Instant Classic: One Snap, One Touchdown, and Former Walk-On McNeely Joins Gator Lore
Tuesday, November 4, 2014 | Football, Scott Carter
Michael McNeely gets his ankles taped Monday after a memorable weekend. (Photo: Tim Casey)
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Michael McNeely woke up Saturday morning knowing that if everything went as planned, there was a chance he could touch the ball – on a designed play no less -- in Florida's game against Georgia.
He also contemplated the biggest what-if of all. What if he scored a touchdown? What would he do? After all, it had been a while.
“I ran a post route,'' McNeely recalled Monday. “It was a 25-yard touchdown reception. They were playing man, I caught it, beat the safety.”
A guy named Jimbo Chmelik, who later played quarterback at Quincy (Ill.) University, threw the pass. They weren't even real teammates. McNeely and Chmelik were from rival high schools playing together in the North-South Pinellas County All-Star Game in December 2009.
McNeely walked on at Florida and after three years of grinding far from the spotlight, he was placed on scholarship during fall camp by head coach Will Muschamp.
It was a dream come true for McNeely, who got accepted into UF's medical school on Oct. 15. McNeely is also doing a full-time internship this semester in the Applied Neuromechanics Laboratory at UF.
“We work with patients' gaits, their walking patterns in patients with movement disorders like Parkinson's disease, Essential tremor, and other things like ACL injuries," he said. "We study their gait and draw conclusions based on studies we do.”
Compared to the last 48 hours, McNeely's journey from walk-on to scholarship player to future medical school student at least seems real.
Everything since taking that snap on a fake field goal, darting through a huge hole to the right and sprinting 21 yards for a momentum-changing touchdown in Florida's 38-20 victory over the Bulldogs, well, all of that seems surreal.
“I kind of like lying low-key. Everyone has been coming up to me and saying hi,'' McNeely said. “Even around campus today, it's been very different from my usual life. I can blend into the general population very well.”
Not now. Not after becoming an instant Florida football folk hero.
One of McNeely's favorite moments since The Moment happened while he was at work at a Publix near campus on Sunday. He showed up for his part-time job (Sundays only) as a grocery bagger/cashier when a couple from Orlando came through his checkout line.
They had read about McNeely that morning and decided to drive to Gainesville to meet him in person. After they paid, the couple asked McNeely to sign their receipt to give to a family member – and big Gators fan – for Christmas.
Few of the folks who passed through McNeely's line prior to Saturday knew he was a football player. Same goes for most Gator fans. Now they know Michael McNeely, the 5-foot-8, 176-pound receiver, as the guy who scored the most important touchdown to date in Florida's season.
“I think it was the play that turned [the game] around,'' Gators defensive lineman Jon Bullard said Monday. “It gave us momentum. We practiced it all week. I don't know how, but it was drew up the exact same way, in the exact same formation, exactly what we wanted to do. He just went out and executed it.”
Here is a glimpse into how McNeely went from unknown to national story, and a taste of his life since:
McNeely points skyward after his first touchdown in five years Saturday. (Photo: Jay Metz)
The Play
Florida trailed 7-0 and faced a fourth-and-9 midway into the second quarter. The Gators lined up for a Frankie Velez field-goal attempt.
If they got the right look, McNeely knew what play was on.
“We called that one 'Dawg' because we were playing the Dawgs,'' he said.
Teammate Andre Debose warned McNeely to be ready if the play worked.
“You better have two moves,'' Debose said. “You better have one to score, and then one to avoid me, because after you score, I'm coming for you.”
A former walk-on at Georgia, Muschamp had full confidence in McNeely.
“Walk-on or scholarship, it doesn't matter to me,'' he said after the game. “The guy is a good football player. I didn't even blink putting him back there.”
Teammate Ryan Parrish, a fifth-year senior and scout team standout, is McNeely's best friend on the team. When Parrish got married in July, McNeely was one of his groomsmen.
On Friday night at the team hotel in Jacksonville, Parrish and his parents talked to McNeely about how cool it would be if the Gators got to run the play and pulled it off.
“The play worked perfectly, just how they drew it up in practice,'' Parrish said Monday. “I was on the headset, so I actually sprinted [toward the end zone] when he scored. I dropped my headset. I thought I had broken my headset, so I was preoccupied while he was celebrating. It just worked out so perfectly.”
In the stands of the corner of the end zone where McNeely scored and pointed to the sky was one of his biggest fans: younger brother Mark McNeely, who plays on the drum line in UF's band.
The orange-and-blue clad fans went wild. So did The Pride of the Sunshine's drum line.
