SLIPPERY ROCK — Relentless. Instinctive. Aggressive. Destructive.

Those words sum up the play of Slippery Rock High senior offensive lineman and linebacker Dylan Neal when he is on the field.

Off of it, though, Neal is quite the softy.

Kind. Considerate, Caring. Polite.

Those words sum him up when he is not between the goalposts.

“Dylan makes everyone better on the football field,” said Slippery Rock football coach Brendan Hathaway.

“I think Dylan is the type of kid who makes kids around him in the classroom better. Anyone who comes in contact with him, he makes better.

“He's an unbelievable young man,” Hathaway added. “He's a young man I am just proud to coach.”

Hathaway is a former marine and has been coaching football at the youth level for nine years.

When asked if he has ever come in contact with a person like Neal, Hathaway wastes little time in answering.

“No,” he said, smiling. “I've had a lot of great kids and a lot of great football players. But as long as I've been coaching, I've never had a player I've been more proud of on the field or off the field than Dylan.”

Neal, though, shrugs when asked about what makes him so special.

To him, it's nothing out of the ordinary. It's just the way he's always been.

He is cognizant of the fact that his teammates watch what he does intently.

“They all look up to me, so I always have to go 110 percent in every drill, in every practice, every sprint in conditioning,” Neal said. “If I see a mistake, I personally go over and try to correct them. I re-teach them and hopefully they'll do it better next time.”

Not many were better than Neal last season.

He was dominant on both sides of the ball as a pulling guard on offense and a middle linebacker on defense.

His biggest impact was at linebacker where he wracked up several 20-tackle games. Neal was a big reason why the Rockets improved from 0-10 in 2010 to 7-4 and a District 10 Class AAA playoff berth last season.

“He is one of the most instinctive defensive players I have ever seen,” Hathaway said. “I've never had a player who gets to the ball like he does. There are times when I don't know how he does it.”

Neal sometimes doesn't know how he does it, either.

He said after the snap, his football sixth sense takes over.

“I react to the ball,” Neal said. “Everything is out of my mind.”

Before the snap, it's much different.

Neal spends hours watching tape of the opponent, picking out any nuance he can see from the offense that will give him an edge.

“I look at 'What is this lineman going to do in this set? What is this running back going to do if he's lining up like this?” Neal said.

“I know everyone else studies film, too, but I want to be the guy who studies film more than anyone else.

“One thing I've learned,” Neal added, “is to expect the unexpected.”

Neal is most proud of the way the team banded together following a winless season.

During that 0-10 campaign, the Rockets gave up an average of 43 points per game. Last year, Slippery Rock held teams to 14 points per game in its seven wins.

“That meant so much to us as a whole team,” Neal said. “We went from 0-10 to 7-3. That was our building year. We just want to keep on building.”

There will be no secrets this season, though. Teams know who Neal is. Teams also know how much improved the Rockets are as a team.

Neal shrugs again. That's OK. He's ready for whatever comes.

“I don't think it will be a disadvantage for us,” Neal said. “We play hard no matter what. We play hard and we hit hard. We play Slippery Rock football. That's never going to change.”