Brett Neilon has been a fixture at USC over the past several years. He has seen it all: the hopefulness of 2019 when Kedon Slovis was a promising, evolving freshman, the 2020 pandemic season, the descent to rock bottom in 2021, the hire of Lincoln Riley, the offseason optimism mixed with uncertainty about the future, then this magnificent 2022 season and its overachieving dimensions.
Neilon, a pillar of the locker room and this team’s inner circle, deserved to play in USC’s high-end bowl game. Now, after being carted off with an injury in the Pac-12 Championship Game against Utah, it’s likely that he has played his last game at USC. It’s hard if not impossible to think he can play in the Trojans’ bowl game.
Here’s how the USC community and national football experts reacted to his injury on Friday night against Utah:
EVERYONE LOVES BRETT
Brett Neilon is one of my favorite guys to talk to (you have to be someone special for @EdisonLacour to root for you if you’re a Trojan). Watching him hype up his teammates and the crowd there speaks to who he is. #USC
— Austin Green (@AustinGreen44) December 3, 2022
HEARTBREAKING
Brett Neilon had his face buried in his hands as he is attended to.
He tried to get up and walk off under his own power initially and just couldn’t do it. https://t.co/YwEXSAGefV
— Shotgun Spratling (@ShotgunSpr) December 3, 2022
GIVEN SO MUCH
This is Brett Neilon’s final season at #USC. He’s a sixth-year guy who has seen the program go through so many ups and downs. Awful to see his time in the program presumably end like that.
— Antonio Morales (@AntonioCMorales) December 3, 2022
DEEPLY MOVING
USC starting Center, Brett Neilon is being carted off.
First time the stadium has been quite all evening .
USC players obviously were concerned, Neilon gives the pump them up from the cart
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