Taking a Pounding

Think big and play big. To do that, Ryan Nielsen had to get big.

“I’ve put on 38 pounds from last summer to the end of this summer,� Nielsen said.

Weighing 280 pounds and counting, the USC sophomore defensive tackle from Royal High is not done bulking up.

“I’d like to be around 290, 295,� Nielsen said. “That’s if I can keep my speed.�

For a shorter man, that might be a problem. But Nielsen is a muscular 6 feet 5, not a Gilbert Brown wannabe, and he has the mind-set to succeed.

Especially when he’s fixing to join Brown in the NFL in a few years.

“He’s hard to block,� said Ed Orgeron, USC’s defensive line coach. “He’s the type of young man who makes steady progress.�

Orgeron has a keen eye for talent and a knack for refining linemen. At Miami, he developed Cortez Kennedy, Russell Maryland and Warren Sapp, all NFL first-round picks. Now he’s molding Nielsen.

Not that anyone is calling Nielsen a pro prospect. Not yet. But since Orgeron moved him from end to tackle before the season, Nielsen is thriving. The shift was made to exploit Nielsen’s quickness inside.

“This is where my future is going to be, so I went with what [Orgeron] said,� Nielsen said. “He’s coached a lot of top players. . . . I just want to be one of the next ones.�

Nielsen made a career-high nine tackles, including six unassisted, in USC’s 33-30 triple-overtime loss at Oregon on Saturday, and he has 15 tackles to go with one sack and one fumble recovery.

He has started the three games this season and four overall, getting his baptism by fire in the opener last year, making two tackles in USC’s 27-17 victory over Purdue at the Coliseum.

It was Nielsen’s debut with the Trojans after being a redshirt in 1997, one season removed from making 129 tackles and 19 sacks as a senior end at Royal, earning recognition as The Times’ Ventura County defensive player of the year and accolades from several other publications.

At Royal, Nielsen was 6-5 and hovered around 235 pounds.

“For a long time, he didn’t put on weight because he was so active,� said Randy Nielsen, Ryan’s father.

Nielsen hardly took a breather in high school, bouncing from one sport to the next.

In basketball, he was the Marmonte League’s most valuable player as a center in 1996. He played baseball through his junior year, but quit to concentrate on football.

That meant working out and eating, working on technique and eating, doing schoolwork and eating. If he wanted to become a Division I lineman, former USC coach John Robinson told Nielsen during a recruiting visit, he needed to get bigger.

The response came immediately.

“My mom used to pack me these big lunches,� Nielsen said. “I took a lot of ribbing for that.�

But never enough to make Nielsen toss any of it in the trash or tell her to cut back.

“I used to buy extra-large bags they sell at the supermarket by the pound,� said Debbie Nielsen, Ryan’s mother. “I used to make two sandwiches and put in a yogurt, a dessert of some sort, fruit, some sort of soft drink or lemonade. Otherwise it would have cost me a fortune to feed him at school.�

Although he now fends for himself, Nielsen tries to eat reasonably, staying away from too much junk food and relying heavily on Creatin and other nutritional supplements to generate body mass and energy.

“In high school, I could eat all I wanted,� Nielsen said. “But now, the fat will catch up with you.�

Fat chance of that happening to Nielsen. Not with his work ethic and dedication. Not with his desire to become a cornerstone of the Trojan defense and to reach the next level. Not when he makes the weight room a second home.

“I made a commitment to make all the workouts [over the summer],� Nielsen said. “We had 43 workouts and I didn’t miss any.�

Besides meals and workouts, Nielsen doesn’t miss the opportunity to pick Orgeron’s brain, to learn all he can about playing tackle.

Nielsen and USC’s other starting defensive tackle, Ennis Davis, an All-Pac 10 selection from Reseda High, usually watch game and practice films together.

“Ryan is highly motivated and has a lot of pride,� Orgeron said. “In camp, when things were getting rough and tough, he never missed a practice. . . . He’s in there watching film with me everyday.�

Right after lunch, of course.