In less than 48 hours, over a dozen Power Five college football programs have expressed interest in Florida State graduate transfer Jaiden Lars-Woodbey.
The former five-star safety from St. John Bosco in southern California entered the transfer portal early Wednesday morning after spending the previous three years playing for the Seminoles.
Woodbey, a 6-foot-1 and 225-pound redshirt sophomore defensive back, told TheDawgReport on Thursday that Washington head coach Jimmy Lake and defensive backs coach Will Harris had reached out since he announced his intentions to leave Tallahassee.
Coming out of high school the Huskies were scholarship offer No. 14 for the highly coveted prospect. UW was the sixth Pac-12 program to do so, following UCLA, California, USC, Washington State and Arizona.
Lake, then entering his first season as the full-time defensive coordinator for UW under Chris Petersen, got the opportunity to watch Woodbey at a satellite camp in 2016 and from there the mutual interest grew.
That was prior to UW re-emerging on the college football scene with its first College Football Playoff appearance, against No. 1 Alabama in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl. Two years later he would repay the Huskies by coming up to Seattle for an unofficial visit for the UW-USC game.
Despite the 26-13 loss to the No. 20 ranked Trojans, the first loss of the season for the Huskies who were ranked No. 4 entering the game, Lake made sure to secure an authentic victory.
“The one thing that I can remember about coach Lake was he seemed (like) a man that was all about his work,” Woodbey said.
“He was really, really respectful to my parents. Just a stand-up individual. I just remember it was 2016 when Washington played USC and they lost at home. He still took the time out of his night to talk to me and my mother for about an hour after the game.
“When he could have been with his team, you know, he decided to come and talk to me and talk to my parents, and just thank them for being out there. And I just felt like that stood out a lot and that was something I probably won’t ever forget.”
That show of genuine respect could certainly leave a lasting impression, given that UW cannot host or have any sort of in-person recruiting visit this year due to NCAA Covid-19 restrictions.
As of Thursday evening, Woodbey said he had not heard from the USC Trojans. He did confirm several other schools that have reached out: Boston College, Michigan State, Texas and Texas Tech.
When asked about his timeline for a decision Woodbey stated he would like to make his commitment before the end of the calendar year. Location will not be a factor for the transfer, who stated he has three years of eligibility remaining for the next school he attends.
Since it is still early in the process Woodbey does not want to narrow down his list at this point.
However, his affinity for the Huskies head coach is very evident.
“I think that just goes to show the type of character, the type of man that coach Lake is,” Woodbey said, when asked what it means to have him be the head coach at UW after being an assistant coach previously, who had recruited him personally.
“I feel like he’s a stand-up guy and I feel like he is the man for the job there. Obviously, you know they’re 3-0 right now. I doubt they’re going to lose a game this year. I feel like it’s a great program and I feel like he’s doing a great job from the outside looking in.”
In three seasons at FSU, Woodbey played a number of positions on defense. Based on Pro Football Focus’ snap counts the versatile defender played 750 box snaps, 382 snaps at slot cornerback and 79 snaps as a free safety in 24 career games for the ‘Noles.
As a recruit Woodbey was ranked No. 29 overall in the 2018 class and the No. 3 safety in the country.
