Quietly, the weekend of February 3-4 was a productive recruiting weekend for Rivals100 offensive lineman Evan Neal.
The IMG Academy product was in the Lone Star State two weekends ago and made junior day visits to Baylor and Texas A&M. He also found time to swing over to Austin to check out the Texas Longhorns.
“I was just in the area. I hit up coach (Herb) Hand, asked if I could come by and he said yes,” Neal said. “I took an A&M visit and Baylor visit. While I was in the state I decided to hit up Texas as well.”
New Texas offensive line coach Hand was actually recruiting Neal while at Auburn, having extended an offer when Neal was a freshman. Texas has not offered yet and a scholarship was not discussed on the visit, but Neal is hoping the Longhorns add their name to his offer list in the near future.
“I hope so,” Neal said.
The 6-7, 360-pound Neal said he enjoyed his time on the Forty Acres, including the time spent talking to Hand.
“I like the locker room a lot. Coach Hand is a really good guy, so I like him a lot too,” Neal said. “I got a really good feel for the program, feel like they’re heading in the right direction.
“Coach Hand is a really cool guy. He’s a great coach, a really funny guy. He’s just overall a good dude.”
At this early stage of the recruiting race, Neal is still trying to sort through his options and he has no firm timeline in place for how he wants to navigate the process.
“I’m still trying to figure (the visits) out. I’m taking the process slowly,” Neal said. “Every school has a shot at me. I’m just trying to sort through all that.”
Neal said he’s unsure if he’ll take his official visits in the spring or the fall. He did say he enjoyed all three visits to Texas A&M, Baylor and Texas, but isn’t in a huge rush to put out a list of favorites.
A four-star prospect, Neal ranks No. 56 on the Rivals100 and the nation’s No. 3-ranked guard prospect. Despite those lofty rankings, he feels there are areas in which he can improve.
“I have a lot of room for improvement. I feel like I’m a really good run blocker,” Neal said. “I think I pass block pretty well. There’s always room for improvement in all areas of the game.”
