Devin Neal said the time was right to choose Kansas

When it came to in-state recruiting all eyes were focused on Devin Neal. He is one of two players in the state that held an offer from the Jayhawks.

More importantly, the running back from Lawrence High, is minutes away from KU’s campus.

On Friday night Neal announced his commitment to Kansas and said the time was right.

“Friday and Thursday, it just felt right,” Neal said. “I mean, I kind of had a feeling I was going there, but I needed some answers to put with the other visits that I went on. And with KU, they have everything I'm looking for with football, baseball, and location. My family and friends can watch all the games and it's like a block away from most of us.”

Neal will play football and baseball for the Jayhawks. Both staffs were very active recruiting him where he grew strong relationships with several coaches.

Kansas offensive coordinator Brent Dearmon was a big factor in recruiting along with head coach Les Miles. Dearmon joined the recruiting process several months ago and his bond with Neal helped play into the decision.

“When you get to know Coach Dearmon, the question is how can you not like him?” Neal said. “He's just one of those guys. And I mean he's definitely a guy that I would jump off a bridge for because he would do the exact same for me. He's a loving guy and a family guy.

“He's definitely for this place. And I instantly fell in love with that. I mean, that's the type of coach that I needed, and I got it out of him. And he's looking to change the program along with all the other coaching staff there. And I'm right along with it.”

Running backs coach and special teams coordinator Jonathan Wallace joined the staff in February. Neal hasn’t taken a visit to campus since then, but has communicated with him.

“I talked to Coach Wallace very early, even before he was officially announced as a coach,” Neal said. “Even though I haven't physically met him up front, we've been on FaceTime. We’ve talked so many times I can’t count it on both hands. We've built our relationship from the short time we've known each other and we're going to continue building that within the next year and just keep going from there.”

Neal took several unofficial visits and learned a lot about the baseball and football programs. He said he even picked up on a few more pieces of information during the Kansas Virtual Junior Day held on Thursday and Friday. With no campus visitors allowed the Kansas coaching staff made big news with their junior day held online.

Neal earned offers from Kansas, Kansas State, Nebraska, Iowa, and Oklahoma State. On Friday he reached out to the coaches from each school to tell them about his decision.

“I called every single coach that offered me because they invested a lot of time,” Neal said. “I gave them all a call before I posted anything on social media. That was extremely important to me as I needed to show those guys the utmost respect.”

Now that his decision has been made, he quickly admitted it is a great feeling.

“To be honest with you, I feel like I'm on cloud nine,” he said. “It's almost like a dream. Only a few people in the country can say that they've been blessed with the opportunity to do this. I'm just glad that I'm in that boat. I'm just extremely excited and proud of what I've done to get here and appreciate of everyone who's helped me to get here. My family, my coaches, all of them, and my trainers. Mainly everyone that helped. I'm just super happy to have them on my side.”