Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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Davonte Neal Is A Welcome Late Addition To 2012 Class caused the rumor mill to turn into a full spin of what his next move was. "People wanted me to stay in Ari- zona, but we knew it wasn't going to be the place for me," Neal said of the broadcast that the Wildcats won in the end. "It just didn't have what I was looking for." The announcement day became even more interesting when Neal wasn't able to attend the event, caus- ing further speculation about what was occurring between father and son in terms of the decision, but it was a "family problem" that didn't have to do with his recruitment that kept him from the assembly. Notre Dame was the choice he was sticking to throughout, with his elementary school's principal, Dr. Cheryl Green, having the signed let- ter of intent in hand for days. "Arkansas was actually the run- ner-up for me, so the rumors going around made even less sense to us," Neal said. "Arizona is a great school, but it just wasn't for me. Everything added up to Notre Dame being the best decision." While Neal arrived at the school Neal, a five-star recruit and the top athlete in the nation according to Rivals.com, played in the 2012 Under Armour All-America Game Jan. 5 in St. Petersburg, Fla. BY JASON SAPP T rived to publicly announce it. Davonte Neal sat in his room he decision was made. The setting was chosen. And the time had ar- Feb. 20, the night before his an- nouncement, preparing a speech that he was going to read during a press conference at Kyrene de la Esperanza, the elementary school he attended he attended as a child. Before he knew it he had already reached three pages, but was pulled away from his work when the doorbell rang. It rang three times to be exact. "My dad and I were in the mid- PHOTO COURTESY LUKE NEAL We asked if we could step away for a minute to go over something, and I think that's when rumors started." Neal referred to the rumblings that in the afternoon, he made sure to make a public announcement to the students apologizing for not being able to be there earlier in the day and presented the school with his framed Under Armour All-American jersey. Prior to reporting to South Bend in June, he'll return to the school to go from classroom to classroom and talk to the students. Neal received criticism for waiting he and his father had been arguing about the final decision leading up to the announcement, but nothing of the sort was occurring behind closed doors. "We just wanted to finish up what dle of making some changes to my speech and we stopped to see who was at the door," the 5-10, 175-pound touted athlete recalled. "It was a reporter that we were expecting to stop by so we all sat down to talk. 40 APRIL 2012 assembled the following morning awaiting Neal's arrival for his sched- uled announcement, media in atten- dance began speculating that he was headed to the in-state option, which we were going over on my speech to have it all wrapped up because it was already late," he shared. "I don't know why people started saying we were fighting about my choice. I knew where I was going for three weeks before I announced." With 600 grade school students until 20 days after National Signing Day (Feb. 1) to make a choice, but Irish head coach Brian Kelly fully supported Neal's process and ac- knowledged how additional time can be needed at times to make a choice. "Deciding on a college is one of the toughest decisions a young player makes in his life, so we are very pleased with Davonte's decision to attend Notre Dame," Kelly said of the Arizona native, who also had North Carolina among his finalists. "Davonte is a great complement for our 2012 recruiting class. … We wanted to add more skill players to our team, and we did a nice job of doing that. I look forward to coach- ing Davonte and the rest of his class this fall." BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED