s pretty common with quarterbacks as skilled as Duckworth. What’s almost unheard of is one of those kids committing before their sophomore season.
But, in August 2023, Duckworth committed to South Carolina, head coach Shane Beamer and then-first-year offensive coordinator Dowell Loggains. And then, over the next 10 months, schools like Texas A&M and Oregon began offering Duckworth. He decommitted from the Gamecocks just months before his junior season.
“We just felt like he just kind of needed to go through the whole process to make sure this is what you really want,” Campbell said. “That’s the only reason he decommitted. And I guess that’s why he’s right back there.”
In one circuitous recruitment, Duckworth opened his mind, went to different places, took plenty of visits, talked to probably a hundred coaches and then just ended up right back at South Carolina.
He made his second pledge to the Gamecocks in July and, aside from one visit to LSU, has been loyal to South Carolina.
Even after USC fired offensive coordinator Mike Shula, Duckworth didn’t waiver. That’s a credit, Campbell said, to the relationship Beamer has with her son. The calls between Duckworth and Beamer, she said, are “on the regular,” so frequent that Campbell was laying in bed recently when her son came into the house talking to someone. It was Beamer.
“I can see Landon light up every time we go to South Carolina and we’re on campus,” Campbell said. “It’s almost like he’s at home. That’s the part I’ve always paid attention to.”
