Melrose's McNeilly is main man for Minutemen He's poised to lead UMass to Yankee title - The Boston Globe (Boston, MA)

AMHERST -- Melrose-born quarterback Andy McNeilly took a snapduring a UMass football drill. He dropped back, looked around withconfidence and threw a 15-yard strike to wide receiver Kevin Bourgoinof Newburyport.

On the next play, McNeilly took a quick snap and spun around. Hehanded the ball off nicely to Rene Ingoglia, and the Walter PaytonAward candidate as the nation's top Division 1AA player took the feedand scooted off left tackle for a neat gain.The plays were executed perfectly.

McNeilly and Ingoglia have been key people in the UMass offensethe past three seasons. McNeilly could become only the fourthquarterback in UMass history to pass for 3,000 yards and Ingoglianeeds only 414 yards rushing to become the UMass all-time leadingrusher.

UMass projects to be on the plus side of .500 and make a run atthe Yankee Conference title. The Minutemen opened their seasonyesterday against Richmond, a team coached by Jim Reid, who was headcoach at UMass from 1986 to 1991, when current head coach Mike Hodgestook over.

'I feel pretty good about this team,' said McNeilly, who playedfootball, baseball and hockey and ran track at Melrose High School.'The offensive line is very good, we have some fine receivers and therunning game is solid with Rene and our other running backs.'

McNeilly had a good summer. He worked from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. atthe Lincoln Day Camp in Lincoln and late afternoons he worked outnear home in Melrose. He had some high school players help himsharpen his passing. One was his brother, Liam, who is a quarterbackat Melrose High, and another was John Troy, described by Andy as anoutstanding receiver.

Said McNeilly, 'I basically did what I was told to do during thesummer. I had a booklet our strength and conditioning coach BobOtrando put together. I followed that closely. I lifted, ran andpracticed passing five or six days a week. I feel very good.'

Regarding the UMass team, McNeilly said, 'We have a lot of peoplecoming back on the offensive line, with tackles Danny Markowski, MarkShalala and Mark Zych. Then at tight end we have Erik Henry, who wasa starter at the University of Maryland last year. He's a finereceiver.'

Also in the mix up front are guard Lou Brandt; center Matt Alegi;guard Keith Durden; 300-poind transfer Ron Felice, another guard; andtackles Geoff Thomas of Gloucester and freshman Mimnaugh Hill.

Two seasons ago UMass had perhaps its best offensive line inhistory as it sparked the best running attack in the YankeeConference. Said McNeilly, 'I can't say this line will be as good,but it will be very good. They're all big and strong, work hard andhave a good attitude and that's what you look for. I feel verycomfortable playing behind those guys.'

McNeilly's prime targets should be Henry, Bourgoin, who will be athird-year starter, and a talented group featuring Darryl Thomas andredshirt freshmen Mike Smith and Zach Clark.

Said McNeilly, 'Ingoglia is what we're all about. He'sunbelievable. He's solid and he put on a few pounds. This is ourfifth year here and we work well together. I think I could hand theball off to him with my eyes closed. And his, too. We also haveFrankie Alessio back and he's faster and bigger, and Ron Brockingtonis another fine back.

'I just feel good about our entire offense. On defense we lost alot of people, especially on the line. We lost Brian Corcoran, whowas All-America, and Ben Albert and Silas Burke, who were All-YankeeConference. We do have guys who played well in the spring.

'Maybe we can keep the ball more on offense and try to keep thedefense off the field as much as possible early in the year. They'llcome along.'

McNeilly, who tends to downplay his role as a multisport athleteat Melrose High, said: 'Back in high school I just played hockey myfreshmen and sophomore years as a center. In baseball I was ashortstop and in track I just ran the 45 and tried to do the highjump. It was fun.'

McNeilly picked sports management as a major and now says: 'Forgetthat. Now I'm thinking about law school. I just want to do as wellas I can now GPA-wise and then talk to a lot of people and hopefullyget into a law school close to home.' Other Minutemen quarterbacks are sophomores Vito Campanile andAnthony Catterton and freshman Doug Clark. Campanile came to UMassas the all-time leading passer in New Jersey high school history.Campanile started four games as a true freshman when Andy was hurt.

Said Hodges, 'Andy has the ability and the experience. We putsome new things into the passing game. The shotgun and the sprintpass worked well. Now we'll refine a little. We can do more withour passing because we have experience there. But we're not going tochange our basic philosophy. When you play against UMass you expectto have to defense the run. That's how we want it. Improving ourpassing game is a goal, but our emphasis is still running thefootball. With Rene Ingoglia back there I should be fired if itwasn't.'

Ingoglia has rushed for 3,446 yards and 36 touchdowns and hasaveraged 114.8 yards a game during his career. 'I feel realcomfortable with Andy at quarterback,' he said. 'We've playedtogether a long time and we work well together.'

McNeilly isn't afraid to throw a block and is a strong runner. Hestarted 28 games and is ranked fifth at UMass in total plays with 752and eighth in total offense with 2,982 yards. Only three UMassquarterbacks have to passed for more than 3,000 yards: Dave Palazzi,Peil Pennington and Greg Landry. Andy should join them.

In 1992 as a redshirt freshman, McNeilly started all 10 games andwas the fourth leading rusher on the team. He best game was againstRhode Island, when he completed 13 of 21 passes for 117 yards andcarried 13 times for 50 yards.

In 1993 Andy started the first seven games, but he missed the lastfour with a knee injury. He played most of that season with a soreshoulder. His best game was against Holy Cross, when he passed for173 yards in a 37-7 win.

Last year Andy started all 11 games and completed 86 of 146 passesfor 869 yards. He threw for a career-high 182 yards on 10 of 27passing against New Hampshire and had a career-long 60-yard TD passin that game. He was 11 of 20 for 96 yards against Northeastern and10 of 18 for 75 yards against Maine. He sparked a 92-yard scoringdrive in the final minutes against Richmond and UMass missed thegame-tying point after.

McNeilly is a hard-nosed athlete who is a constant thinker. Hereads defenses well and is a good field general. His ball handlingis as good as any quarterback in the Yankee Conference.

'A good portion of football is the mental part,' he said. 'I feelI'm really mentally and physically for this season.'