Devin Neal on changes, upcoming baseball season

Devin Neal has had a lot on his mind over the last week as speculation about the Kansas coaching staff began and so did his high school baseball season.

Neal committed and signed with the Jayhawks when Les Miles was the head coach and Brent Dearmon one of the lead recruiters. Now, both coaches are gone from the program.

“It actually sucks, because you have another level of trying to keep everyone together,” Neal said. “But I appreciate all that Coach Miles has done for me and my family. I don't really want to get into what happened in his past, because it's not my place. What he's done for KU has been remarkable. We just got to keep moving forward, and that's all we can do.”

Neal is different than most recruits and players because he lives just minutes from campus and will play football and baseball for Kansas. He was one of the highest-rated and most visible recruits in the class.

During the turmoil that has been going on in the football program Neal has stayed in touch with coaches.

“I talked with Coach Wallace a little bit, Coach DeBord and a few other coaches,” he said. “It's all about just moving forward and trying to see where I'm at. Which I made it very clear that I'm not going anywhere, I'm still committed to the Jayhawks. They were just checking in and just seeing how I feel about everything.”

Neal said the conversations with the coaches didn’t always focus around football, but more about how he is doing and answering questions he might have.

“Just having a normal person-to-person talk,” Neal said. “Not everything's about football. They were just seeing how I was emotionally. That's really appreciated at this time. This is definitely a tough time. You never want to lose a figure like that. But like I said before, all you can do is move on and move forward and try to be the program that we're trying to be.”

The 2021 recruiting class has been a close group of players and Neal has been the leader among the group. There are several players who have been watching events unfold in the football program and athletic department.

He has talked with the players who already enrolled in January and the others who will report in June.

“We talk in our group chat and everyone is still having a positive outlook,” Neal said. “Everyone is still committed to the Jayhawks. There's no wavering, and everyone's just going to do what they can to do their part on the football field. That's really huge, keeping our class together. We're really close-knit.

“We've all been close, even though it's not in person, with each other for almost a year and a half now. So, we really are familiar with each other, and we're really close and we're going to keep staying close. That's what I'm really proud of from the guys.”

There were several recruits in the 2021 class who signed and enrolled early. Neal had the opportunity to do that, but he wanted to finish out his senior season and play baseball.

The baseball season was canceled last year, and Neal wanted to be a part of his final year and close it out playing with his friends and compete for a state title.

“It's definitely a phenomenal feeling to be able to play baseball, especially getting it wiped out under the rug from you last year,” he said. “We have a lot of high expectations, and I feel like we can play with the best of them. It's a blast being out there with the guys. I'm just super excited to see what we can do this season. We're going to take it one game at a time, and hopefully make it to the state championship.”

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