Former NC State linemen slim down for Pro Day, with eyes on the NFL
Sometime on Tuesday afternoon the age-old riddle, ‘Why did the chicken cross the road?’ might finally be solved.
The answer: to get away from Joe Sculthorpe.
The former N.C. State offensive lineman will go through his NFL Pro Day on Tuesday morning, along with defensive tackle Alim McNeill and tight end Cary Angeline.
After the Gator Bowl in January, Sculthorpe moved out of his Raleigh apartment, packed his bags and headed north to Boston to train at Athletic Evolution. With the exception of a week in Hawaii for the Hula Bowl, Sculthorpe was at the facility around the clock, training, preparing for the NFL.
.JPG "AP20277861933954 (1).JPG")
Full-time training meant weight room work, film sessions and work on the field daily. It also meant a strict diet, with the facility providing meals to the athletes. Sculthorpe played his senior season at 307 pounds, and said he’s down to 299 now. McNeill topped out at 335 during the year, and is now down to 320. Each player has followed the diet plan to a T, and McNeill said he feels so good that he hasn’t allowed himself a cheat day, and might even resist the urge once Pro Day has passed.
There’s no chance Sculthorpe will do the same, and he issued a warning to all the poultry in Raleigh.
“I tell you what, though,” Sculthorpe started after shaking his head that he hadn’t had a cheat day. “It’s a bad day to be a piece of fried chicken after the Pro Day.”
Training routine
During their college days, Sculthorpe and McNeill could eat three meals a day at the Murphy Center, meals carefully prepared by the Wolfpack nutrition staff for maximum performance on the field. But they were still college students, meaning when they left the facility, any of the fast food chains on Western Boulevard were fair game.
The nutritional staff couldn’t watch them 24 hours a day, so the guys could put anything in their bodies on their own time, no matter how hard the coaches stayed on them about eating properly.
“They’re up cramming for tests and writing papers and we all know how that is,” N.C. State head coach Dave Doeren said. “Sometimes you’re going to eat a pizza at midnight when you go through something like that. It’s hard to get them into that same exact type of nutritional habit.”
A new habit for McNeill includes no more red meat and a bowl of oatmeal in the car each morning. Not while he’s driving, though, in the parking lot once he gets to the facility.
“When I get up I want to get going,” McNeill said. “I usually have oatmeal and water or oatmeal in my smoothie.”
No cheat days
Life for these players now is football from the time they wake up in the morning until late in the evening. No more schoolwork or much socializing. McNeill left Raleigh for The Sports Academy in Thousand Oaks, California, for two months, even though he spent the past few weeks working out at N.C. State.
Their day starts before sunrise and each day runs smoothly. Schulthorpe didn’t want to call it “brainless,” but he admitted once he gets going, the staff around him makes sure he stays on track.
“It’s a weird shift in mindset,” Sculthorpe said. “They put me through every drill they could come up with to put me in the best shape of my life and there was no thinking to it. They pointed and I ran, I got done and they handed me a meal. It was essentially me following their program.”
Besides the daily bowls of oatmeal, McNeill gave up red meat while training in California. Even when he returned to Raleigh, he found another meal plan to follow. In addition to eating better, McNeill was able to make sure he got the proper amount of sleep, had access to a masseuse and all the recovery tactics you can think of. McNeill, who was 270 pounds in high school and 299 by the time he arrived at N.C. State in 2018, never had a problem with adding or shedding weight. He says he got up to 335 on his own and it made him better suited to anchor the defensive line from his nose tackle position.
“My diet has never been terrible,” McNeill said. “I could always control it throughout the years. The things that we eat are a little different. I eat more turkey meat, more vegetables. The meal plans have been really beneficial.”
So much so that McNeill doesn’t want to get sidetracked.
“I’m still waiting on one of those cheat days,” McNeill said. “I’ve been trying to keep my body good. Plus, I feel better this way. I’m kind of scared to have a cheat day, honestly.”
This story was originally published March 30, 2021 at 6:00 AM.
