Dec. 15, 2008
Senior Day, November 29 against UAB for UCF football, is the ultimate time to celebrate the culmination of a full career with the Knights. One senior, cornerback Johnell Neal, nearly never got to enjoy this year's Senior Day.
Neal has long been renowned in Orlando for being in the right place at the right time, especially when his team needed him the most. On Oct. 11, playing Miami at Dolphin Stadium, UCF found itself down 10-0 and in need of a spark. Enter Neal who intercepted a Robert Marve pass and ran it back 62 yards for a much-needed touchdown that made it a 10-7 game at halftime and helped the Knights hang in down to the final minutes with the Hurricanes.
Neal found himself in the right place at the right time once again on Nov. 2 when the Knights played host to East Carolina in a primetime ESPN broadcast. The game was tied 10-10 in the final seconds with momentum streaking over to the Pirate sideline after a fumble gave ECU the ball with 33 seconds to play in UCF territory.
Once again though Neal rescued the Knights, intercepting a pass at his own 21-yard line on the very next play to force overtime and give the Knights another chance to win the game.
However, it was the one moment this summer when Neal was in the wrong place at the wrong time that changed his life and made this Senior Day such a blessing.
This past May, Neal became the first member of his family to graduate college. It was a tremendously proud moment for both the Knight football star and his entire family, many of whom came to Orlando to see Johnell receive his degree in criminal justice. Little did Neal realize but he was about to get a real-life lesson in criminal justice.
A few days later, back home in Baton Rouge, Neal went to see his brother perform an R&B concert. When he returned home, in a case of mistaken identity, he was ambushed and shot twice in the chest and twice in the arm. Slipping in and out of consciousness in the backseat of his cousin's car, Neal was rushed to a local hospital where doctors were able to save his life.
His UCF football family would not let him recover from this ordeal on his own. The very next day head coach George O'Leary was on a flight to Baton Rouge to see Neal. The team's athletic trainer, Mary Vander Heiden, arrived a few days later and spent a week in Baton Rouge helping to coordinate his medical care and recovery.
"Seeing Johnell like that was just terrible," O'Leary recalled. "I was just happy to be able to see him and know that he was going to be OK in the end but you're never quite prepared to see one of your players in that sort of shape. I knew if any of our guys could pull through something like that it would be Johnell. He's one of the toughest guys on our team and I would have said that before he took four bullets and didn't miss a game."
Neal did not want to stay in Baton Rouge any longer than he had to. He wanted to be in Orlando in the nurturing environment of the UCF football family. As soon as it was medically possible to make the trip, his family drove him to Orlando as flying at that time was not possible due to the recovery from his collapsed lung suffered in the shooting.
"I needed to be in a positive environment around my teammates and football," Neal said of the decision. "Back home in Baton Rouge, I was just sitting around the house. I knew that being back here amongst the guys would pick up my spirits. Also, the doctors back in Baton Rouge were good but they were looking at me like a regular patient. I needed to get back here and be with people who could give me special care and treatment if I was going to be able to play at this level again."
"I knew right away that we needed to get him back to Orlando as soon as possible so he could have the best medical care possible," Vander Heiden said. "As soon as we could bring him back there we did and started working on healing his right arm and other injuries.
"He's always been responsible and accountable. Johnell wants to play the game and loves football. I cannot reiterate that enough. He LOVES football. So, he's not a hard individual to motivate to come in and get better physically. He is not afraid to come in here to the training room and do what we ask him to do to make sure he can get back on the field without missing any days."
Day after grueling day, Neal made his way to the Wayne Densch Sports Center for a rehabilitation which was so unusual that he and Vander Heiden will be featured in an upcoming issue of the NATA News for it.
The season opener was just over three months away by the time Neal returned to Orlando but there was a great reason to continue his streak of consecutive starts on Aug. 30 against South Carolina State. By complete coincidence, the UCF ticket office had chosen a photo of Neal to adorn the game ticket.
"Nobody thought when this happened that he'd be playing so soon," Vander Heiden said. "We joked about him being on the first ticket. That was added pressure we put on him. We said he HAD to be back because he's on the ticket. You can't be on the ticket and not play in that game. We used that motivation to get him going. We had to push him. There was some tough love in there and I wasn't his favorite person at times but he made it and it's great."
Neal indeed started as usual against South Carolina State on Aug. 30. He had just one tackle in the game and broke up a pass, but the personal victory for him was typically overshadowed in his eyes by the victory for the team and a shutout for the defense. He didn't slow down from there as he continued to make contributions to the Knights both big and small, on and off of the field.
Neal is hoping an NFL team will call his name in April's draft. Those who coach him daily are effusive in their praise and light up just talking about him.
"Besides being a great character person, he's a great football player," defensive coordinator Dave Huxtable said. "He just has such a great passion for the game, his teammates and this program. He is a lot of fun to coach. I am really going to miss him when he leaves. I'm just happy that he didn't leave us all this summer."
"I don't know if you can put the adversity he has faced into words," defensive backs coach Gary Blackney says. "A lot of people haven't experienced what he's been through. One of the things that can help a person overcome that is football. It hardens you. It makes you mentally, emotionally and physically tough. He had such a bond with his teammates and that helped him through some of his tough times, both back in Baton Rouge and after he got here.
"He brings the total package. Here is someone who graduated in four years and came back for his fifth year. He's one of the interception leaders in the country. He's a physical player. He's very instinctive. His football intelligence and toughness can take him a long way in this game. I hope that he has some opportunities to go on because I think he brings a lot to the table."
Neal would have brought none of that to the proverbial table if he had not literally survived to make it off of the operating table on that May night in a Baton Rouge Emergency Room. Neal went on in 2008 to resume his consistent role at cornerback as if nothing had happened. Doctors saved his life, on two occasions this year his interceptions helped save games for UCF and, rest assured, he will savor Senior Day. Two days after Thanksgiving, few in attendance at Bright House Networks Stadium have more to be thankful for.