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: