Inside the commitment: Keenan Britt

Oxford (Ala.) class of 2026 four-star linebacker Keenan Britt announced a commitment to South Carolina Saturday, choosing the Gamecocks over other finalists Auburn, Oregon, Ole Miss, and Arkansas.

GamecockCentral provides an in-depth analysis of the pickup below.

The recruitment

This one moved quickly for South Carolina — and new Director of Player Personnel Darren Uscher deserves a huge assist.

The Gamecocks offered Britt shortly after Uscher was hired last month and you need not look further than Britt’s other finalists for hints on Uscher’s prior relationship with Britt and his family.

Britt is the younger brother of former Auburn linebacker K.J. Britt and the current Buccaneers linebacker used to make sure everyone around that program was well-aware of his little brother coming up after him.

Uscher was at Auburn for two years and used his prior knowledge of the younger Britt to get him on the board and offered at Oregon, a fellow finalist for Keenan Britt and Uscher’s most recent employer before he landed in Columbia. The Ducks offered Britt after evaluating him in person at a satellite camp and appeared to have him pretty high on their board.

Once Uscher landed in Columbia and quickly offered Britt, the Gamecocks made his Top 5 without the benefit of a visit.

The unofficial visit did ultimately take place at the end of last month, right before the dead period hit, and went incredibly well with Britt committing to Shane Beamer and staff last Sunday.

Britt was recently quoted as saying he’ll continue to take visits after committing, so that’s something to keep an eye on moving forward. It’s worth noting that even with the Auburn connection, Britt already has an offer from the Tigers and had them as a finalist when he chose Carolina, so it’s not as if that’s an offer he is still waiting on.

The evaluation

Britt is listed as an EDGE by On3 but is being recruited to South Carolina to play linebacker, the WILL spot to be exact.

The 6-foot-1, 210-pounder plays mostly on the line of scrimmage in high school and that has probably kept what is already a big offer list from ballooning to an even bigger one.

Even playing defensive end, Britt was active as a sophomore last season, accumulating 107 tackles with eight sacks and 17 tackles-for-loss.

There’s a bit of a projection here as Britt will go from playing on the line of scrimmage to playing in space but again Oregon (where Uscher was) was able to see him in a camp setting and his film does offer flashes of him in space when chasing down plays.

That film shows a physical yet slippery player who knows how to use his hands and feet to disengage from blockers and has some bend as well. He’s also a high-energy, high-effort player who will chase plays down from across the field and knows how to work through congestion.

The four-star prospect is ranked the No. 276 overall prospect and No. 26 EDGE in his class by the On3 Industry Ranking, a weighted average of the four major recruiting media sites.

Rivals and ESPN have Britt as a four-star prospect while On3 and 247Sports have him as a three-star.

What’s next?

With the addition of Britt, South Carolina now has three commits in its 2026 class. He joins Newman (Ga.) four-star LB Rodney Colton and Rock Hill (S.C.) South Pointe three-star IOL Anthony Baxter on the commit list.

It’s too early to know which prospect will emerge next at linebacker, but the Gamecocks are off to a strong start at the position for this cycle with two out-of-state pledges who chose them over other major SEC offers.

Become a GamecockCentral member for year-round, in-depth coverage of Gamecock sports and recruiting!