Lincoln Riley provides key medical updates before Cotton Bowl

The USC Trojans are just about one week ahead of their Cotton Bowl matchup versus No. 16 ranked Tulane on January 2. Ahead of their bowl game, head coach Lincoln Riley provided some injury updates to some of their key players starting with senior offensive lineman Brett Neilon.

“Brett Neilon, as you guys know and I’ve already announced won’t play in the game,” Riley said.

Neilon was carted off the field in the fourth quarter of the Trojan’s Pac-12 Championship game against Utah with a lower leg injury and will be a major loss for USC. He served as the anchor of the Trojan’s offensive line at the center position, but will not be the only offensive lineman the Trojans will be missing in the Cotton Bowl.

“Andrew Vorhees is not physically going to be ready to play in the game so he’s gonna turn his attention to getting ready for the NFL Draft. He’s been a warrior for us all year long, I know it kills him to not be able to play but right now he put it on the line for this team all year and I can’t say enough about him and the job he’s done,” Rileu said. “Obviously had a tremendous career at USC and he’ll be a big part of our bowl prep going on, just in a little bit different way.”

Vorhees was the most experienced member of the Trojan’s offensive line, making starts at multiple different positions on the offensive like for USC throughout his career. He’s one of the nation’s top offensive line prospects for the 2023 NFL Draft, and one of the highest-rated wide receiver prospects for the draft will be missing out on their bowl game as well.

“And then Jordan Addison has elected to continue to rehab his ankle injury, which has kind of been ongoing since the middle of the season so he will not play in the game as well,” Addison.

Addison ended the year as the Trojan’s leading receiver and will be a big loss, but missed two games this season because of the same ankle injury and the Trojan’s offense didn’t skip a beat. The former Biletnikoff Award winner will be missed on January 2, but the Trojans offense has no shortage of weapons surrounding Heisman Trophy winner Caleb Williams, who’s expected to play after suffering a hamstring injury in the conference title game.

“Other than that we expect all the guys that are on the roster to be available, to be ready to play and we’ll be looking forward to getting down to the Dallas area here very soon,” Riley said.