McNeal Sets Visit With Cajuns

UL’s official announcement for the new head football coach is scheduled for Monday morning, but the news of Coach Hudspeth accepting the position has already paid off in recruiting.

DeShaun McNeal just completed his first year of playing high school football and all the “6-4”, 190-pound senior did is finish the 2010 season with 1,182 receiving yards and 14 TD's while averaging 15.5 yards per catch. DeShaun’s main focus has been basketball until this year, but that all changed this spring.

“I hadn’t played any football since middle school,” stated DeShaun. “I’ve played basketball throughout high school and my friends kept asking me to play football. I’d have to sit in class and hear about what happened in the last football game or about the next game. But when I started talking about going out for football, they would say it’s not the same as playing basketball and that I couldn’t do it. I think at that point, it became a personal challenge and I went out to prove that I could play football.”

McNeal hasn’t just impressed his coaches and teammates, but Coach Hudspeth as well.

“Coach Hudspeth has stuck with me all alone,” McNeal stated. “He was trying to get me a scholarship at Mississippi State, but they already have too many wide receivers committed. He told that I was better then several that they are signing and was working on a way to get me in the program. Now that he has taken the job over at ULL, he told me has big plans for me and to come in to visit in January.”

Has Coach Hudspeth discussed what kind of offense he is going to run and what were you comfortable doing in high school?

“He didn’t discuss offense with me, coach just told me that he has big plans for me,” said DeShaun. “I’m almost certain he would run a similar offense to what they are doing right now at Mississippi State. We ran mostly out of the pro-set in high school; our quarterback threw for over 2,900 yards this year and all-state. I can play in any kind of offense and I love to block as much as I enjoy catching the ball.”

DeShaun doesn’t know much about the Ragin’Cajun program, but he is looking forward to the trip down to Lafayette.

“I really don’t know much about the program, except they play in the Sun Belt Conference,” McNeal stated. “I don’t know who is going to be the offensive coordinator or position coach, but I look forward to coming down and looking around at the campus facilities.”

Along with Mississippi State, Deshaun has interest from Southern Miss, Ole Miss, Arkansas State and ULM. He is qualified, scoring a 21 on the ACT and maintaining a 2.5 GPA in his core.