Senior Salute - Alex Neutz, UB's TD Catch King

Buzz before he arrived:

A nice find in upstate New York, Neutz was a three year letter winner, and James Lofton Award winner, at Grand Island. He has a quick burst and, while at Grand Island, showed phenomenal hands. He holds the Western New York record for receiving yards in a season (1,182).

He may have the best hands of available UB receivers but outside of practices he has not been tested at the collegiate level. Neutz has been mentioned by Graham Watson and others at ESPN as being one of the guys in the mix to replace Roosevelt or Hamlin.

- The X, Y, and Z of UB Receiving, by Tim Riordan March, 20, 2010.

His Journey: Neutz established himself as the #2 to Marcus Rivers and then the #1 receiver at UB. Neutz played in 44 games, started 41 games and caught a TD pass in 25 of his 44 games played. Neutz was very impressive in his final two years, catching TD passes in 18 of 24 games.

Neutz finished 3rd in UB history with 195 receptions, 3rd with 3,094 yards, 8th in yards per reception with 15.87 yards per catch, 4th in 100-yard games with 10, and #1 all time in touchdown catches with 31.

Debut Performance: Recruited by Turner Gill but redshirted in 2009, Neutz first game was Quinn's debut vs Rhode Island. Neutz caught 5 balls for 99 yards and a touchdown.

Breakout Performance: In 2012, his first season as the #1 receiver, Neutz caught 8 balls for 154 yards and 4 TDs. The performance amplified by the QBs throwing the ball to him, the inexperienced Licata and the inaccurate Zordich.

Senior Moment: Neutz caught 6 balls for 197 yards and 1 TD, drew 3 interference calls, was probably interfered with another 5 times and was open another 6 or 7 plays as he put an early scare into the Bears before the Baylor offense took over the game. His performance was the 3rd most yards by a Bull receiver in UB history and the best performance by a receiver against Baylor this year. Only three wide receivers had 100-yard receiving games against Baylor, Oklahoma State's Tracy Moore caught 5 for 126 and a TD, and WVU's Kevin White caught 7 passes for 130 yards and 2 TDs.

Future: Walter Football ranks Neutz as the #34 Wide Receiver while NFL Draft Scout puts Neutz at #27. 28 WRs were drafted last year, putting Neutz in 7th round/undrafted free agent territory. In Neutz's favor, out of the 34 top receivers as ranked by Walter Football, 23 are underclassmen, if some of the receivers return to school, it will help Neutz's draft chances. In addition, Neutz is third among those 34 receivers in career TD receptions and second in receiving TDs since 2012. Finally, Neutz may have been hampered by 5 QBs in 5 years (Maynard, Davis, Anderson, Zordich and Licata). His numbers are even more impressive seeing how often he had to adjust and develop new chemistry with new QBs. Neutz did himself no favors at the Potato Bowl, but he can make huge gains with good workouts this spring.