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Jaylen Mbakwe has change of heart after making transfer portal announcement, will stay at Alabama
By Andrew Olson
Published:
Jaylen Mbakwe will continue his career at Alabama after all.
Mbakwe grabbed the attention of the college football world Monday evening when news broke that he planned to enter his name into the NCAA transfer portal.
On Monday evening, multiple outlets reported Mbakwe was entering his name into the NCAA transfer portal. He later posted a departure note confirming his plans.
Less than 24 hours later, however, he announced otherwise. Mbakwe will remain in Tuscaloosa and return to the Alabama football team.
Mbakwe announced his return by posting a still photo of the memorable “I’m not leaving” scene from The Wolf of Wall Street in his Instagram story.
As a true freshman, Mbakwe made 11 appearances for the Crimson Tide. He logged 15 total tackles, including 12 solo stops and a TFL. In coverage, Mbakwe recorded 2 pass breakups and 1 interception. Mbakwe also added 2 punt returns for 46 yards.
Out of Pinson (Alabama) Clay-Chalkville High School, Mbakwe was a prized signee in Alabama’s 2024 recruiting class. On the 247Sports Composite, Mbakwe was rated 5-stars, the No. 2 cornerback, No. 3 player in the state of Alabama and No. 12 recruit overall nationally in the Class of 2024. Mbakwe drew widespread interest, picking up scholarship offers from 29 programs, including Arkansas, Florida, Florida State, Georgia, Kentucky, LSU, Michigan, Mississippi State, Notre Dame, Oklahoma, Ole Miss, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas A&M and USC.
In his original recruitment, Mbakwe was most interested in staying close to home, committing to the Crimson Tide in 2022. In 2023, he only took official visits to Auburn and Alabama. He followed through on that verbal pledge and signed with Alabama in December 2023, remaining at UA through the coaching change following Nick Saban’s retirement.
Andrew writes about sports to fund his love of live music and collection of concert posters. He strongly endorses the Hall of Fame campaigns of Fred Taylor and Andruw Jones.
