photo by: Mike Gunnoe/Special to the Journal-World

Kansas sophomore Jahlil Hurley makes a catch during practice Friday, Aug. 1, 2025 at David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium in Lawrence.

Jahlil Hurley’s dream was to stay in the SEC.

The Alabama transfer had entered the portal after two years with the Crimson Tide, and after having grown up in Florence, Ala. When he came out of high school as a four-star prospect, Auburn, Florida and Georgia were also among the schools he had considered.

But after a couple years in the conference, he didn’t get the interest he wanted from those sorts of teams in the Southeast.

“God had other plans, obviously,” he said.

Hurley eventually picked Kansas as his destination back in December over Michigan State and Missouri. He said on Saturday, reflecting on the process, that when he met KU’s coaches, he “could feel the realness coming off them.”

“It was transparent,” he said. “I can tell it wasn’t any faking behind it. It was straight up how it was going to be when I got here, and that’s how it’s been.”

With three years of eligibility remaining, Hurley will have a role to play both in 2025 and down the line in a crowded, young group of cornerbacks.

“Although he’s still a young guy when you kind of look at his playing experience, we just got to keep taking it day by day,” defensive backs coach Brandon Shelby said, “and he’s going to be very, very special, I think, in the future here.”

Shelby described Hurley, a long corner listed at 6-foot-2, as one of the most athletic players in the position group: “When you talk about a guy who can run and change direction, he’s a guy that he has all those attributes.”

“I can shut down a whole side of the field,” said Hurley, when asked to describe his skill set. “Do my job, most importantly, do my job for sure.”

The adaptation process for him may largely be mental. Shelby said that Hurley needs to adjust from having been a backup at his prior institution — he played 80 snaps in nine games in 2024, mostly on special teams — to adopting the mindset of someone who could be called upon to play. He could also need to get more comfortable with on-field communication.

Hurley said that in general, he’s more settled in than he was in the spring. As he gets to know the playbook and the scheme, he’s also been working on getting to know his teammates. He cited a recent outing to Kansas City with cornerbacks Austin Alexander and Jameer Moore and safeties Taylor Davis and Lyrik Rawls to dine at Fogo de Chão.

More broadly, he’s had to get acclimated to “a whole different culture” within the KU program.

“So that’s really a thing with me,” he said. “I had to be intentional with it because it was a big difference. So I feel like I’ve adapted well. The coaches are seeing me get better, too. I’m just taking it a step every day — I try to. One percent is what our coaches say.”

One percent is particularly appropriate because, as Hurley says, the KU football program values “the teeny-tiniest things,” like recording his weight in the weight room on a regular basis, or not eating in the locker room in order to keep it clean.

“For me, I could be where I was at and I could do certain stuff, but here, it’s not flying,” he said.

The weight room has been a productive place for Hurley, who said on Saturday that he currently weighs 182 pounds, and has actually been able to gain weight over the course of fall camp.

“That’s been good,” he said. “Obviously that tells you that they’re doing a great job in keeping me refueled and stuff like that, getting me what I need to get bigger and stronger faster.”

Among a sizable group of young corners with the potential to man the secondary for years to come — along with the likes of Alexander and Jalen Todd — Hurley could be one key piece.

Transfer tip

The day after Hurley’s commitment to KU became public, his former Alabama teammate Emmanuel Henderson Jr., a wide receiver, announced he was entering the portal.

On Saturday, Hurley suggested he may have played a key role in encouraging Henderson — who is now a candidate to be the Jayhawks’ top receiver in 2025 — to make the move to Lawrence.

“That was crazy,” Hurley said. “I hit the portal before him. And he was still practicing, and I came on my visit and committed. He hit the portal, I was like, ‘Bro, why you hit the portal? What’s going on?'”

When Henderson told Hurley he was going to visit a few schools and mentioned Kansas State, Hurley put in a good word, he said.

“I was like, ‘You should visit Kansas, you’re right there, you never know. You might like Kansas better,'” Hurley recalled. “And yeah, got him connected with Coach, you feel me?”

A week later, Henderson signed and became one of an eventual five transfer wideouts to join the Jayhawks over the course of the offseason, and has received praise from coaches and teammates in recent weeks for his speed, his work ethic and his schematic knowledge.