UNLV defensive end Nate Neal’s mom was world-class athlete

From his dad, Kenny, UNLV 6-foot-2-inch, 230-pound junior Nate Neal gets his height and power. From his mom, Yvette McLeod, he gets his strong legs and speed.

A pretty good combination for a defensive end, especially considering his mother was a world-class athlete.

Then known at Yvette Bates, she was an 11-time track All-American at Southern California. She still holds USC’s record in the long jump at 21 feet, 11 inches set in 1988, and is second in the triple jump at 45-3½, a mark set in 1987. Bates also once held the world record in the triple jump.

“My mom, all she taught me from the ground up was compete and how to be a champion,” Neal said after UNLV’s practice Sunday at Rebel Park.

McLeod nearly qualified for the 1988 Olympic Games in South Korea in the long jump; there was no women’s Olympic event for the triple. She tied two other competitors for second place with a 22-7 in the Olympic trials, and only the top three qualified. McLeod lost out because the two she tied had better jumps as their second longest.

It was a lesson in how to handle adversity.

“She told me, ‘Never get too low, too high. Every day you’re working, you keep the same grind. Keep the same effort and things are going to work out in the end,’ ” Neal said.

Neal and junior Nick Dehdashtian are sharing snaps at defensive end and are expected to see about the same amount of plays this season, which begins Aug. 31 against Southern Utah at Sam Boyd Stadium.

Coach Tony Sanchez said the entire line goes two-deep.

“We’re at the point now in the defensive line it doesn’t (matter who starts),” Sanchez said. “We’ve always put such a heavy workload on some of our really good players because they didn’t really have anybody behind them of that caliber. Everybody’s got someone right behind him that can come in and there’s not a dropoff, so that’s exciting.”

Position breakdown

Quarterback

Armani Rogers, Jr., 6-5, 225

Kenyon Oblad, Fr., 6-3, 190

Marckell Grayson, So., 6-0, 200

Note: Junior Max Gilliam (6-3, 200) was considered the second-team quarterback before injuring a foot in the offseason that will keep him out well into September.

Notable

— Not much changed Sanchez’s assessment after viewing video of Saturday’s scrimmage. He called the scrimmage “sloppy” afterward.

“There were a lot of good things on there,” Sanchez said. “Obviously, we’ve always been a team that can be physical and run the football. You saw that. We’ve got to clean things up a little bit in the passing game, no doubt. Ball security was a little bit of an issue, and we’ve done pretty well with that. We had a bunch of different things in all three of the groups (starters and backups).

“Really, what we hammered home today in our team meeting before we came out here was detail. We’re a pretty good football team, but we’ve got to take care of the details.”

— Sophomore wide receiver Tyleek Collins (concussion) returned to full practice.

— UNLV takes Monday off and will return to Rebel Park on Tuesday.

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Contact reporter Mark Anderson at manderson@reviewjournal.com. Follow @markanderson65 on Twitter.