McNeal the Real Deal?

[NickSMU17]

http://insider.espn.go.com/espn/blog/in ... dman_bruce


Off-the-radar players

Kind of off the radar: Speedy Shawnbrey McNeal, the Miami transfer, ran 19 times for 158 yards and a TD in SMU's win over Stephen F. Austin.

[SMU21TCU10]

They definitely let him score on purpose. really smart move too.

[NastyStang]

Nah the last SFA defender dove to try to tackle him at the 30 and no one could catch him after that....SFA isn't that smart at that particular time.....it was a long run play and maybe a short running play where SMU was dominating the line down towards the goal line but no way. They don't tell the defense go ahead and let them score in that position before that play was called. I watched the same play as well.

It was a gift from D-coordinator:

A former defensive coordinator, Harper made the decision to let SMU score late in Saturday's game to enable his offense to get back onto the field.

With SFA out of time-outs and SMU leading 24-23 and facing a second-and-13 from the SFA 49-yard line with 1:55 to play in the fourth quarter, the SFA coach told his defensive players to allow the Mustangs to score.

Running back Shawnbrey McNeal scored on the next play on a 49-yard run. The extra point made it a 31-23 lead with 1:31 remaining.

Needing a touchdown and two-point conversion to tie the game and possibly force overtime, SFA drove the ball into SMU territory before running out of time.

"We had to do it, because we needed to get the ball back," Harper said. "If we would have stopped them, we would have had only 15 or 20 seconds.

"I told our defense 'we need to let them score.' I told them to not worry about it. I'll take this one.'"

[SMU 86]

Do you have a link or source for that quote?

[CalallenStang]

Do you have a link or source for that quote?

Plugging a paragraph of the article into Google revealed this article:

http://www.dailysentinel.com/hp/content ... pdate.html

[SMU 86]

Thank you sir.

[papawasamustang]

Coming from the U its obvious to me he is the real deal.
He can break it on any play. Makes the O line better.
Would also like to c some Butler mixed in too.

[ponydawg]

If the QB and WR can get it going, then he can be the real deal. If they play like they did on Saturday, with our o-line, other schools can focus on McNeal and make it a lot tougher on him.
Very glad we have him.

[SMU21TCU10]

Hmm. well now that we know for a fact that they let him score on that play. You take away 49 from 158. and the average YPC goes way down.

[NickSMU17]

Yes, it would suck to have a back avg. only 6 ypc.

[PK]

Hmm. well now that we know for a fact that they let him score on that play. You take away 49 from 158. and the average YPC goes way down.

It may or may not be what he told his defense to do...it could also be just an excuse to cover up the fact that McNeal ran through and away from his defense. If on the other hand that was really what they did...it didn't pan out too well for them did it?

[SMU21TCU10]

either way it gave me a scare that a team that had already passed for 350 yards on the night had the ball back down 8 with a minute and a half yet!

[ponyscott]

Wow good job on securing the quote and confirming that they actually did let SMU score as I couldn't find anything yesterday that blogged to their SFA site to check if they actually did this. Well I'll be....they were smarter than advertised but it didnt work out and often doesn't work either but nice to know. McNeal will take the gift, as will SMU.

I will be eating my crow for dinner later.......better with catsup or steak sauce?

[SmooBoy]

McNeal just seems to really have an acceleration when he sees the gap, and good vision. Albeit one game against D2, still very encouraging to see.

[PonyFanBCLA]

I'll take credit for pointing it out in my first post it looked like they let him score. And I will let everyone else take credit for him being for real. I never saw him play in HS and never heard of him in college before he transferred. You dont get to the U or win track events and make it to be a three star recruit without some game. I'll even acknowledge 6ypc without the 49 yard run is pretty darn good. Lets see more of it this week.