When Northeastern High
School football coach Antonio Moore tries to describe the running style
of Daronte McNeil, he thinks back to the 2003 college season and a game
he watched between Florida State and North Carolina.
Late in the first quarter
of that game, FSU’s 255-pound tailback Greg Jones turned upfield around
the left end. UNC safety Dexter Reid came up to try to tackle Jones. But
Jones lowered his shoulder and launched himself into Reid, sending the
safety’s helmet in one direction and his body in another.
“That’s kind of the way
Daronte runs,’’ Moore said. “He is so powerful. He’s actually a lot
bigger than most linebackers. Defensive backs hate to come up and tackle
him.’’
Built like a Hummer, the
6-foot-2, 219-pound McNeil plowed his way to 2,531 yards and 31
touchdowns last season to earn player of the year honors in the
Northeastern-Coastal 2-A/3-A Conference.
The performance grabbed
the attention of many college recruiters, including those from East
Carolina who were in Elizabeth City often last year recruiting
Northeastern wide receiver Javon Brumsey.
But while Louisville and
Virginia came through with early scholarship offers, it was the Pirates
who landed McNeil earlier this month.
Pivotal in McNeil’s
decision was the presence of Brumsey, who won’t participate in football
this season but will be enrolled in classes at ECU as a partial academic
qualifier. Brumsey can join the Pirates in the fall of 2007 if he
completes academic requirements.
“I’d rather go to a school
where I know someone,’’ McNeil said. “Javon and I have played together
since middle school, starting with flag football. He’s already up there
and he filled me in on what I need to know.’’
McNeil is in his fourth
season on the varsity at Northeastern. But Moore first discovered McNeil
as a seventh grader playing middle-school football.
Even then, says Moore, you
could tell McNeil had a special style about him.
“When he was in the
seventh and eighth grade he looked like a junior varsity player,’’ Moore
said. “If you could bring them up as seventh- and eighth-graders he
would have been starting on the JV's as a tailback.
“The one thing you could
already tell about him at that age was that he had power. He was always
bigger, faster and stronger than anyone else. You don’t get too many
kids coming along like that.’’
By the time McNeil did
play for the Northeastern JV's in the ninth grade, he didn’t stay there
long. Moore promoted him to the varsity squad three games into his
freshman season. He hasn’t been out of the Northeastern lineup since.
McNeil’s yardage last
season led many to compare him to former Northeastern standout Jacque
Lewis, who went on to play at North Carolina and last year in NFL
Europe. Even though he was recruited with similar intensity to Lewis,
McNeil is a different style of back, according to Moore.
“He’s definitely the
heaviest recruited kid we’ve had here since Jacque Lewis,’’ Moore said.
“Jacque was more flashy as a runner and was actually probably a little
faster. Daronte is different. He’s more of a power back. He has great
vision and deceptive speed. He’s about a 4.5 kid where Jacque was in the
low 4.5 or high 4.4.’’
When citing examples of
McNeil’s running style, Moore quickly shifts the conversation back to
the Greg Jones-Dexter Reid play.
“He made a play against
Hertford County last year that was just like that,’’ Moore said. “We
were down 32-31 with three minutes left in the game, and he ran a play
just like Greg Jones did. He ran through two defensive backs on the
Hertford County sidelines and went for a 72-yard touchdown. It was an
amazing play.’’
McNeil is the fourth skill
player to give East Carolina a commitment for the Class of 2007. He
joins quarterback
D.J. McFadden from Charlotte,
Charlotte fullback
Ben Herlocker and Suffolk, VA, wide receiver Darryl
Freeney in what is shaping up as one of the best Pirate recruiting
classes in years.
“There’s a lot of momentum
there,’’ McNeil said. “I feel like Coach Holtz and his staff are signing
up some great players who are going to go in there and make some good
things happen. I think I fit right in with those guys and what they’re
trying go do there.’’
Five of ECU’s commitments
are from in-state athletes.
