KJ Cloyd, a native of Columbia, Mississippi, did not receive any scholarship offers coming out of high school. A very similar path to Yaya Diaby, Cloyd elected to go the junior college route and decided to attend Jones College, a community college in Ellisville, Mississippi.
Only about an hour from his hometown, KJ Cloyd attended Jones College for one season before arriving at the University of Louisville. In his lone junior college season, the 6-foot-2 outside linebacker recorded 16 solo tackles and 36 assisted tackles for 46 total tackles. He also added two sacks, three and a half tackles for loss, and one forced fumble.