Four days before the "Neilon Nudge" became a popular social media hashtag last Saturday and a pivotal moment in USC's season, coach Lincoln Riley was talking about his sixth-year center Brett Neilon and how the coaching staff had challenged him this year.

And in the aftermath of Neilon's indelible contribution to that 17-14 come-from-behind win at Oregon State last weekend, it was hard not to think about what Riley had said just a few days earlier.

"The thing we’ve challenged him to do is, like, you’re not Rudy. I mean, you have some ability. Everybody looks at him and sees, all right, he’s not a 6-4, 310-pound center. OK, we get that. But you'll watch the guy in the weight room, he’s strong. He moves a lot of weight," Riley had said after the Trojans' Tuesday practice last week.

"... We’ve really pushed him to play better physically, like to go learn to play out of his hips more and use some of that power and strength that he has and make sure that’s showing up on the field. I think he’s improved in taking some of the strength he possesses in the weight room and transferring that to the field and playing with a bit more pop. That’s been really key for us."

Even more than Riley could have imagined at the time ...

Neilon's quick reaction after seeing Caleb Williams stopped short of the line to gain on a crucial fourth-and-6 in the waning minutes last week was to charge into his QB and physically move him forward to the first down, with help from right tackle Jonah Monheim.

The Trojans scored the game-winning touchdown five plays later and Neilon's version of the "Bush Push" was instantly a part of USC football lore. To what extent will depend on where this season ends up, but that play as much as any other is why the Trojans are still undefeated and ranked No. 6 in the country as they host Arizona State on Saturday night.

Beyond all of that, though, it was a pretty fitting and well-deserved moment for the sixth-year senior and fourth-year starter who went through one of the toughest stretches in program history with two losing seasons, four different position coaches and a head coach firing in that span, before deciding to give it one more go this fall with Riley and the new regime.

"When I talked to him Sunday morning, I said, 'What made you do that?'" his father Mike Neilon said over the phone earlier this week. "And he said, 'It's just instinct,' but then he laughed and he said 'It was the inner sumo' in him. And we both kind of cracked up."

Neilon would repeat that line for reporters Tuesday in reflecting on the "Neilon Nudge," referencing the 14 years he spent living in Tokyo, Japan, growing up.

There was something else Neilon said to his father last Sunday morning, though, that resonated even more.

"The nice thing was, he said, 'Dad, I'm having fun.' And it was the first time I've heard him say those words in a couple years," Mike Neilon said.

RELATED: Lincoln Riley, Brett Neilon and USC teammates reflect on the 'Neilon Nudge'

Speaking before the start of the season, Neilon said that once Riley and offensive line coach Josh Henson were hired, it was a "no-brainer" for him to take advantage of his sixth year of eligibility afforded to him due to the shortened 2020 pandemic season.

But that doesn't mean last season didn't take a toll on him, with former coach Clay Helton getting fired after two games, the Trojans struggling to a 4-8 record as morale seemed to decline with each passing week, reaching a nadir with the season finale at Cal.

Transferring was never a consideration, but there was at least a conversation right after that final game about whether it was worth coming back and doing it all again, his father said.

"When he traveled up to the Cal game and came home, he said, 'Dad, there's only [X number of kids] that made the trip. There's a lot of people that just said ... 'Hey, I'm not going, there's no value.' And he was just like, that was the attitude. He said it was just piss-poor, so he was kind of contemplating, should he just leave," Mike Neilon shared. "So we had a chat. I said, 'If Lincoln wants you to come back, you should come back and play because it will be a different experience.' So Lincoln asked him to stay, he decided to stay and he's really enjoying that decision."

It's been a mutually beneficial decision for both Neilon and the Trojans.

PFF ranks him as the fourth-best center in college football through the first month of the season, with an elite 86.2 overall grade.

Neilon is the keystone to a veteran group that has delivered the best offensive line play the program has seen in a handful of years. That experience at all spots -- with grad transfer Bobby Haskins/redshirt sophomore returning starter Courtland Ford at left tackle, sixth-year senior Andrew Vorhees at left guard, redshirt senior Justin Dedich at right guard and the redshirt sophomore Monheim in his second season as a starter at right tackle -- is valuable, but especially at center where so much hinges on Neilon's ability to make calls at the line and ensure the unit is on the same page.

"He’s a smart kid. He’s doing a good job mentally with all that we throw at those guys. He’s been impressive there. I think that’s been expected," Riley said.

Said Monheim: "Whatever Brett says, we do. We all trust Brett. We'll alert him to things here or there if we see it, especially on the edges ... but I have full trust in Brett, I know we all do."

Mike Neilon says he's not sure how much his son is thinking about pursuing the NFL after this fall -- for right now he's focused on enjoying his final season and scripting a better ending than the one he and his teammates endured in 2021.

Even as a four-year starter, Neilon has embraced the challenge Riley mentioned to elevate his play further and the hard coaching from Henson, who is detail-oriented and has worked with the center on his "hand placement, hip roll, creating power," Neilon said, and other technique specifics, drilling it home with repetition every practice.

For that matter, Neilon has embraced everything about these last nine months.

