Jaylen came from an athletic family from the Conway area. I remember his father Greg Moody Sr. who was a part of Russ Bergman's MBB program at Coastal Carolina in the mid-1980s that rose up from NAIA to winning Big South titles. Moody Sr. was their starting PG and is still high up in the program records for career assists. He helped get the Coastal MBB program up to where they played in two NCAAT appearances in 3 seasons.
Greg Sr. had a bunch of sons who were very good athletically in either basketball or football. They all matriculated through Conway High., and most all of them received Div. I offers, albeit from smaller programs. Greg Jr. starred at Conway in basketball. Mykal Moody was the first prep player in SC history to throw for 4000+ yds and rush for 3,000+ yds. He originally committed to East Carolina, but ended up at South Carolina State.
Twins Juwan and Jaylen both got offers from Div. I programs. They were twins, but Juwan was more like Mykal - smaller in stature (around 5-9, 5-10) and with lots of speed. Jaylen was taller, bigger, and strength was his best skill-sets. Juwan initially went to East Carolina and played WR there, but ended up at South Carolina State as well.
Jaylen, a 6-2 ILB, committed to Alabama over Arkansas and Ole Miss. He also had offers from Clemson, Kentucky, and East Carolina. He just had the physical size that identified more with major Div. I football. I don't know if South Carolina recruited him much at all, or if there was any interest there. A 2018 cycle prospect, he did not have an offer from us, per Rivals or online sources, but we took WR Bryan Edwards out of Conway HS in 2016, and took DL Tonka Hemingway in the 2020 cycle, so our coaches had to know about Jaylen.....
