CHAMPAIGN — Nathan McNeal wasn’t exactly desperate to live closer to his family based in the Chicago area.
But Temple football’s former director of player personnel was open to hearing about jobs that might land him back in the region he’s most familiar with.
“I didn’t really get to understand this until last year, when COVID hit,” McNeal said Thursday. “I was out in Philly. First three months, I had some roommates and they were from (Pennsylvania), so they were able to get in their car and go home to their families. So they did that, and I was in the house. I was there by myself for three months, just alone. Couldn’t fly, didn’t want to drive anywhere. That really put it in perspective.”
So McNeal’s ears perked up when Illinois football staffer Pat Embleton reached out during a recent weekend with news that Illini coach Bret Bielema would give McNeal a call.
“You’re not guaranteed to work where you’re from or close to where you’re from,” McNeal said. “So I think when you get the opportunity … in this profession, it’s something you have to … at least think about. So it means a lot to be back.”
McNeal was announced as Illinois’ new recruiting director on Wednesday, a move made simultaneously with the promotion of Embleton to executive director of personnel and recruiting.
While Embleton will oversee all Illini recruiting efforts and manage an associated staff that includes McNeal, the former Northern Illinois safety will be heavily involved with drawing high school athletes to Illinois and “just helping manage everything and making sure (Bielema’s) vision comes to life.”
“With the in-state guys, I’m going to be really involved in that process,” McNeal said. “Actually, before I just sat down (for Thursday’s Zoom press conference), I was with one of the coaches and we were going over some Chicago kids, just cross-checking lists and stuff like that.”
Thursday’s announced hire of Jay Kaiser as Illini director of college personnel and NFL liaison further clarified Bielema’s direction for the program’s recruiting efforts.
“When (Bielema) told me his vision for it, it just clicked in my head and it made sense,” McNeal said. “This is where college football is going, so we have to adjust as a department. So I was all in.”
If McNeal’s name sounds at all familiar to Illinois fans — especially those who are also high school football coaches in the state — that’s because McNeal was the Illini’s director of high school relations from 2016 through 2018 under former Illinois coach Lovie Smith.
“Obviously, I take pride in this state,” McNeal said. “(Bielema) kind of laid out his plan and what he wanted to do, and that kind of drew me back because this is something I want to be a part of at the ground level.”
When asked to offer a comparison between the recruiting philosophies of Bielema and Smith, McNeal noted that “every staff is going to be different” before diving into why Bielema’s strategy can pay dividends at Illinois.
“When I came in, me and Pat’s offices are right next to (Bielema’s),” McNeal said. “It’s a priority for him to be able to recruit. That, to me, speaks a lot. And then just being able to meet with him every day on recruiting stuff and the directions he wants to go in, to me, I think that’s invaluable coming from the head coach.”
McNeal spent three years on his alma mater’s staff, including one as director of player personnel, before jumping to the Illini and then eventually departing to work for Temple coach Rod Carey, the former NIU coach.
“I got a chance to be a leader of people,” McNeal said of his gig with the Owls. “Biggest thing I found is that you don’t manage people, you manage the processes.”
That’s what the Thornwood product aims to accomplish with Illinois’ recruiting moving forward. And he’s been presented an interesting wrinkle right off the bat — from an in-state standpoint — with the IHSA’s 2020-21 season not beginning until next month.
“It’s been a benefit,” McNeal said. “Some of these guys need that junior film. … We’ll know who we need to see and what the targets are, and when they start, we’ll have the games to go off of and all that to make decisions.”
Colin Likas covers Illinois football and high school sports at The News-Gazette. He can be reached at clikas@news-gazette.com, or on Twitter at @clikasNG.