Here is a little nugget that may raise a few eyebrows among the Notre Dame faithful: Kerry Neal is one of just four Irish players (Armando Allen, Golden Tate and Ian Williams) in the junior class to have played in every game in their first two seasons with 25 games played and 16 starts to his credit.
On one hand, it’s not terribly surprising that the soft-spoken Neal has quietly piled up such an impressive amount of experience through just his sophomore season.
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Neal has played in every game through his first two seasons with the Irish.
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On the other, it’s a little bit concerning that, despite logging more minutes than any of his classmates with the lone exception being Jimmy Clausen, he’s gone largely unnoticed and is still defined more by his potential than his production.
Neal’s cumulative stats to date – 45 tackles, six tackles for losses and four sacks – look more like a great single-season effort than noteworthy career numbers and leave a little more to be desired given his obvious athleticism, which he has put on display on several occasions going back to his prep years.
However, while it’s easy to want more from Neal, it’s also important to keep in mind is that it’s hardly reasonable to expect a player that is still growing and adjusting to the collegiate game to be that much better than the entire defensive line around him. Quite frankly, it would be fair to consider Neal a victim of what has been an average defensive line, at best, over the past two seasons.
Yet, when looking at a 2009 rotation in the trenches that should include Ian Williams (6-foot-2, 310 pounds), Ethan Johnson (6-foot-4, 275 pounds) and Hafis Williams (6-foot-1, 295 pounds) sharing duties along the interior with Johnson, Kapron Lewis-Moore (6-foot-4, 265 pounds) locking down the defensive end spot opposite Neal, it’s easy to get the impression that this year’s defensive line might be physical enough to allow the North Carolina native to go to work as a rush end and become a disruptive force in opposing backfields.
Neal should also benefit from the additions of Randy Hart as the new defensive line coach and Bryant Young as his defensive graduate assistant. He was unable to take advantage of any intense hands-on work with either coach this spring while he sat out for undisclosed reasons, but he was still present during the practice sessions, and should be ready to reclaim his spot as the starting right end in the fall.
What’s A Good Season?
Honestly, Kerry Neal’s goal for 2009 should be to match the career numbers he has accumulated through his sophomore season. As we mentioned yesterday in the evaluation of Kapron Lewis-Moore, it would be nice to see the working parts of Notre Dame’s defensive line contribute to the most dominant front-four the program has seen in roughly a decade and a half.
We’ve seen special plays from Neal in spurts, including his third-quarter interception of a Ryan Lindley screen pass in the 2008 opener against San Diego State that gave the Irish offense possession of the football in the redzone, though Clausen would ultimately turn the ball over two plays later with an interception of his own. The key for Neal this fall, however, will be to put those spurts together into consistent week-in and week-out efforts.
At 6-foot-2, 246 pounds, Neal should also finally have an appropriate college physique that will allow him to better take on opposing offensive linemen. And with his speed and athleticism off the edge, he should be equipped with a full arsenal of physical resources that will allow him to win those battles more often than not.
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