For the fifth straight season, the Nebraska football program has mined the transfer portal to bulk up its receiver room.

Jahmal Banks from Wake Forest and Isaiah Neyor from Texas were added in 2024. Billy Kemp IV from Virginia in 2023. Trey Palmer from LSU and Isaiah Garcia-Castaneda from New Mexico State in 2022. Samori Touré from Montana in 2021.

The trend continued this offseason cycle as Nebraska has added three transfer wideouts, including two from Kentucky in Dane Key and Hardley Gilmore IV — those two followed their position coach and Dana Holgorsen disciple, Daikiel Shorts Jr., to Lincoln — along with Nyziah Hunter from California.

All three will be expected to play — Key and Hunter look like day-one starters — and rate as instant-impact additions in Holgorsen's offense in 2025.

This piece will focus on Key, the veteran from the SEC who brings a wealth of experience, leadership and much-needed grown-man size — he's listed at 6-foot-3 and 210 pounds — to a receiver room that needs all of it with Banks and Neyor moving on and young guys like the 6-5, 230-pound Carter Nelson, the 6-5, 205-pound Quinn Clark and the 6-3, 210-pound Keelan Smith still growing and developing as college football players.

Key is different, though. He's been there, done that, already. He has career marks of 126 catches, 1,870 receiving yards and 14 touchdowns. He should be viewed as Nebraska's best incoming transfer out of the players Nebraska has brought in, the one who bears the heaviest of expectations.

And yes, that conversation includes the do-everything defender from Oklahoma, and Indiana before that, Dasan McCullough, another day-one, instant-impact addition to John Butler's defense who will likely play all over the field as an uber-athletic, Isaiah Simmons-at-Clemson-esque 6-5, 235-pounder.

Key was a Kentucky legacy as his dad, Donte, was a linebacker for the Wildcats in the mid 90s. His brother, Devon, can ball, too, and is currently a safety for the Denver Broncos with 33 tackles on the season. Devon played at Western Kentucky before the NFL.

A starter since his true freshman season at Kentucky, Key comes to Nebraska with one season of eligibility remaining, plus a redshirt should he need it. The Huskers were able to beat the likes of Ole Miss and Georgia for Key's services, and his relationship with Shorts obviously played a key role.

Nebraska announced Shorts was hired as its receivers coach Dec. 4. On Christmas Eve, Key announced Nebraska was the pick after it seemed the Huskers had fallen behind their two SEC competitors in the race to land him.

One of Key’s strongest performances in 2024 was on the road at Ole Miss, where Lane Kiffin’s then-No. 6-ranked Rebels were favored to win by 15.5 points. But thanks in large part to Key’s afternoon — he caught a career-high eight passes for 105 yards with one incredibly-skilled touchdown catch — the Wildcats shocked Vaught Hemingway Stadium with a 20-17 win.

Taking a look at what Key did to the Ole Miss defense —and others in the SEC — can give Husker fans who don't know much about him a better idea of their new receiver who has strong potential to be quarterback Dylan Raiola's top target in 2025 and step into the leadership role Banks did so well in.

Just like Banks, Key should be one of the 10 players the team votes for to wear a single-digit jersey. That should be the expectation, at least.

Key’s outing at Ole Miss came against what was the top scoring defense in the SEC in 2024 as coordinator Pete Golding’s unit finished third in the country at 13.9 points per game. While the Rebels were great against the run — they only allowed 83.5 rushing yards per game and 2.31 rushing yards per carry — opponents were, at times, able to expose their pass defense, which allowed 230.3 passing yards per game (12th in SEC, 86th nationally).

One thing that should be noted: Key’s quarterback situation at Kentucky in 2024 wasn’t great.

Three different quarterbacks were throwing him passes. Kentucky’s primary starter who threw Key the most passes, Brock Vandagriff, a former 5-star, just retired from the sport. Vandagriff’s backup was a true freshman. The third guy used was former Rutgers quarterback Gavin Wimsatt, but he was used as a change-of-pace Wildcat quarterback who completed just 41% of his 39 attempts on the season and has since transferred to Jacksonville State.

One trait of Key's that immediately sticks out is his ruggedness and durability. Through three seasons he's played in 38 games with 35 starts and has never missed a single game in his career. That’s impressive for a receiver who did most of his work within 20 yards of the line of scrimmage, where linebackers and safeties lurk, hunting for ball-jarring hits.

