Former Syracuse football GM Nate McNeal details departure for Illinois
After one season as SU’s first-ever general manager, Nate McNeal returned home to the University of Illinois. Leonardo Eriman | Asst. Video Editor
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Nate McNeal bet on himself when leaving Illinois to become Syracuse’s first-ever general manager following the 2023 season.
He’d spent nearly all 34 years of his life in the state, growing up in Chicago, playing at Northern Illinois and spending six of his first eight seasons as a professional in Illinois’ recruiting department. So, when an opportunity emerged to return home after an illustrious first season with the Orange, McNeal couldn’t turn it down.
On Feb. 19, McNeal departed SU to reunite with Illinois, becoming its executive director of player evaluations and acquisitions. In his sole year as Syracuse’s first general manager, McNeal’s expertise helped the Orange to a 10-3 record while building one of the largest 2025 recruiting classes in the country with 35 commits.
Despite early success with SU and deep connections with head coach Fran Brown and Scouting Director Aaron Mannicci, McNeal followed his heart and returned to his roots.
“Obviously, it was a hard decision to make,” McNeal said. “But in this business, you don’t get to work close to home often. I knew this was something that I had to do.”
Making the move to join the Orange last season was largely based on prior relationships with Brown and Mannicci. McNeal worked at Temple from 2019-21 as its director of player personnel. At the same time, Brown served as the Owls’ defensive backs coach while Mannicci worked under both as a student intern.
After Mannicci followed Brown to Georgia and eventually made the jump with him to SU, McNeal reached out to congratulate his former intern. Brown asked McNeal a few weeks later about possible interest in Syracuse’s general manager position. Because of their time together at Temple, McNeal knew he wanted to join the staff.
The rekindled bond made leaving Syracuse even harder. Brown said he often meets with staff members to go over their six-month and yearly goals. McNeal’s didn’t match up with being at Syracuse, and Brown felt he’d be better suited at Illinois.
“I told him I love him. I wish him the best, and I wish the best for Illinois,” Brown said.
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A return to Illinois meant McNeal’s third stint in the Land of Lincoln. Following three years at Northern Illinois as a safety, he became a graduate assistant for the Huskies for two seasons in football operations. McNeal then served as the director of high school relations from 2016-18 and was promoted to the director of player personnel from 2021-23.
McNeal sees Illinois as home and a place he’ll always return to, whether in Champaign or Chicago. He said it’s where he finds community outside of work. The reunion, while rewarding off the field, was also comforting, as McNeal is rejoining longtime co-worker and current Illinois General Manager Patrick Embleton.
McNeal took over as NIU’s director of recruiting in 2021 after Embleton held the role for six seasons. When McNeal became the director of player personnel, Embleton was the Fighting Illini’s executive director of personnel and recruiting before being elevated to general manager.
“I am excited to reunite with (McNeal),” Embleton wrote in a release following McNeal’s hire. “Nate was here from the start with Coach Bielema and embodies everything we look for in our program: tough, smart, dependable.”
McNeal joked he views their relationship like the lethal tandem of Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant on the early 2000s Los Angeles Lakers, piecing together the tools to build a formidable roster while leaning on his experience from SU.
“I’ve always viewed recruiting as a very important piece to building a program,” McNeal said. “And that was amplified times 10 just being at Syracuse.”
As the Orange’s first-ever general manager, McNeal faced unprecedented challenges within the program.
In his first media appearance as SU’s general manager on April 18, 2024, McNeal said, unlike in the National Football League, the power dynamic between the head coach and front office is flipped — Brown had authority over McNeal. When asked about his day-to-day tasks, McNeal cited roster management, recruiting and getting new prospects on campus. He worked hand-in-hand with Brown to identify talent from the transfer portal and pluck players they deemed fit best with Syracuse’s returning players and new recruits.
In the new role, McNeal said he often picked the brains of colleagues in the industry while building systems based on his past experiences that fit Brown’s vision.
“There was no blueprint,” McNeal said. “There was no, ‘This is what you got to do.’ You just had to learn on the fly.”
With Illinois, McNeal said he’s now much more involved with the acquisition and recruiting roles on a day-to-day basis, rather than what he labeled as an “administrative role” with the Orange.
He feels working with a first-year head coach for the first time in his career was an “invaluable” experience. On the recruiting side, McNeal said he’ll carry the strategies learned from Brown and assistant coaches Elijah Robinson, Nick Williams and Ross Douglas with him through the rest of his career.
Even with McNeal’s departure, SU is primed to continue its recruiting prowess as it enters year two under Brown. The Orange promoted quality control coach and Florida recruiting extraordinaire Thomas Caporale to their general manager position, already establishing the No. 10 ranked 2026 recruiting class in the country with 14 commits, per 247Sports.
Still, McNeal felt he needed to do what was right for himself, even if that meant leaving a position with a program on the rise.
“In this industry, you’ve got to take some chances and do some things that might not make sense to everybody from the outside,” McNeal said. “But the people that understand it definitely understand it.”
