Alim McNeill, NC State nose tackle, headed to the NFL. Here’s how he became a star.
Saturday won’t just be the last home game at Carter-Finley Stadium for the N.C. State seniors.
Hours before the regular-season finale against Georgia Tech, McNeill made it official - that Saturday would be his final game at Carter-Finley Stadium.
McNeill posted on Twitter that he would forgo his final year of eligibility at N.C. State and declare for the NFL Draft.
“I would like to think my family and friends,” McNeill wrote. “I would also like to thank the NC State coaching staff, academic support and facility. And a special thank you to the Sanderson High School Spartan family.”
The Wolfpack knows a thing or two about sending defensive linemen to the NFL (seven former defensive linemen have been drafted since Doeren took over in 2013) and McNeill is expected to be the next in line. McNeill has started 18 games in three years at N.C. State and appeared in 35 total. He has 76 tackles heading into the contest versus Georgia Tech. He has 17.5 tackles for loss for his career and 10 sacks.
McNeill picked off a pass against Virginia this season and returned it for a touchdown, the only Wolfpack defender with a pick-six this season.
‘Freak’ list
Let’s get to the bottom of the rumor right away.
N.C. State defensive tackle Alim McNeill cannot eat 30 chicken wings in one sitting. Maybe nine or 10, but not 30.
Let’s get to the root of the rumor. Wolfpack senior offensive lineman Joe Sculthorpe was asked what the most athletic thing he’s seen the 6-2, 320-pound McNeill do. The easy answer might have been McNeill’s interception return for a touchdown against Virginia on Oct. 10. Nope, Sculthorpe, never one lost for words, went for the punchline.
“I once saw Alim eat 30 chicken wings by himself,” Sculthorpe deadpanned. “No, I’m just playing. Alim’s an athlete, man. He’s not a common dude. He’s strong, he’s fast.”
Unlike the chicken wings, nose tackle McNeill’s strength and speed are far from rumors.
His abilities include a 640-pound squat and a 445 bench press. He runs the 40 in the neighborhood of 4.9. It’s hard to imagine that he once played linebacker and running back at Sanderson High School, weighing somewhere around 250 to 270 pounds.
“Running just as fast as I was, if not faster,” Wolfpack linebacker Payton Wilson said about McNeill’s prep days. “I always knew Alim was a freak (athlete). I’ve seen him do some freaky things here, but he’s been a freak all his life.”
The Athletic’s Bruce Feldman placed McNeill, a junior, on his 2020 preseason “Freaks” list, which highlights players that have “the type of rare physical abilities that wow even those folks who are used to observing gifted athletes every day.”
From doing push-ups as a kid to Wolfpack football
It started long before McNeill committed to N.C. State in 2018.
Building the body and strength seen today started when he was five, and his dad, Kenneth, had McNeill and his brother, Jabril (a 6-4, 225-pound linebacker headed to Oregon) doing push-ups before they went to bed each night. McNeill did 50 or more as an elementary school kid and still does at least 100 every night.
“I always started out (as a kid) at 40 or 50 a night,” McNeill said. “We were knocking out push-ups and sit-ups every night.”
That set the foundation for McNeill to build that strength, some of it through genetics, most of it through countless hours in the weight room. That brute strength, the low center of gravity and power through his lower body is part of the reason McNeill is so good at his job. Even if most of his work goes unnoticed to the casual observer.
Alim McNeill ‘helps the linebackers a lot’
McNeill doesn’t lead the Wolfpack in tackles. He averages about 2.4 per game, not a high number for a player who has started nine of 10 games this season.
He has 24 tackles this season is good enough for 13th on the team, as McNeill and the Wolfpack head into their regular-season finale against Georgia Tech on Saturday. But McNeill might be the most important player on N.C. State football’s defense. Take the win over Syracuse for example. McNeill didn’t have a single tackle, but the Wolfpack held the Orange to just three yards rushing. Wilson was named the ACC Linebacker of The Week after finishing with 10 tackles but was quick to acknowledge he was able to have a great day because McNeill did his job so well.
“He takes up two to three blocks every play,” Wilson said. “That helps the linebackers a lot. We’re freed up a lot because of him. He’s one of the best, if not the best, defenders in college football.”
The website PFF.com, which ranks players in college and the NFL based on the evaluations from 600 analysts, ranked McNeill as the highest-ranked run defender (92.3) in college football. He was graded as the number two interior defensive lineman overall with a 90.6.
A lot of McNeill’s work requires him banging into two, sometimes three, guys every play, taking on the force of 600 pounds or more while his teammates get most of the glory. What does McNeill get? A lot of dings on his helmet and bumps and bruises at the end of the day. But he loves it.
“You just have to be a man among boys down there,” McNeill said. “You have to be one of those guys not really worried about the glamour and glitz because you’re not going to get it from that position.”
So what does he like about it?
“I’m head up on the center and I really get to strike the center every play,” McNeill quickly answered. “I don’t have to do too much moving or anything like that, I don’t have to worry about getting the signals or the calls because I’m not going anywhere. It’s like doing a board drill every play.”
McNeill commands attention
When McNeill was a linebacker in high school, he knew his future was in the trenches. When head coach Dave Doeren was recruiting McNeill, the Wolfpack ran a 4-3 defense, and Doeren saw in him another Justin Jones, a former N.C. State defensive tackle now with the San Diego Chargers. Doeren thought McNeill was built similar to Jones and even though he was under 300 pounds, he was a thick guy who could grow into a down lineman. In the old 4-3, McNeill lined up on the outside shoulder of the offensive linemen. Now he’s head up with the center each play with the same objective.
“For him, it’s just disrupting, you know,” Doeren said. “We’re knocking people back.”
And if teams single, double, or even triple-team McNeill, he commands enough attention that it opens up lanes for the linebackers. McNeill has been able to disrupt blocking schemes, planting centers or guards in the backfield or forcing them to reroute as he uses his tree-trunk-sized arms to bully them around.
To be successful, McNeill said, you have to have the mindset that you’re not going to end up at the bottom of a pancake block, which he said he hasn’t all year. In most plays, if you watch closely, McNeill finishes on his feet, if he doesn’t make the tackle himself.
“That’s just a weight room thing and a mindset thing,” McNeill said. “You have to not want to be put on your back. It’s a mindset, strength and a little technique.”
Georgia Tech at NC State
When: 4 p.m., Saturday
Where: Carter-Finley Stadium, Raleigh
Watch: ACC Network
This story was originally published December 5, 2020 at 10:06 AM.
