If we end up being a perennial playoff team and powerhouse again, we can look back at the Neilon Nudge as the starting point. If not for that, I can imagine this season going in a different direction.
The Neilon Nudge
- Thread starter SC Mindstorm
- Start date
Riley did say Neilon can move a lot of weight. He may have symbolically moved the entire USC football program forward.
Yes sir! That play might end up just being one play. We might crap the field against teams like Utah and WSU, but if we keep rolling, that play will be considered a watershed moment.
What that play told me is our OL gives a full effort and plays through the whistle. Something that has been missing for quite some time. If we become a perennial playoff team again it's because of effort like this.
The LA Times gives us the "Neilon Nudge"!
Neilon
Nudge
already
famous
When push came
to shove, USC center
had Williams’ back
on key play Saturday.
CENTER Brett Neilon’s heads-up push helped USC dodge an upset. (Icon Sportswire )
BY RYAN KARTJE
It was a pivotal moment in the most pivotal game yet for USC under Lincoln Riley, the sort of triumphant turning point every title team inevitably needs, but at the time Saturday night, none of the Neilon family had any sense of the significance of a moment now known as the Neilon Nudge.
“One of my favorite plays I’ve ever had anywhere,” Riley said Tuesday.
Brett Neilon was just trying to get to the ball, like he’d been taught. All season, offensive coordinator Josh Henson had hammered into the Trojans’ offensive line to run to the ball and finish through the whistle. So once USC’s sixth-year center disengaged from his pass protection on that crucial, fourth-and-six play, he saw Caleb Williams streaking across his line of sight, tiptoeing between defenders with the ball in his hand. Then, suddenly, the Trojans quarterback could go no farther.
“I didn’t know honestly how close the first down was,” Neilon said. “And I just kind of looked at [Williams]. He kind of looked at me, and so I just ran full speed and hit him. I assumed it was close because there was no whistle. So I assumed the refs thought he might be pretty close, jockeying for position. So I just went, and I hit him pretty hard. Maybe the hardest hit of my life.”
From their seats in the far corner bleachers at Reser Stadium, Mike and Cora Neilon couldn’t make out much of what happened. Mike brought his binoculars like usual, but all they could see amid the aftermath was a pile near the first-down marker.
“It wasn’t until I got on the bus to go back to Portland,” Mike Neilon said, “that people kept saying, ‘Hey, look man, the Neilon Nudge!’ ”
A fourth-down nudge was all the push USC would need to escape Corvallis with a 17-14 win over Oregon State. Five plays later, Williams placed a perfect throw to wide receiver Jordan Addison for a 21-yard, go-ahead touchdown. The defense responded in kind with a game-ending interception to keep the Trojans’ undefeated start intact.
But it all began with the Neilon Nudge. The purveyor of the play had spent most of his tenure at USC reliably under the radar, quietly doing whatever was asked of him.
During 33 starts as the Trojans center, Neilon had never been the most imposing or the most physical along USC’s offensive line. The four offensive line coaches who cycled through USC regularly complimented his football IQ, his reliability, his leadership. But ahead of his final season, Riley and his staff pushed Neilon to be more than that.
“The thing we’ve challenged him to do is, like, you’re not Rudy. You have some ability,” Riley said last week. “Everyone looks at him, and he’s not a 6-foot-4, 310-pound center. We get that. But you watch the guy in the weight room, he’s strong. He moves a lot of weight.”
Neilon wasn’t the only Trojans lineman there to move Williams when USC needed them most. Right tackle Jonah Monheim arrived a split-second after Neilon. A split-second after that, left guard Andrew Vorhees came flying in from the opposite side.
Social media seized on Neilon, though he wouldn’t know that until much later, when he finally saw the texts piling up on his phone.
None of the other nudgers seem to have any problem with the viral moment being synonymous with the center.
“Oh, I’m great with that name,” Monheim said.
“We’ve been nudging him around the building,” added left tackle Bobby Haskins, “giving him his own Neilon Nudge.”
On Tuesday, Neilon laughed at the fact his play was being compared to a more famous push from USC’s past.
“The Bush Push, [that’s] probably more special,” he said, with a smile. “That’s two legends right there.”
The full story of the Neilon Nudge has yet to be written, the full weight of that moment to be determined through the remainder of this season. But early that Sunday morning, when Neilon finally returned to his place around 3 a.m., he couldn’t sleep. USC’s center was still running on adrenaline.
Eventually, around 5 a.m., he decided to text his dad, whom he hadn’t seen after the game. They barely talked about the play, until Mike brought it up himself.
“The best part of our conversation,” Mike said, “was when he told me, ‘Dad, I’m just really having fun.’ It was a perfect capstone to his six years at USC.”
