Alabama, Florida State, Ole Miss transfer target Jaylen Key closing in on decision

One of the top uncommitted players in the NCAA transfer portal is in line to make a decision on a new school in the coming days.

UAB safety transfer Jaylen Key, who will decide between Alabama, Florida State and Ole Miss, told On3 Wednesday that he plans to be finished with the recruiting process and the selection of a new school before the end of the week.

“It’ll be the end of this week,” Key said. “I have kind of set it to where I want to be pretty much done with it Friday. So hopefully by tomorrow or tomorrow night, I’ll be confident in exactly where I want to go and be cool with it so Friday, it’ll be that day hopefully. If it’s not Friday, hopefully it will be Saturday and get it done before Sunday. So sometime this weekend before Sunday, I want to Friday or Saturday be done with it.”

Key, a 2022 All-Conference USA honorable mention selection who finished last year with 60 tackles and three interceptions, took an official visit to Alabama this week after previously taking an unofficial visit to ‘Bama.

“First visit I was kind of by myself, and it was a lot more just getting a feel for the place, getting a feel for their defense and things of that nature and the people in the building, getting a feel for those people because relationships are big,” Key said. “But this visit, I went down with my dad, so he got a chance to see it first time down. And I just wanted him to get a feel for it. He got a feel for some of the other places, so it was only right for him to get a feel for this one and talk to coaches and come up with his opinion of it.”

The other two official visits for Key were to Florida State, which the Tallahassee native was a fan of growing up, and Ole Miss.

Key visited FSU this past weekend.

“Of course with Florida State, it was a school that I would have loved to play for out of high school,” Key said. “It’s right at home, so it would be easy for family to be able to make it to those games. A lot of my family are actually Florida State fans, so that’s a big thing. Overall Florida State, I love the people there. I love Coach Norvell. A bunch of energy. He’s definitely a game-changer, man. Meeting him and being able to spend a lot of time with him, I definitely like Coach Norvell and the whole energy around that program and how they’re building it up. It’s a great thing to see. And the situation’s kind of match with mine and theirs.”

Key visited Ole Miss between the Alabama unofficial visit and the visit to FSU.

“People there are great,” Key said. “(Defensive coordinator) Pete Golding, getting to spend time with him, Coach Neighbors (the safeties coach), the recruiting guy, KB (Kelvin Bolden). He’s cool. The people there make that place special and what it is.”

As of Wednesday afternoon, Key said he’s “not leaning toward any school right now.”

“For me right now, I will have to match it up to exactly what fits my exact needs, what I exactly need, not just what I want to happen but what I actually need to to achieve my objective or my goals,” Key said. “For these next couple days, I’ll be going down and just pretty much listing it out, matching it up and it’s going to be what I need and the things, and of course you have some wants in there also, but mostly what I need in order to make this jump to the next level honestly.”