Key primarily was aligned as an outside receiver at Kentucky. Of his career snaps, 84.8% have come as an outside receiver while 14.8% have come in the slot. The 2024 season saw Key play in the slot the most of his career, at 21%.

In 2024, 44.6% of Key’s targets (41) came from intermediate depth (10-19 yards down the field), his highest rate according to Pro Football Focus. Key’s next most-used depth was 32 targets on short routes (0-9 yards, 34.8%). Key wasn’t a huge deep threat for Kentucky as he was targeted 18 times (19.6%) on routes that took him past 20 yards down the field. Just once all season was Key targeted behind the line of scrimmage, so he wasn't asked to catch-and-run on screens.

Digging deeper into which specific areas of the field Key was targeted the most, the intermediate center seems to be Key’s specialty and where he’s most comfortable. Attacking the middle of the field was productive for Kentucky with Key, especially against Ole Miss.

On the example below, Kentucky faces a third-and-3 at midfield. Key is sent in motion to help Vandagriff identify what coverage the defense is in. There's a switch release between Key and his teammate, Ja'Mori Maclin (#9), and both wideouts use in-breaking routes.

Key takes advantage of his free release and inside leverage, and Vandagriff quickly finds him over the middle for a first down. Key has fight to him, and on several occasions throughout the season you see him not wanting to go down easily:

Key was targeted over the middle from 10-19 yards a total of 27 times, which resulted in 15 catches for 298 yards and both his touchdown receptions. Key’s next-highest usage areas were the middle of the field from 0-9 yards (12 targets, seven catches, 68 yards) and short routes to the right (12 targets, five catches, 47 yards).

On the example below, Kentucky was looking at a second-and-7 near midfield. The split zone run fake in the backfield moved the inside linebackers from the middle of the field, which opened plenty of green for Key's glance route, where he takes five hard steps up the field before planting his right foot and turning inside.

Another trait of Key's to like — he's a hands catcher who doesn't let the ball get to his chest:

Again, Key takes a shot on a catch over the middle. But he's a tough dude who always got up. Reminds me of Jacory Barney Jr. and Banks in that way.

The below video shows another example of Key running an in-breaking route through an open middle of the field thanks to the run action in the backfield. The pitch-and-catch here is smooth, and Key erases a first-and-20 for a first down:

The video below is one more example of Key being productive in the middle of the field, this time using a dagger concept with a deep dig against Tennessee. And again, something I keep going back to — he's catching the ball with his hands in a quick and efficient manner.

Key isn't catching this ball from Wimsatt, he's snatching it out of the air:

Key has shown he’s a sure-handed receiver who has the ability to make winning plays on the ball, a trait Nebraska's receivers, for the most part, weren't consistent enough at in 2024.

PFF has Key at 9 drops in his career, but six of them came in 2023 while only one came in 2024. The body control in mid-air and hand strength Key possesses flashed several times in 2024, especially in the games against Auburn and Tennessee.

On the example below, Key gets an easy target in one-on-one coverage against Tennessee corner Rickey Gibson III (#1). With no safety help, Key knew he was getting a jump ball down the sideline.

Key, using his size, tracks the ball well and fights hard for it. He came down with the completion for a first down and held on tight for the impact with the ground:

On the next play below, Key is looking at man coverage again, this time against Auburn DB Kayin Lee (#4), an old Husker recruiting target of years past.

Nothing about this completion was clean — the ball was being bobbled the whole time — but yet, there Key was again, with a completion and first down on a high-difficulty, good-on-good rep.

This is the good stuff:

And later in that same game against Auburn, Key did it again.

This time he took an outside release on a go ball, and even though Auburn is in a two-high shell and the safety looked like he was going to be in position to break it up, Key still managed to come down with the catch with a foot in bounds against freshman corner Kensley Louidor-Faustin (#28):

But of all the impressive catches Key racked up in 2024, the play below is a personal favorite of mine because, with his size and skills, it shows he can be a major weapon in the red zone.

Matched up with a corner who had been grabbing and holding him the entire game, Trey Amos (#9), Key took an inside release and ran his route to the back pylon. Amos may have been expecting inside safety help, but recovered enough and didn't let Key gain much separation.

Vandagriff's throw is on target and leads Key, who shows off an impressive amount of ball control and hand strength while falling to the ground with Amos doing his best to break it up.

Key stays strong, keeping both hands and 10 fingers on the ball throughout the catch while extending his arms away from Amos for the touchdown. This is beautiful:

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