Neal Strengthens Hoos' Last Line of Defense

By Jeff White (jwhite@virginia.edu)
VirginiaSports.com

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — The outcome had long since been decided when Stanford quarterback Ben Gulbranson lofted a pass toward the end zone at Scott Stadium last weekend. Virginia safety Devin Neal leaped and got his hands on the football but couldn’t come down with the interception.

Neal, a graduate transfer from Louisville, has started every game this season for UVA, and he’s third on the team in tackles. He’s also his toughest critic.

“I feel like I could take another step,” Neal said when asked to assess his play thus far. “I feel like there have been too many missed tackles, too many things left on the table. Like that pick, I shouldn’t have dropped that. When I dropped that, I was like, ‘That’s not me. I dropped that?’ But there’s always room for improvement, always something to do better. I know I can play a lot better.”

His next chance to do so comes Friday night at Scott Stadium, where UVA (3-1 overall, 1-0 ACC) takes on No. 8 Florida State (3-0, 0-0) at 7 o’clock.

Nearly 30 years after the Wahoos handed FSU its first-ever ACC defeat, they’ll try to post their second straight victory in the series. In the teams’ most recent meeting, Virginia defeated visiting Florida State 31-24 in 2019.

The 2025 Seminoles are averaging 58.0 points and 628.7 yards per game. UVA is coming off a 48-20 victory over Stanford.

“It’s gonna be a fun game,” Neal said. “You gotta love those type of games. You gotta love a challenge, because that shows who you are as a unit. It’s gonna show who the defense is as a unit, who the offense is as a unit. If we all step up, do our jobs, and just take care of our responsibilities, one man at a time doing his job, it’s possible. It’s always doable. So we relish the opportunity.”

Neal, who earned a bachelor’s degree from Louisville, enrolled at UVA in January and began training with the team. The Cavaliers expected much of the 6-foot, 214-pound Neal, who made the All-ACC third team in 2023, and he hasn’t disappointed.

“We anticipated that he would be a guy that would push for first-team reps from day one,” Virginia head coach Tony Elliott said Tuesday. “So he’s continuing to get comfortable in our system and starting to understand all the checks and calls and the communication that’s required of the safeties. I think for the naked eye it seems easy, but with the complexity of offenses nowadays and the amount of communication that has to take place instantly for secondary guys, it’s a little bit challenging. But he’s becoming more comfortable and you see him making plays. I would love to have seen him come down with that interception, but he’s in position [to make the play].”

In 2023, Neal pointed out, he dropped his first chance at an interception but picked off four passes by the end of the season. “So things come and go,” he said. “I’m sure more interception opportunities will come my way and I’ll reel ‘em in.”

Neal is from Lexington, Ky., as is UVA tailback Xavier Brown. They attended different high schools—Neal graduated from Frederick Douglass in 2020, Brown from Lexington Christian Academy in 2022—and didn’t meet on the football field as prep standouts. But he’d heard of Brown, Neal said, and they’ve grown close at Virginia, “with that Lexington connection and everything.”

At Frederick Douglass, Neal starred at tailback and defensive back. He’s the oldest of five children, all of whose first names start with D, so it’s probably fitting that Neal ended up on that side of the ball in college.

“I didn’t want to be a running back in college,” he said. “I wanted to be a safety.”

He began his college career at Baylor University. With the COVID-19 pandemic ongoing, he played in nine games for the Bears as a true freshman in 2020. Neal appeared in 13 games in 2021 and 11 in 2022.

Neal enjoyed his time in Texas, but back in Kentucky his father, who’s healthy now, was dealing with a serious illness.

“It’s fine now,” Neal said, “but around that point in time, it was kind of a rough patch, unfortunately.”

Neal wanted to be closer to home, and so he transferred to Louisville, where he started 13 games in 2023. Two of his four interceptions came in Louisville’s win over 10^th-ranked Notre Dame. Also that season, Neal made 11 tackles and intercepted a pass to help the Cardinals rally for a 31-24 victory over visiting Virginia.

Back then, Neal didn’t envision playing in Louisville for another team, but the Hoos will face the Cardinals on Oct. 4 at L&N Federal Credit Union Stadium. “Honestly, it’s kind of a full-circle moment,” Neal said.

He played in only four games for the Cardinals in 2024 before entering the transfer portal. Neal figures to be the focus of much attention next week, but that doesn’t worry him.

“I’m looking forward to it,” he said. “It’s easy to let emotions and things get into it, but I gotta see it and treat it as another game, just like how this week is another game.”

After entering the transfer portal last fall, Neal signed with UVA in December. In evaluating Neal, the Cavaliers’ coaching staff learned that “he’s an unbelievable worker” with an impressive résumé and a high football IQ, defensive coordinator John Rudzinski said Tuesday.

With Jonas Sanker heading to the NFL and Antonio Clary recovering from a torn ACL, Neal knew UVA needed reinforcements at safety. But playing time wasn’t what sold him on Virginia.

“I was confident wherever I went that I was going to play, because I know who I am as a player,” Neal said. “I know what I bring to the defense. I want to be communicative and reliable and just able to help make other players better. So I felt like wherever I went, it would be fine. And once I got word of Virginia, it was honestly the best fit, really. Great school, great people, great coaches, and seeing what they did with their DBs, it was a knockout.”

Neal is pursuing a master’s degree in higher education in UVA’s School of Education and Human Development. One of his classes meets from 6:30 to 9 p.m., so he heads there straight from practice.

If he’s tired, Neal said, his class schedule can be taxing, “but it’s got to get done either way, so it’s got to get done.”

None of his classes is online, Neal said, and he’s enjoyed learning his way around Grounds.

“Honestly, I’m grateful for it,” he said. “I’m grateful for the opportunity to have in-person classes, because the campus is beautiful, and when I go to class, if I’m walking or taking the scooter, I can really just observe everything, and it’s wonderful seeing people playing tennis or volleyball every now and then. It’s beautiful.”

He’s part of secondary that added more than a half-dozen transfers this year. Meshing as a group has “been a great process,” said Neal, who wears jersey No. 27. “You want everybody to be able to play, everybody just to be the next man up, because you never know what’s going to happen. Somebody could be hurt. Somebody could just be dead tired or cramping. You never know. So it really helps when everybody is gelling together and being ready to make plays. It just energizes everyone.”

Curome Cox coaches the Cavaliers’ secondary. Its elder statesman is Clary, who enrolled at Virginia in 2019. The key to building chemistry in a group with so many newcomers, Clary said, is “just getting to know each other on and off the field, knowing how to play with each other, and just knowing each other’s strengths and weaknesses.

“Coach Cox talks about [the importance of] getting to know each other off the field, because that’s when you can really challenge somebody. If you know them really well, you can challenge each other, push each other, and then just spending time in the film room together, going out to eat, things like that, especially when you have a group of new guys. Nowadays in college football, they’re one and done. So you’re not really going to be around them that long.”

Neal turned 23 soon after enrolling at UVA, and he remembers thinking, “Dang, I feel old.” Then he learned he’s about 18 months younger than Clary.

“So I don’t feel as old,” Neal said, smiling.

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