Florida State Defensive End Kevin McNeil Makes the Grade and is Eligible to Play for the 'Noles!
by Bud Elliott on Aug 12, 2009 8:33 PM EDT
in FSU Football
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The Seminole nation breathes a collective sigh of relief tonight. We have been informed that after a week of suspense over Florida State Defensive End Kevin McNeil's eligibility, his facebook status now reads:
Kevin Mcneil 95 is back fb!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This is pretty surprising news. McNeil needed to make good grades in his summer classes to remain eligible for the Fall season. He was thought to be a grades risk after electing to give up a full year of eligibility (making him a junior last year instead of a sophomore), rather than serving a three game suspension for his involvement in the much publicised academic cheating scandal. Many believe the reason for the choice was the unlikelihood that McNeil could stay eligible for three years, and thus he chose the option to play as much as he could while he was likely to stay eligible. We speculated that his past decision didn't bode well for his chances to clear those academic hurdles, but it appears that McNeil has pulled it out.
This is absolutely huge news for the 'Noles as McNeil was slated to be a starter at a position of huge need and little depth.
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Serious here
I am always appreciative of that. This isn’t our full time or even part-time job, it’s just a serious passion for us. We use the spell-checker, but it doesn’t do grammar and often I type quickly and don’t proof-read.
So anytime you, or anyone sees an error, please do pipe up. Our quick-edit is just a click and it helps to make the site look better.
you dont have to use speel check and grammar check for me FSUn
Its the others that might give you crap for it though. I understand you.
Why is the sky blue? Because, God Loves the Infantry
Your fingers cannot be any fatter than mine.
And I’m certainly in no position to cast the first stone.
by PeachTreeNole on Aug 13, 2009 11:09 AM EDT up reply actions
Maybe not, with
McDaniel catching on so quickly.
So what’re we looking like right now?
DE – McNeil
NT – McCray (please?)
DT – Stewart
DE – White
something like that
by pillsburysoldier on Aug 12, 2009 9:09 PM EDT up reply actions
If I had to guess, yes
But I don’t want to say anything for sure yet because we are still 16 practices away.
McNeil, McCray,McDaniel...
the Big Mack Attack.
by PeachTreeNole on Aug 13, 2009 11:11 AM EDT up reply actions
If we just stay injury free now
Looking good so far.
Playstation All American, right again!
Discussing front page articles is encouraged!
PLEASE DON'T
Move Dawkins back to DT. Keep him on the edge.
When they moved him
they claimed it was regardless if McNeil is cleared to play or not.
by Wild@Heart Nole on Aug 13, 2009 8:57 AM EDT up reply actions
BIG
I saw that was his fb status but wasn’t sure that’s what he meant.
http://today.sportingnews.com/sportingnewstoday/20081229/?pg=2
"95 is Back!"
Could’ve been misinterpreted to imply CTC was taking over Defensive Coordinator duties effective immediately.
Is it just me
Or should KM not be starting? If he has that many issues with academics why take a chance on him after all the other academic crap that has gone down?
They aren’t called “Student athletes” for nothing. How much you want to bet he doesn’t go to class during the season?
Here is another example of why FSU has been down lately and that is character issues. Not doing the little things on and off the field. For God sakes you are going to school for “FREE” something many people don’t ever get the chance to experience. All that is asked of you is to go to class, do your assignments and play football and represent your school with pride.
I'd say 95% of the defensive players at major college programs
could not get into school without playing football.
Some of these kids can go to class, do their assignments, and still get F’s.
It’s helpful to think of college ball as minor league NFL, because that’s what it is at the major level.
by Bud Elliott on Aug 12, 2009 11:56 PM EDT up reply actions
Tell that to Ponder and Rolle
Still is no excuse for not abiding by their responsibilities for going to school free. I know they can get help and tutoring etc………
Yeah well the character issues we have had in the past few years have not transfered well to the major level (NFL) because those character issues were happening not only off the field but on the field as well.
Hense the entire problem with the system of sports in general going all the way back to when these kids were in High school. I played football in HS and boy the star players were certainly treated differently when it came to academics. Teachers passing them, coaches calling teachers urging them to excuse their star player for not turning in any work and to tell them to give them a D or even a C. The administration turning a blind eye to the whole thing, but guess what? Come time for a state test or a the SAT’s etc….. They couldn’t barely do anything.
All I’m saying is it’s one thing to struggle in school yet try hard to go better and it is another thing to not care entirely and just hope you can play enough ball so that you can either jump ship to the NFL or be academically ineligible.
Someone needed to pull that young athlete aside and say “Wake up” and do both. Football doesn’t last forever. All it takes is one play and it is over. Why not have something to back you up for the rest of your life like a degree?
It comes back to character.
Agree
Unfortunately there are high school programs that do a very poor job of preparing theses kids for college life. It is a lot easier to be a slacker in high school and still play football. Quite a bit different at the college level. It seems that message is not pounded into them as it should be. Study habits should be a big of part of the high school experience as practice. But I applaud McNeil and say if he worked hard enough this summer to get qualified, let him go out there and see if he can crack some heads. I think you should be happy. Maybe he did, as you say, “wake up.”
