"Neal is easy going and does not too intense. He unfortunately only focuses on his top swimmers, which the majority are international. The efforts of the slower swimmers in the pool, academically, and community involvement is not recognized nor appreciated. He gives too much power to a very judgmental assistant coach, Athena. But if you want to swim but not live and die by swimming like other D1 programs and want to have fun with great teammates FSU is your place. "

"Very poor communication skills, plays favorites, unorganized, HORRIBLE TIME MANAGEMENT SKILLS, does not listen to players' wants and needs, basically runs the team as a business rather than focusing on the athletes as people. I have had many friends leave the team and/or quit the sport of swimming as a whole because of how the team was run. "

"Stop recruiting so many people and you would have less problems. Neal is a smart guy but is obviously using FSU as a stepping stone in his career. He doesn't really care about his swimmers, plain and simple. Unless you kiss @$$ or swim fast, you won't get much attention from him. That is, unless you are a good looking female. "

"Knowledgeable, but that’s about it. He has cultivated a culture where coaches make sexist and otherwise inappropriate remarks. If he or his staff find out that you are thinking about telling compliance officers of their NCAA rule violations, they will bully you into not doing it through humiliation and intimidation."

"It seems Neal's only goal is to make himself successful. You can tell from his demeanor and how he speaks about his student-athletes that he does not truly respect or care about them. During recruiting, Neal stresses a transparent coaching staff and team values yet in fact it is the complete opposite. FSU has great resources but Neal is not one. "

"He is a fine coach. However, he is the type of coach that only cares about his appearance in the swimming world. He shows favoritism to those swimmers that swim well, again then making his appearance look better for recruiting and article purposes. He knows a lot about swimming, but isn’t a good leader and head coach material. "

"He's a nice coach, but is surrounded but "Yes men" who just agree with his coaching style. If you don't agree with his coaching method or him as a person he will talk badly about you behind you back to other coaches and even your teammates. He knows his stuff about swimming but is not a good leader."