Jaylon Shelton: West Virginia ‘Really Felt Like Home’

JUCO defensive back Jaylon Shelton (6-foot-2, 190-pounds) committed to West Virginia back in May, but is set to enroll at the school this upcoming Monday. He spoke with a reporter from West Virginia Sports Now about his commitment.

“After taking all my official visits, that one really stood out to me,” said Shelton. “It really felt like home.”

Shelton comes to West Virginia as a junior college transfer from Tyler Junior College. He’ll have three years of eligibility remaining with a year of experience under his belt from his junior college days. He was red-shirted in 2020. He was actually a quarterback in high school and was recruited by Tyler Junior College to play wide receiver. He admits to having no experience on the defensive side of the ball prior to entering junior college. Tyler Junior College though suffered numerous injuries on the defensive side of the ball and Shelton was moved to defense.

“I didn’t even know how to backpedal,” said Shelton. “I’m third or fourth string when I first get there. I started working with the safeties… come to spring, I’m bumped up to the second-string. I just kept working, kept working, and coming into the fall, I got a starting spot and just kept it.”

He chose West Virginia over TCU. Shelton spoke to us about why he decided against choosing the closer of the two schools to his hometown of New London, Texas.

“I spoke to my defensive coordinator at Tyler,” said Shelton. “He just said that TCU will be too close. I know too many people there. The distractions and stuff, I can really shoot to home in a day. And this is a business. Once you get to this level of the game it’s a business, so you got to take care of everything. I just feel like going up to West Virginia, it’ll help me keep my head on track and take care what I got to do.”

West Virginia has lost more players to the transfer portal than any other school in the Big12 this past off-season. A large portion of the hit was taken to the secondary where Outlad is currently projecting half of the starters to be incoming transfers. Shelton though, isn’t fazed by this and feels there is still a lot of experience in the secondary that can perform at the highest level.

“We have a couple of grad transfers,” said Shelton. “I feel like we’re going to be experienced in the secondary. We got Charles Woods coming back. I feel like we should be pretty solid in the secondary because we got all the transfers and experienced players who have played some collegiate football. I feel like we should be pretty good back there, honestly.”

Currently, Shelton isn’t projected as one of those starters on Outlad. Of course, those are just projections and with so many unknowns surrounding the incoming players, they are subject to change. He says that he is likely to start the year playing slot safety with a bump up to corner next year. He has set tangible goals for himself this season.

“I want to get at least, two picks,” said Shelton. “Probably about five (pass deflections), and a total of 30 tackles. I think like that’s going to be solid and help out the defense this season.”

Off-the-field, Shelton is set to major in business at West Virginia, though his ultimate goal is to play in the NFL. He spends his free-time making extra cash helping out his father’s construction business, G and A Management and Services, which he has helped out with since he’s been 16.