Not an alcoholic, just an FSU grad.
by onebarrelrum on Aug 13, 2009 8:22 AM EDT up reply actions
You can't use the exceptions to form expectation
The reason you know about the academic success of Ponder and Rolle is because it is so rare that it is news worthy. Holding all players to that standard is unrealistic and actually unfair. Most football players at most D1 schools group together into a select number of majors because of their lack of difficulty and to be honest most schools could really care less about the kids getting an education. Major D1 sports are a means to an end, and the players are tools to get it done.
by osceolafan850 on Aug 13, 2009 8:32 AM EDT up reply actions
You callin' me a tool, sucka?
Don’t stand too close to one of those tools when saying that stuff.
In a roundabout way McNeil's academic problems helped us
as it got Everette Dawkins moved to his natural DE position. And since he only missed a few days of practice, I’d say the 1 week of uncertainty about McNeil’s problems helped out overall DE depth chart.
Want more evidence?
Here’s the teaser for a “pay site”’s article on McNeil:
Defensive end Kevin McNeil is still with the team, but it is still unknown if he will practice with the team. It was thought that he would ineligible for the season, but recent news has indicate that might not be the case.
by Wild@Heart Nole on Aug 13, 2009 9:14 AM EDT up reply actions
Lay off the guy, being smart doesnt improve your character...
I don’t understand why we can make negative comments about a guy that pulled one out!?! Isn’t he on OUR team? It took me getting kicked out of college (while not being an athlete) to “pull one out” as well, nine years later I graduated college and paid back all my debt within one year of graduating. I knew it would take some sacrifices and was willing to make them. It appears that Kevin was able to do the same things. Kevin, in my opinion, has been screwed more than once since being here. So why not celebrate the rare occasion when someone put their mind to it and got it done.
Regarding the screw job..
…can you elaborate on how Mr. McNeil has been screwed over multiple times while at FSU? We love us some inside info over here.
what did he not get time to study,
was he part of the music class and didnt get to cheat like the others. You know to me its sad that someone gets this kind of a chance and they almost throw it away. Im not a smart kid but Man if I could have gone to college for free I would have in a heart beat. You know there are some people that dont have the money to got to school and cant get scallys.
Why is the sky blue? Because, God Loves the Infantry
Kind of digusted and tired
I’m glad he is back for football reasons obviously but am I the only one sort of disgusted and tired that these players treat school as an after thought? What is going on at FSU that they are not weeding these guys out? I don’t expect then to be like Rolle (that would nice) because i didn’t get those type of grades in undergrad or law school but my goodness, HE SHOULD NOT HAVE EVEN BEEN IN THAT POISTION IN THE FIRST PLACE.
I’m more tolerant of someone getting into fights and defending themselves (even though they could’ve walked away) than not going to school which is what you’re SUPPOSED to be doing in the first place.
Ok, that’s my rant. Good to have him back because that really makes us stronger in the pass defense and run game.
12-2.
You can't have 12-2 without guys like McNeil.
This is really basic stuff for the serious college football fan. And if you like watching the sport at the level it’s played at now, you’d better hope it remains the farm system for the NFL for a very long time.
I'd have to find the link but
McNeil was a part of the music history class, but choose to forgo a year of eligibility than sit out the games. Apparently that was an option to the players, and only McNeil took it. He could have been a junior this year, but is a senior instead. The consequence of that action is that under the NCAA progress rules, he was to be a year ahead of where he would have been otherwise, academically. The number of courses passed, not his grades, was his academic issue – though that should have not been, given this is still his fourth year (redshirted).
That was the way some article (or writer’s blog) that I’ll have to try to find explained it. Not sure on the part about progress rules …
by Wild@Heart Nole on Aug 13, 2009 12:51 PM EDT up reply actions
We can't weed these guys out. We NEED these guys
You don’t win National Championships with a team of Rhodes Scholars. You win them with great athletes.
This is Minor League Football.
So are you saying that to be a great athlete you must be not as smart as a ordinary person? And if they are not smart when they get here then we should further enable the mind set that prevents them from taking classes seriously for the sake of football glory?
It may be Minor league football but it is still up to the school to set the bar and enforce it.
This may not apply to McNeil as someone has stated it is not his grades but the number of classes he passed. Just to everyone else in FSU’s program that doesn’t go to class and at least try to stay out of academc trouble.
Maybe he's just not a strong student
I know students that aren’t football players that treat school as after thought. Some people suck at school work/test etc. It doesn’t make them terrible people. Its possible that he feels intimidated and uncomfortable in classroom settings. Maybe he has tried and failed (he wouldn’t be the first college student to do so). Its difficult and really damn near impossible to say. We can speak on what he should or should not have done but at the end of the day we don’t know what he didn’t do or WHY he didn’t do it. We aren’t Stanford or Duke, our academic program isn’t the most strenuous but if we recruit kids that haven’t always done well in the classroom for whatever reason, we can’t be shocked when they struggle in college. It doesn’t come easily to everyone like it may have for you or I. High schools create cultures that allow star athletes to get by with a minimal amount of work and that isn’t always the kid’s fault.
Lets call a spade a spade
It was said earlier that Ponder and Rolle were exceptions to the rule, which is correct. Anybody ever think that if Rolle would of spent more time watching film and improving his back pedal or his hands or any part of his football game he would of been a better player? Well he didn’t he was studying being a great student. He was a good player a GREAT student.
Well I am going to be honest for my time that I put in reading about the noles watching the noles and suffering with the noles. I want more Deions than Myrons, if they can make it so they do enough to graduate and stay eligible great. I want to win on the field and you know what that means that FOOTBALL comes first even if you don’t want to hear it that’s the truth.
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