It was too late to get much sleep when they finally hung up. So before long, Neilon left with the rest of USC’s offensive line to have breakfast at Jacks N Joe, where Williams was treating.
No nudges needed this time.
Neilon
Nudge
already
famous
When push came
to shove, USC center
had Williams’ back
on key play Saturday.
CENTER Brett Neilon’s heads-up push helped USC dodge an upset. (Icon Sportswire )
BY RYAN KARTJE
It was a pivotal moment in the most pivotal game yet for USC under Lincoln Riley, the sort of triumphant turning point every title team inevitably needs, but at the time Saturday night, none of the Neilon family had any sense of the significance of a moment now known as the Neilon Nudge.
“One of my favorite plays I’ve ever had anywhere,” Riley said Tuesday.
Brett Neilon was just trying to get to the ball, like he’d been taught. All season, offensive coordinator Josh Henson had hammered into the Trojans’ offensive line to run to the ball and finish through the whistle. So once USC’s sixth-year center disengaged from his pass protection on that crucial, fourth-and-six play, he saw Caleb Williams streaking across his line of sight, tiptoeing between defenders with the ball in his hand. Then, suddenly, the Trojans quarterback could go no farther.
“I didn’t know honestly how close the first down was,” Neilon said. “And I just kind of looked at [Williams]. He kind of looked at me, and so I just ran full speed and hit him. I assumed it was close because there was no whistle. So I assumed the refs thought he might be pretty close, jockeying for position. So I just went, and I hit him pretty hard. Maybe the hardest hit of my life.”
From their seats in the far corner bleachers at Reser Stadium, Mike and Cora Neilon couldn’t make out much of what happened. Mike brought his binoculars like usual, but all they could see amid the aftermath was a pile near the first-down marker.
“It wasn’t until I got on the bus to go back to Portland,” Mike Neilon said, “that people kept saying, ‘Hey, look man, the Neilon Nudge!’ ”
A fourth-down nudge was all the push USC would need to escape Corvallis with a 17-14 win over Oregon State. Five plays later, Williams placed a perfect throw to wide receiver Jordan Addison for a 21-yard, go-ahead touchdown. The defense responded in kind with a game-ending interception to keep the Trojans’ undefeated start intact.
But it all began with the Neilon Nudge. The purveyor of the play had spent most of his tenure at USC reliably under the radar, quietly doing whatever was asked of him.
During 33 starts as the Trojans center, Neilon had never been the most imposing or the most physical along USC’s offensive line. The four offensive line coaches who cycled through USC regularly complimented his football IQ, his reliability, his leadership. But ahead of his final season, Riley and his staff pushed Neilon to be more than that.
“The thing we’ve challenged him to do is, like, you’re not Rudy. You have some ability,” Riley said last week. “Everyone looks at him, and he’s not a 6-foot-4, 310-pound center. We get that. But you watch the guy in the weight room, he’s strong. He moves a lot of weight.”
Neilon wasn’t the only Trojans lineman there to move Williams when USC needed them most. Right tackle Jonah Monheim arrived a split-second after Neilon. A split-second after that, left guard Andrew Vorhees came flying in from the opposite side.
Social media seized on Neilon, though he wouldn’t know that until much later, when he finally saw the texts piling up on his phone.
None of the other nudgers seem to have any problem with the viral moment being synonymous with the center.
“Oh, I’m great with that name,” Monheim said.
“We’ve been nudging him around the building,” added left tackle Bobby Haskins, “giving him his own Neilon Nudge.”
On Tuesday, Neilon laughed at the fact his play was being compared to a more famous push from USC’s past.
“The Bush Push, [that’s] probably more special,” he said, with a smile. “That’s two legends right there.”
The full story of the Neilon Nudge has yet to be written, the full weight of that moment to be determined through the remainder of this season. But early that Sunday morning, when Neilon finally returned to his place around 3 a.m., he couldn’t sleep. USC’s center was still running on adrenaline.
Eventually, around 5 a.m., he decided to text his dad, whom he hadn’t seen after the game. They barely talked about the play, until Mike brought it up himself.
“The best part of our conversation,” Mike said, “was when he told me, ‘Dad, I’m just really having fun.’ It was a perfect capstone to his six years at USC.”
It was too late to get much sleep when they finally hung up. So before long, Neilon left with the rest of USC’s offensive line to have breakfast at Jacks N Joe, where Williams was treating.
No nudges needed this time.
Loved the play, harkening back to better days (bush push). Who's to say we wouldn't have still gotten that INT and scored if the nudge never happened?
I am so happy for this young warrior. Last year in embarassing defeat after defeat he graciously took the interviews with class. I really appreciated his character. He is having fun and so am I!
