Usage / Role
32%
Rotational offensive role
lowfeatured
Player Dossier
2022-2025Nebraska
Dane Key
WR • 6'3" • 210 lbs • Lexington, KY, USA
Vertical playmakerExplosive finisher
Dane Key reads as a vertical playmaker based on recent role and receiving efficiency.
Impact Production
95
Top-tier box-score impact for a receiver
lowelite
Reliability
100
Regular contributor with several takeover games
lowhigh
Star Power
73
High-upside career profile
limitedstar
Career Arc
Value trend by season
Best season by Season Value: 2024 Regular Season · Kentucky
22222323242525
Snapshot
- Career Teams
- 2
- Unique Seasons
- 4
- Program Path
- Kentucky • Nebraska
- Peak Game
- Peak game by takeover score: Ohio
Player Story
Dane Key built his college career from 2022 through 2025 as a wide receiver from Lexington, KY wearing No. 18, spending time with Kentucky and Nebraska. The clearest part of Dane Key's career was his receiving role:...
Read the story4★
- Committed To
- Kentucky
- Commit Date
- Jan 1, 2022
Dane Key, WR. Best season Best season by Season Value: 2024 Regular Season · Kentucky. Dane Key reads as a vertical playmaker based on recent role and receiving efficiency.
Stat Footprint
Career production snapshot
- Receiving yards
- 2,322
- Receptions
- 165
- Touchdowns
- 19
Quick Answers
Dane Key quick answers
- Latest team and position
- Nebraska · WR
- Career Receiving Yards
- 2,322
- Tracked sample
- 4 unique seasons · 7 entries · 46 games
- Best season
- 2024 Regular Season · Kentucky
- Top game
- Ohio
- Recruit profile
- 4-star · Frederick Douglass · Kentucky
- High school pipeline
- Frederick Douglass · 14 FBS recruits · 1 drafted player
- Latest roster
- No. 18 · Senior
- 2025 Receiving yards rank
- 452 receiving yards · WR 254th (top 24%) · Big Ten 40th (top 15%) · National 277th (top 13%)
Season Ledger
Crawlable season-by-season stats
| Season | Team | Games | Rec | Rec Yds | TD | Overall |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 Postseason | Kentucky | 13 | 6 | 47 | 0 | 66 |
| 2022 Regular Season | Kentucky | 13 | 31 | 472 | 6 | 66 |
| 2023 Postseason | Kentucky | 11 | 4 | 83 | 1 | 79.4 |
| 2023 Regular Season | Kentucky | 11 | 38 | 553 | 5 | 79.4 |
| 2024 Regular Season | Kentucky | 11 | 47 | 715 | 2 | 87.2 |
| 2025 Postseason | Nebraska | 11 | 4 | 28 | 0 | 65.6 |
| 2025 Regular Season | Nebraska | 11 | 35 | 424 | 5 | 65.6 |
Related Context
Keep exploring Dane Key
Dane Key played WR for Kentucky and Nebraska. Across 4 tracked seasons, Dane Key recorded -2 rushing yards, 2,322 receiving yards, and 2 tackles. His top tracked season came in 2024 with Kentucky.
Player insights
Lead takeaway
Best season by value score: 2024 Regular Season
Kentucky paired 715 primary output with 86.6 efficiency.
Supporting note
2023 Postseason role shape
target-driven usage with 88.3 efficiency.
Supporting note
Career value stayed steady
2025 Regular Season tracked close to the prior stop by season value score.
Supporting note
Multi-stop career journey
Production spans 2 team stops, with role shifts visible across Kentucky, Nebraska.
Supporting note
Peak game by takeover score: Tennessee
Loss with an explosive receiving profile. It landed in the 100th percentile of the selected season.
Analysis workspace
Season Workbench
Filter the strongest season sample, inspect game-level shape, and then drop into the full log without losing the story of the year.
Season Explorer
Understand the selected season before dropping into the full game log.
2023 Postseason · Kentucky
Games
11
Receiving Yards / G
57.8
Efficiency
88.3
Usage
22.6
Consistency
64.9
Best Game by takeover score
Tennessee
Hover a point or expand a game row to keep the active game context visible here.
Active game
Hover over a point
Hover or select a game to keep its context visible here without the page shifting around.
Game-by-Game Trend
Follow how the selected stat changes from one game to the next. Spikes mark standout outings, while dips show quieter weeks.
Chronological game order.
Game by game trend chart. Clemson: 83. Ball State: 96. Eastern Kentucky: 42. Vanderbilt: 58. Georgia: 65. Missouri: 21. Tennessee: 113. Mississippi State: 36. Alabama: 46. South Carolina: 51. Louisville: 25
Volume vs Efficiency
Each dot is a game. Farther right means the player carried more of the workload, and higher means they were more efficient with those chances.
Low volumeHigh quality
High volumeHigh quality
Low volumeLower quality
High volumeLower quality
Volume on the x-axis, quality on the y-axis.
Volume versus efficiency scatter chart. Clemson: 4 by 100. Ball State: 5 by 100. Eastern Kentucky: 4 by 70. Vanderbilt: 4 by 96.7. Georgia: 3 by 100. Missouri: 1 by 100. Tennessee: 7 by 100. Mississippi State: 4 by 60. Alabama: 4 by 76.7. South Carolina: 4 by 85. Louisville: 2 by 83.3
Split Comparison
Compare how this player performed across different situations. "Games" shows how many matchups are included in each split.