“They were sitting in one of the first rows,'' McNeely said. “[My brother] said the drum line was so excited after it happened, some of them forgot to play for the fight song.”
Meanwhile McNeely lost his shoe in the celebration. He had to hurry to get it back on.
“Somebody stepped on me and it came off. I don't know how that happened because I tie my shoes pretty tight,'' he said. "That was pretty funny. We were running back, because I had to get down there for kickoff, and one of the equipment guys was like, 'let me untie it, let me untie it.' I had tied it so tight he couldn't get the knot undone, so I took it and did it.”
McNeely got the shoe on before the ensuing kickoff.
McNeely with teammates Ryan Parrish, Roger Dixon and Ryan Sousa (r to l). (Photo: Tim Casey)
Saturday Night
The Gators bussed back to Gainesville after the game and players and coaches went their separate ways.
McNeely went to dinner with his parents, Kathy and Angus. Kathy is a pediatrician in the Tampa Bay area and Angus, a former football player at Minnesota, works in the technology field.
Parrish rode with them to dinner while his wife, Shelby, a member of UF's track team, met up with the group at Gator's Dockside a couple of miles from campus.
“It was very low-key,'' McNeely said.
Of course it was.
The crowd had thinned at the restaurant but those who remained watched highlights of McNeely's touchdown and Florida's win repeatedly on the huge screens located throughout the dining room. McNeely's highlight was No. 9 on Saturday's “SportsCenter” top 10 plays.
Parrish soaked up the scene and chuckled at the irony.
“I wanted to tell everyone at Gator's Dockside that the guy who was on TV was in the building right then,'' he said. “I didn't want to embarrass him. No one really knew. That's how Mike kind of goes about his business. He works hard and does everything he is supposed to do.”
Sunday Afternoon
McNeely showed up at the grocery store for his regular afternoon shift around 1 p.m. As soon as he arrived colleagues and customers began a stream of congratulatory messages that lasted until he left eight hours later.
McNeely smiled and appreciated the support even if all the attention did invade his normal comfort zone.
Mike McNeely worked his shift @Publix just hours after his fake-kick TD sparked Gators. Story: http://t.co/v6zvv8waq4 pic.twitter.com/mv6UHBaRLf
— Jeff Barlis (@JeffBarlisESPN) November 3, 2014 “It was very abnormal,'' he said. “That's never happened before. It was a cool experience to say the least.”
McNeely took the compliments in stride and tried to go about his job as normal as he could. Still, it's not every day that a reporter from ESPN.com stops by or customers ask to take a picture with the bag boy.
A few teammates visited, too, including senior center Max Garcia, who choked up Monday when talking about McNeely as a teammate.
An emotional Max Garcia talks about McNeely at Monday's press conference. (10-minute mark)
“Man, I was so happy to see McNeely score,” Garcia said. “I don't think there's anyone on this team more deserving to be the hero. Ah, I get emotional talking about him. He's a hard worker man. He's just motivation for the team and guys like him are why we are going to be able to be successful because he cares about this program.
“I think if we had a whole team full of McNeelys, we'd be a national championship team just because of the way he plays. Everything he does on and off the field is championship level.”
Parrish didn't make it by to see McNeely at work Sunday – he and Shelby were too busy writing thank-you notes to those at their wedding – but he understands why Garcia and others talk about McNeely the way they do.
“He's just a great guy. He is genuine,'' Parrish said. “We go to the same Bible study group, which is small, and stuff like that. A great friend.”
The Aftermath
McNeely has never caught a pass for the Gators in a regular-season game. In his limited role he might never touch the ball again.
Regardless, Gator fans know who the guy wearing No. 31 is now. His introduction is one of the most memorable in the program's history. McNeely turns 23 later this month and is looking forward to beginning his career in medicine one day.
“I've shadowed orthopedic surgery a few times, and that's really cool,” he said. “That's the field that I have the most shadowing experience in. I've also seen anesthesiology. I saw a couple of open-heart surgeries this summer, so that was really cool. I'm really open going into medical school. I'm excited to see where the Lord directs me in these next few years.”
Until then McNeely will try to be the consummate teammate and if another play comes his way, he hopes he can deliver like he did Saturday.
While his teammates, his coaches, his brother, his best friend on the team, and thousands of Florida fans at EverBank Field cheered his touchdown Saturday, McNeely pointed to the sky and gave thanks.
Dawg worked to perfection.
“It was very different [all last week],'' McNeely said. “All the teammates were coming up to me saying, 'hey, you're going to score on this play.' So I kind of got in my head that if anything except for me scoring happened, everyone is going to be let down. I'm just so thankful that the coaches gave me the opportunity. It was unbelievable.”