While Mike Neilon said his son inherited his even-keeled approach and that the lineman has enjoyed and appreciated the journey, mostly not getting affected by the highs and lows of the last handful of seasons, there's no denying what's happening now has been an appreciated payoff to his investment in the program.

"He likes discipline, he likes organization, he likes hierarchy, he likes rules. So I think what Riley brought to the program was all of that, and he got rid of the problems early, so Brett just kind of blossomed like a flower," Mike Neilon said. "He said, 'Dad, this is great.' [Riley is] holding people accountable, he's making everybody equal, he's making everyone compete.' So I think that just played right into Brett's hand. ... He's having fun."

In a way, offensive line and especially the center position is as fitting a role for Neilon as Riley's comment about asserting his strength proved to be last week.

Those 14 years in Japan -- as Neilon was born in California but moved to Tokyo when he was 6 months old, lived there for six years, returned here for two and then back to Toyko for another eight years -- naturally impacted him and his older brother.

"I think it really shaped the boys from a respect [standpoint] -- respect for rules, respect for other people's property, respect your elder. Just values, being more silent and humble and doing your part. Be a part of a team," Mike Neilon said. "Japanese tend to all pitch in together and you don't really have one leader. Just working silently but doing your job and doing it as best you can."

Sound like someone familiar?

Brett's mother Cora Neilon is half-Japanese, he said, but both of his parents grew up in Orange County, and it was actually his father's career that took the family to Japan.

Mike was in charge of the Japan-based operation for a medical company that created ophthalmic devices (relating to the eyes).

"We thought it would be a three-year assignment and it turned into kind of a 15-year journey," the elder Neilon said.

The family kept its home in California, though, and the kids would come back for the summers before returning to Tokyo for the school year. But there was another return trip that Brett remembers involving a USC-Notre Dame football game in the Coliseum.

He just remembers that it was raining and Mitch Mustain was the Trojans' quarterback.

"That was like a vivid memory," Neilon said.

He had taken to football even while living in Japan, sometimes trying to play sick on Mondays so he could stay home from school and watch the NFL games which aired that day due to the time zone difference. When he moved back to Southern California for good and entered Santa Margarita High School, he wasn't initially sure about playing football but decided to give it a try.

College football wasn't really a thought for the family then. In fact, Mike Neilon remembers having a friend in town for business who happened to have played football at Georgia Tech. He took the friend to watch Brett's freshman game.

"About halfway through the game, he goes, 'Hey Mike, Brett's kind of special out there. I think you got something.' I was like,' Ehh, I don't know what you're talking about.' He goes, 'No, no, I'm telling you. I think you've got something here,'" Mike Neilon recalled. "... He started helping us with the process."

That involved linking up with Jesse Sapolu, the former Super Bowl-winning offensive lineman with the San Francisco 49ers, to help in Neilon's development. He'd end up a three-year starter for Santa Margarita in the ultra-competitive Trinity League and a four-star recruit. When it came to choosing a college the decision seemed clear in the end.

"His two aunts played golf on scholarship at 'SC, I went to 'SC and his older brother went to 'SC. He grew up in an 'SC family. There's really not another school," Mike Neilon said laughing.

Neilon's mother wanted him to at least consider Stanford, and his dad had him look at some Ivy League schools as academics were a priority as well. Penn, Harvard, Duke and Stanford were all on the radar, but ultimately it came down to Michigan and USC.

As Neilon's time with the Trojans nears an end, his parents are enjoying this final year of his college football journey as much as their son. They travel to every game, but despite being in Oregon State's Reser Stadium last week, they didn't know the full extent of the "Neilon Nudge" in the moment.

"They give the parents really [bad] seats so we were up on the third tier in the end zone, right below the band. It's a haul, it's up there, so I had my binocs' and I saw Caleb take off and I saw him get stuffed right at the line. We were a long ways away in the end zone, so it looked like he was at the line, but I couldn't tell if he was over or short. And then I just saw a mob and it was first down," Mike Neilon said. "So I didn't have any idea until I got on the bus to go back to Portland and some of my buddies and friends that were on the bus said, 'Hey, did you see this?' ... Then someone tweeted out 'It's the Neilon Nudge' and then my phone blew up."

The family has had fun with that too. Neilon tweeted out a link to his website earlier this week, where he's selling signed trading cards inscribed with "Neilon Nudge" and the score of the game.

"Obviously with a bunch of other good memories, but I think Brett will probably be remembered for that for a long time," Riley said.

Especially if the Trojans keep winning.

It's been a rare and, again, well-deserved turn in the spotlight for the sixth-year senior.

"He's a humble kid so he doesn't go seek it and certainly doesn't crave it. He's just rolling with it in stride," Mike Neilon said.

On that note, there's one other quote that seems especially apropos this week even though Neilon said it a few days before the start of the season. As he was talking about the value of the time he spent in Japan, he was asked if he feels he took anything specific from that experience that is still part of him today.

"I think just the Japanese culture, they work really hard, they do things the right way, they take pride in what they do," he said. "So that was always my thing -- work hard and good things will happen. Take pride in your last name and carry it with honor."

After six years of consistent effort and improvement, just focusing on his job amidst all the chaos swirling around the program in that time, Neilon is indeed seeing the good things that have come from it all.

As for that last name, well, the "Neilon Nudge" is a proud part of USC history now.