Penn State DE Transfer Jaylen Harvey Commits to North Carolina

North Carolina was able to secure a commitment from Penn State defensive end transfer Jaylen Harvey following his weekend visit to Chapel Hill.

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The 6-foot-2, 246-pound redshirt freshman appeared in 11 games and made a start in the season opener. On the season, he tallied eight tackles, 1.5 tackles for loss, and a sack in 159 total snaps. A Gaithersburg, Md. native, Harvey was a four-star prospect in the 2024 class and has three years of eligibility remaining, since he redshirted in 2024.

UNC is losing edge rusher Tyler Thompson, who was second on the team in sacks (7.0), to the transfer portal.

“This year we have a better understanding of what’s in the portal — what could be in the portal — what kind of players we want from the portal that fit what we have to do here at North Carolina,” UNC general manager Michael Lombardi said after the season. “And so we have to be ready to be able to fill the spots that we have to, and that’s why it’s really important to have a grading system, to have a personnel department so that we can sit there and honestly say … we need to get a better player.”

This offseason cycle features a single transfer portal window, which was moved back to Jan. 2 and will remain open through Jan. 16. Once in the portal, a player may directly communicate with and visit other programs.

The window restricts entering the portal, but it does not dictate when a player must choose his next school, so at least from a retention standpoint, UNC will know who isn’t leaving by the end of the window.

“The good thing about this year is, is when the portal ends on the 16th, we will have our team,” Lombardi said. “We’ll have a team meeting on the 17th, and there’ll be no changes to that team. We’ll be able to build the culture. We’ll be able to build continuity within the team.”