UAB safety Jaylen Key commits to transfer to Alabama

Alabama has added a big-time playmaker to its secondary, picking up a commitment from UAB transfer Jaylen Key. Key announced his decision Friday afternoon on social media.

The safety, who signed with UAB in the class of 2018, is entering his sixth year of college football.

Key had a breakout season in 2022, earning honorable mention All-Conference USA honors. He finished third on the team in tackles with 60 last season, including making 4.5 tackles for loss.

Blessed Beyond Measure 🙌🏾,Let’s Work 😈🤝🏾@Coach_TRob @Hayesfawcett3 @AlabamaFTBL #rtr 🐘🐘 #committed pic.twitter.com/6SMOesxIyv

— Jaylen Key (@Jaylen_Key) May 12, 2023

The Tallahassee, Florida native also tied for the team-lead in interceptions with three and forced a pair of fumbles.

Key has proven that he can make plays against SEC competition and one of the biggest rivals of Alabama. He finished with a career-high 12 tackles for the Blazers in last year’s game against LSU.

Key appeared in all 12 games last season, making eight starts. He will now help bolster an Alabama secondary that was looking to the transfer portal for help.

The Crimson Tide open the 2023 season on Sept. 2 against Middle Tennessee. The game will be played in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

To keep up with the latest players on the move, check out On3’s Transfer Portal wire. 

Transfer portal background information

The NCAA Transfer Portal, which covers every NCAA sport at the Division I, II and III levels, is a private database with names of student-athletes who wish to transfer. It is not accessible to the public.

The process of entering the portal is done through a school’s compliance office. Once a player provides written notification of an intent to transfer, the office enters the player’s name in the database and everything is off and running. The compliance office has 48 hours to comply with the player’s request and that request cannot be refused.

Once a player’s name shows up in the portal, other schools can contact the player. Players can change their minds at any point and withdraw from the portal. However, once a player enters the portal, the current scholarship no longer has to be honored. In other words, if a player enters the portal but decides to stay, the school is not obligated to provide a scholarship anymore.

The database is a normal database, sortable by a variety of topics, including (of course) sport and name. A player’s individual entry includes basic details such as contact info, whether the player was on scholarship and whether the player is transferring as a graduate student.

A player can ask that a “do not contact” tag be placed on the report. In those instances, the players don’t want to be contacted by schools unless they’ve initiated the communication.

The portal has been around since Oct. 15, 2018 and the new calendar cycle within the portal begins each August. For example, the 2021-22 cycle started Aug. 1. During the 2020-21 cycle, 2,626 FBS football players entered the transfer portal (including walk-ons). That comes after 1,681 entered during the 2019-20 cycle and 1,709 during the abbreviated 2018-19 cycle. In comparison, 1,833 Division I basketball players entered the portal during the 2020-21 cycle after totals of 1,020 in 2019-20 and 1,063 in 2018-19.