Wins51.4 · Games = 5 · -11.8 vs Losses
Losses63.2 · Games = 6 · +11.8 vs Wins
Game Log
Dense stat lines with inline explanations and season-linked highlights.
11 games
Featured metric
Receiving Yards
Top game by takeover score
Tennessee
Best efficiency game
100 vs Clemson
| Result | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fri 12/29 | vs Clemson | L 35-38 | — | 4 | 83 | 20.8 | 20.80 | 1 | 58 |
| Sat 11/25 | @ Louisville | W 38-31 | — | 2 | 25 | 12.5 | 12.50 | 1 | 16 |
| Sun 11/19 | @ South Carolina | L 14-17 | — | 4 | 51 | 12.8 | 12.80 | 0 | 17 |
| Sat 11/11 | vs Alabama | L 21-49 | — | 4 | 46 | 11.5 | 11.50 | 0 | 25 |
| Sat 11/4 | @ Mississippi State | W 24-3 | — | 4 | 36 | 9 | 9 | 1 | 13 |
| Sat 10/28 | vs Tennessee100 receiving yards | L 27-33 | — | 7 | 113 | 16.1 | 16.10 | 1 | 34 |
| Sat 10/14 | vs Missouri | L 21-38 | — | 1 | 21 | 21 | 21 | 0 | 21 |
| Sat 10/7 | @ Georgia | L 13-51 | — | 3 | 65 | 21.7 | 21.70 | 0 | 36 |
| Sat 9/23 | @ Vanderbilt | W 45-28 | — | 4 | 58 | 14.5 | 14.50 | 1 | 22 |
| Sat 9/9 | vs Eastern Kentucky | W 28-17 | — | 4 | 42 | 10.5 | 10.50 | 0 | 17 |
| Sat 9/2 | vs Ball State | W 44-14 | — | 5 | 96 | 19.2 | 19.20 | 1 | 44 |
Player Story
Dane Key story
Dane Key built his college career from 2022 through 2025 as a wide receiver from Lexington, KY wearing No. 18, spending time with Kentucky and Nebraska. The clearest part of Dane Key's career was his receiving role: 165 catches, 2,322 receiving yards, and 19 touchdowns across 46 career games in the available record. His largest box-score season came in 2023 with Kentucky. Those numbers show where he fit, how often the ball or action found him, and how his role developed over time.
The value of the career arc is that it connects production to role, not just a name on a roster. His career also includes 2 tackles, giving the story more than a single-category snapshot. With 46 career games in the available record, his career has enough shape to show both opportunity and production across Kentucky and Nebraska.
The arc is straightforward: Dane Key moved through the depth chart, found a larger role, and turned that opportunity into production that can be understood through standard football numbers.
Career Arc
Track team changes, role shifts, and season-to-season movement.
- 1
Kentucky
2022-2024
Opening stop
- 2
Nebraska
2025
Final stop
Season Value Progression
2022202220232023202420252025
| Season | Team | Primary | Efficiency | Usage | Delta |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 Postseason | Kentucky | 519 | 81.4 | 16.6 | — |
| 2022 Regular Season | Kentucky | 519 | 81.4 | 16.6 | 0 |
| 2023 Postseason | Kentucky | 636 | 88.3 | 22.6 | 117 |
| 2023 Regular Season | Kentucky | 636 | 88.3 | 22.6 | 0 |
| 2024 Regular Season | Kentucky | 715 | 86.6 | 30.2 | 79 |
| 2025 Postseason | Nebraska | 452 | 70.4 | 19 | -263 |
| 2025 Regular Season | Nebraska | 452 | 70.4 | 19 | 0 |
Signature Performances
Top Games
#1 Featured game
vs Ohio
Week 4 · W 41-6
Win with an explosive receiving profile.
145
Receiving Yards
100 takeover
145 receiving yards with a 100 efficiency score.
#2
vs Tennessee
Week 9 · L 27-33 · Conference game
113
Receiving Yards
94.4 takeover
Loss with an explosive receiving profile.
113 receiving yards with a 100 efficiency score.
#3
vs Ball State
Week 1 · W 44-14
96
Receiving Yards
92.6 takeover
Win with an explosive receiving profile.
96 receiving yards with a 100 efficiency score.
#4
vs Youngstown State
Week 3 · W 31-0
90
Receiving Yards
91.3 takeover
Win with an explosive receiving profile.
90 receiving yards with a 100 efficiency score.
#5
@ Florida
Week 2 · W 26-16 · Conference game
83
Receiving Yards
89.7 takeover
Win with an explosive receiving profile.
83 receiving yards with a 100 efficiency score.
Top Seasons
#1 Season by Season Value
2024 Regular Season · Kentucky
715 primary output · 86.6 efficiency · 30.2 usage
87.2
#2
2023 Postseason · Kentucky
79.4
636 primary · 88.3 efficiency · 22.6 usage
#3
2023 Regular Season · Kentucky
79.4
636 primary · 88.3 efficiency · 22.6 usage
Milestones
4
100+ receiving yards
2
8+ catch outings
1
2+ TD games
Next best actions
Keep exploring Dane Key
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