Lincoln Riley moved quickly to replace departed offensive line coach Josh Henson last month, immediately sliding tight ends coach Zach Hanson into that spot, but Riley has had two other staff positions that required a more thorough search before filling.

Per ESPN's Pete Thamel, one of those is now set with USC expected to hire Colorado State wide receivers coach Chad Savage to coach the tight ends and inside receivers. The Trojans didn't have an inside receivers coach last season after moving Luke Huard to QBs coach.

Savage was initially hired by Colorado State as a tight ends coach in 2022 but soon shifted to wide receivers, with his most notable pupil being star Rams wideout Tory Horton, who had back-to-back 1,100-yard receiving seasons in 2022 and 2023 before being sidelined with a season-ending injury this year.

Prior to Colorado State, he was a graduate assistant at Nevada in 2018-19, coached the WRs at San Diego in 2020 and then returned to Nevada in 2021 to coach the tight ends, where he had second-team All-Mountain West TE Cole Turner, who finished with 63 receptions for 677 yards and 10 touchdowns in 2021 and was a fifth-round selection by the Washington Commanders in the 2022 NFL Draft.

Savage, who is 30 years old, is originally from Reno, Nevada, and got his undergraduate degree from San Diego.

USC still needs to hire a full-time linebackers coach. Bryson Allen-Williams was promoted from the support staff to coach the linebackers ahead of the Las Vegas Bowl, with Riley saying last month that he was also a candidate for the full-time job -- among others.