Physically Neal is a great talent. He was very highly rated out of HS, and his size and speed are SEC quality. Those things have never been the issue.
It is the mental aspects. Great TBs come in various shapes and sizes, but they generally share something in common. Toughness and vision.
Thats great and all but when the lights come on Lane is the guy that needs to have the ball. Neal can do whatever he wants in practice. I don't care.
One of the reasons Dooley's staff tinkered with him in the slot was his aversion to hitting the hole, and or seeing the hole in the first place.
This isn't the conference to be in if you are a running back who is afraid to hit the hole.
We saw some improvement in this area last year. Lane is a more natural, between the tackles runner. Neal was leading rusher despite missing two games with injury.
Because he got more attempts. Lane had a higher YPC. 4.5 vs 5.5
If you noticed, the running game really flourished last year when they ran the one back set out of the shotgun with a lot of zone read. They wore UGA out with this. (he had 104 rushing and 53 receiving) This should fit well with Jone's offense. If you line Neal up in the I, then forget it. But of course that doesn't even fit with Jones' scheme.
The running game will really flourish when Neal is sitting down and Lane is carrying the rock 20 times a game.