GREENSBORO, N.C. – Guilford College Athletics Director Tom Palombo announced Steve McNeely's appointment as assistant football coach Monday. McNeely will coach the quarterbacks for head coach Chris Rusiewicz's team. He replaces Chris Barnette '07, who took the quarterbacks coaching post at NCAA Division I North Carolina A&T State University after seven seasons at Guilford.
McNeely joins the Quakers' staff after serving three years as quarterbacks and receivers coach at his alma mater, perennial NCAA Division III football power University of Mount Union. The Purple Raiders have won an NCAA-record 11 national championships, including the 2012 title with McNeely on staff. He served as a student assistant coach in 2010 and 2011 after one season as a reserve quarterback for the Raiders. McNeely began his college career in 2008 at Washington and Jefferson University where he played football and baseball before transferring to Mount Union in his native Ohio.
Under McNeely's tutelage, Mount Union quarterback Kevin Burke won the 2013 and 2014 Gagliardi trophies, presented annually to Division III football's top all-around student-athlete. Burke is the award's first two-time honoree and also garnered first-team All-America honors from the American Football Coaches Association and D3football.com. Burke became the second Raider gridder tabbed to three Associated Press Little All-America units, comprised of students from NCAA Division II, Division III and the NAIA.
In McNeely's three seasons as quarterbacks and receivers coach, the Purple Raiders finished no lower than third among NCAA Division III scoring leaders and twice led the nation in points per game. Mount Union also had top-three rankings in team pass efficiency all three years and finished second only to Guilford in 2014. Burke and two Raider receivers combined to win 10 All-America commendations in those three seasons. In McNeely's five total seasons as an assistant to Larry and Vince Kehres, Mount Union posted a 71-3 overall record with four national runner-up finishes and the aforementioned 2012 title.
McNeely graduated magna cum laude from Mount Union in 2012 with a history degree and a minor in adolescent-to-young adult education. The dean's list student also passed his integrated social studies (7-12) state licensure and Praxis exams in history and education.
A 2009 West Branch High School graduate, McNeely collected a combined 11 scholastic varsity letters with the football, basketball and baseball teams. He captained each unit and was a First Team All-Ohio football selection.
Rusiewicz's Quakers are coming off one of the finest football seasons in school history. Guilford matched the school standard with an 8-2 mark and was one of four teams tied atop the Old Dominion Athletic Conference at 5-2. Guilford quarterback Matt Pawlowski, a rising senior, was 2014 Gagliardi Award semifinalist after ranking among the top-five Division III leaders in pass efficiency (3rd, 179.2), passing yards (5th, 3,476), points responsible per game for (3rd, 23.6) and passing touchdowns (5th, 38).