Auburn DL Gage Keys plans to enter NCAA Transfer Portal
AUBURN — Auburn defensive lineman Gage Keys plans to enter the NCAA Transfer Portal according to On3’s Pete Nakos. Keys transferred in over the offseason from Kansas where he had 21 tackles in 2023. Keys started his career at Minnesota. He did not record any stats at Auburn.
What does it mean?
Keys never did break into the rotation at Auburn after having a promising spring and fall camp. He was passed up on the depth chart in the weeks before the season and never broke in.
Departure impact: Minor
Keep track of On3 Sports transfer portal team rankings here.
Auburn finished with the No. 6 portal class in 2023 and the No. 17 class in 2024.
The On3 Sports overall team recruiting rankings can be found here.
Auburn finished with the No. 8 class in 2024 and currently has the No. 5 class for 2025. Auburn’s entire class list with rankings and profiles can be found here.
Following Auburn’s Iron Bowl loss to Alabama, head coach Hugh Freeze addressed how aggressive the Tigers might be in the portal moving forward.
“Well, we’re going to try to sign the best high school class we can first on Wednesday,” Freeze said. “And then, it’s very hard to answer that because as you know, you have no idea even what your roster is going to look like a week from now. So it’s kind of difficult to answer. But the first priority is let’s get this signing class in next Wednesday and then we’ll go from there and see what’s next.”
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Freeze said the combination of attempting to retain your roster and recruit in the portal creates real uncertainty during the process.
“It’s hard to say–I mean you feel optimistic about everything we’ve done, but how in the heck do you really know in today’s times. We’ve just got to work to the end. The good thing is, as mentioned earlier, you know, there’s a portal that opens too, if you don’t get all the ones that you wanted,” Freeze said.
“I’ve said I want to try to build through high school and I can’t even keep up with it, you know, anymore. Really, I’m kind of off the social media world and if somebody don’t tell me something, it’s hard for me to even keep up. But I feel pretty good about most of our relationships. But again, you never really know.
“We have one Top-10 class and hopefully we can land another next week. We have to go back and try to finish it, then hit the portal to make sure we aren’t feeling this way next year.”
