Dec 6, 2024; Birmingham, AL, USA; Jackson's Landon Duckworth (1) comes to the line of scrimmage to run a play against Cherokee County at Protective Stadium in the AHSAA 4A State Championship game. Gary Cosby Jr. / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The South Carolina Gamecocks are playing some catch up in the 2026 recruiting class.

Things are about to really start heating up for the 2026 recruiting as the months of June and July. Prospects will be taking their official visits and it's the time of year that a lot of them end up shutting down their recruitment.

The South Carolina Gamecocks will be hoping to land a quarterback during this time period as they remain without one despite having multiple cracks at some of the top prospects in the class.

ESPN recently released an article detailing which teams are going to be the most active in the quarterback market and the Gamecocks made the list. Landon Duckworth is the top prospect the Gamecocks are chasing after right now, but according ESPN, it sounds like they will have to play some catch up.

"The Gamecocks were among four top contenders for Curtis in January before the nation's No. 1 overall quarterback cut his recruitment to Oregon and Georgia," Eli Lederman wrote. "The program made Smigiel another priority target and made a late push in April before his commitment to Michigan.Those misses have turned the Gamecocks' attention back to Duckworth, who previously spent 10 months in South Carolina's 2026 class before reopening his recruitment last June. Duckworth will return to campus for an official visit next month, where Beamer and the Gamecocks would secure a major recruiting victory if they manage to pull him back into fold amid interest from Ole Miss, Auburn and Florida State."

Ole Miss will get the final official visit from Duckworth this Summer, but if the Gamecocks can seal the deal before he even gets there, then it won't even matter. But after spending time heavily recruiting Curtis and Smigiel, South Carolina might have some work to do on the Duckworth side of things.

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