Devy Digest: Devin Neal

Kansas Jayhawks
Position: Running Back
Devin Neal
5’11” 215 lbs
Age: 20
Draft Eligible: 2025

Stats

Who is Devin Neal?

Neal was a three-star in the composites, attended Lawrence High in Kansas, and was part of the 2021 class. Neal was a multiple sport athlete who was a varsity athlete in basketball and baseball. As a Senior, Neal ran for 1,327 yards with 20 touchdowns. Neal was rated as the number one recruit in Kansas, and it was well-known that Neal would commit to Kansas while still a junior in high school. 

As a true freshman, Neal would take over as the starter in week four against Duke, marking his first 100-yard rushing game. Neal would not relinquish the starting role and would finish his first season with 705 rushing yards and eight touchdowns. As a Sophomore, Neal would become an efficient runner with 1,093 rushing yards on 179 carries with nine touchdowns and showed his receiving prowess with 21 receptions for 183 yards.

 This past season, Neal broke out while still sharing a backfield. Neal would compile 1,280 rushing yards on 203 carries,16 touchdowns, and had an uptick in receptions with 25. Neal had an opportunity to declare for the NFL Draft but decided to return for his Senior season, and his backfield mate, Daniel Hishaw, also returns for this upcoming season. While the exact extent wasn’t ever disclosed as to why Neal came back, there were rumblings that he didn’t get a grade he felt comfortable with for the NFL and preferred to come back for his final year and try to help Kansas win the Big 12.

Strengths

Neal is an efficient runner who doesn’t have too much tread on the tires. In today’s NFL, more teams are turning to a committee, and it isn’t about volume in college; it’s about the efficiency with each touch. Neal is a very good runner. Behind the line of scrimmage, Neal shows good vision, is patient, and will wait for his blocks to form. Neal doesn’t panic when the lane isn’t there and will allow time for a potential block to form with the vision to see which cutback lane he can take should one not develop. Neal has a quick first step to allow him to get outside should nothing be available inside. Neal knows when to be patient and when to explode through the lane. What I appreciate the most about Neal is his excellent lateral agility and quickness to make defenders miss in a phone booth. 

Once he gets to the second level or in space to the outside, he will allow a defender to get close to him and can change direction on a dime. He can gain additional yards with his vision after making his defender miss. Neal plays with good play strength, shows good contact balance as a runner, and will absorb a defender and pick up additional yards. With his lateral quickness and agility, Neal is a good cutback runner with excellent footwork, which allows him to be elusive in space. 

As a receiver, Neal has soft, natural hands. On tape, he has routes down the field and is not just a check-down option. Neal doesn’t fight the ball and will catch outside the frame of his body easily. He looks to get downfield immediately. Neal has the skill set to be a three-down back at the next level without the tread on the tires, which will make him an interesting prospect for NFL evaluators.

Improvements/Concerns

After efficient back-to-back seasons, Neal comes back for his senior year. It’s slightly problematic that in a weak 2024 running back class, Neal chose to come back. While we’re piecing together missing parts, it could be concluded that Neal didn’t get the NFL grade he liked. If that is the case, the 2025 running back class has the potential to be very deep, a class that is so deep that we haven’t seen it for some time, and that could drive Neal down even further than if he came out in the 2024 draft class. 

Perhaps Neal returned because he wanted one more year to win a Big 12 title, as he is from Lawrence and wants to leave a legacy. Neal loves the program; he’s been on the recruiting trail, closing basketball recruits for Kansas. Perhaps Neal just wants another year as a collegiate athlete; whatever the case is, Neal is back for another year to hone his craft, and what I want to see is a thicker lower half to his frame and stronger in the strength and conditioning program so he can drive defenders when he is being wrapped up. 

Neal will utilize his quickness to evade. Neal shows play strength, as we outlined earlier, but he prefers to be in space and work in space. His frame suggests that he should be able to add on some muscle mass this offseason, and it is something I would like to see. Neal might end up as a change of pace type of back, akin to a Tony Pollard type where if we can get 10-12 touches at the next level, Neal will be efficient, but anything more and we get diminishing returns. Neal does need to become a better pass blocker, as that has not been something he has excelled at; he’s been more of a body that slightly gets in the way of the rusher thus far.

Beyond the Numbers

We’ve mentioned how Neal has been efficient the past two seasons; let’s go beyond the numbers. 

Neal is very protective of the football, with only three fumbles and 541 carries while rushing for 33 touchdowns. Neal is coming off a career-high of 203 rushing attempts this past season and only fumbled it once while adding 16 scores on the ground. In 2023, Neal averaged 3.63 yards after contact and forced 60 missed tackles. In 24 more carries from his Sophomore to his Junior season, he added .75 yards more after contact per rushing attempt and honed his craft at being a more elusive runner as his forced missed tackles went from 38 to 60. 

Neal doubled his aDOT this past season as a receiver with a 1.3. You love to see a 1+ aDOT with running backs as, often, it will be dump-offs. To see on tape that he was running routes and for it to translate in the numbers shows that Neal can be a capable receiver at the next level. One hundred nineteen of his 203 rushing attempts went to the edge. Neal averaged 7.2 yards per carry when he took the ball to the edge and only 4.6 yards between the tackles. The 4.6 yards is still a good number for a running back, but it accentuates the desire to see Neal add more mass to his lower half to drive forward and pick up vital additional yards when running between the tackles. As a pass blocker this past season, Neal has 63 pass-blocking reps and allowed one sack, one hit, nine hurries, and eleven pressures.

2024 NCAA Outlook

Neal has been part of the turnaround in Lawrence, and this upcoming season, Kansas will be playing home games at different venues in Kansas while their home stadium is being remodeled. Kansas hopes to win the Big 12 championship as Texas and Oklahoma move into the SEC. The split between Neal and Hishaw was 63/37 last season in favor of Neal, and I expect it to be similar this year. Neal should have another efficient season with over 1,000 rushing yards and double-digit touchdowns. With another year in the strength and conditioning program, I would expect Neal to be physically stronger, and if that can translate to his between-the-tackles running and form a better pass-blocking technique, Neal could be a top-five running back in next year’s class.

2024 NCAA Schedule

Kansas has a good shot at going 12-0 this upcoming season. They start the season with Lindenwood, Illinois, UNLV, West Virginia, TCU, and Arizona State before they have a bye week. The toughest game they might have is against West Virginia, and they could arguably have leads in all of those games, and Neal could be fed the ball to run out the clock. After their bye week, they have Houston, Kansas State, Iowa State, BYU, and Colorado and end the season with Baylor. The Kansas State and Iowa State games might be their toughest stretch, and if they can get by both and win the conference championship game, they will be in the 12-team playoffs. Devin Neal could very well have a showcase season.

NFL Outlook