It didn't take USC coach Lincoln Riley long to replace outgoing offensive line coach Josh Henson.

After the news broke Tuesday night that Henson was leaving to become the offensive coordinator at Purdue, USC announced Wednesday morning that Zach Hanson was moving from coaching the tight ends to the offensive line.

"It was pretty much like a one-day deal," Hanson said. "Obviously, Josh leaving was tough for everybody. A great coach, great friend. Excited for him and his opportunity, though, and then I was blessed and honored really to [become] the O-line coach here. ...

"I was on my way to a recruiting dinner and he called me up and sat me down in his office and asked if I wanted to be the offensive line coach here, and it took about 2 seconds to figure out that was the decision I wanted to make. I'm honored to be gifted that opportunity. I know what that means here at this place with the tradition, the tradition of excellence here, all the greats that have played here -- really just blessed to have that opportunity."

Hanson has been USC's tight ends coach for the duration of Riley's three years with the Trojans. He had previously spent two years coaching the offensive line at Tulsa. Before that, he spent 2018 as the tight ends coach and assistant offensive line coach at Kansas State and 2019 as a senior offensive analyst at Oklahoma under Riley.

At Tulsa, Hanson coached Tyler Smith, who was selected in the first round of the 2022 NFL Draft with the No. 24 overall pick by the Dallas Cowboys. Smith was named a second-team All-Pro in 2023. While at Tulsa, Smith was also a FWAA Freshman All-American and an All-American Athletic Conference First Team pick in 2020 and All-AAC Second Team in 2021.

Hanson also coached offensive tackle Chris Paul, who was drafted in the seventh round of the 2022 NFL Draft by the Washington Commanders.

In his two seasons at Tulsa, Hanson had 7 offensive linemen earn All-American Athletic Conference honors.

"In addition to coaching our tight ends and being an outstanding recruiter, Zach has been instrumental in working with our offensive linemen at USC," Riley said in a statement when he announced the move. "He's had extensive experience coaching the offensive line at Tulsa and Kansas State. We're excited to have Zach lead this unit and develop our offensive line."

Hanson was an offensive tackle at Kansas State from 2008-11, earning 2011 All-Big 12 First Team accolades.

"The majority of my career still has been coaching the O-line. I've been the tight ends coach here and at Kansas State, coached O-line at Tulsa obviously and at Kansas State for several years before that as well. And obviously playing O-line, that's what's most natural for me," Hanson said. "I've really stayed involved with a lot of the offensive line play and game-planning and those things with Coach Henson.

"That was a big reason why Coach Riley hired me here to coach the tight ends, to get another run game perspective, another set of eyes on the offensive line and just to kind of help there in regard to game-planning and just preparing our guys to all work together in the blocking schemes."

Hanson said the transition has been smooth, as he made sure to connect with USC's three-star tight end signee Nela Tupou and current tight ends and their families to let them know they will still be in a good position.

"There's just a lot of people I need to talk to and make sure that they understand their kids are our top priority as always, and that's not going to change," Hanson said.

Meanwhile, he added that he's already had a relationship with USC's offensive linemen.

"[Henson] and I were extremely close and we coach very similarly in a lot of ways, and what I mean by that is we're both big relationship people and I have a lot of good relationships in this room already," Hanson said. "I helped recruit a lot of these guys in some way, shape or form. So I think the big message to them was, 'We've already got a good relationship. I'm going to teach you some things, take a lot of things that Josh taught you and run with those too, and put my things in your toolbox as well and let's get you better.' I think they responded really well to that.

"I felt really confident going in that we were going to have a pretty good rapport in the room just because I know a lot of these guys really well."

Hanson takes over an offensive line unit that will return three starters in left tackle Elijah Paige, left guard Emmanuel Pregnon and right guard Alani Noa. There are plenty of questions about the depth and how the Trojans will patch the holes at center and right tackle, however.

Center Jonah Monheim is out of eligibility and off to the NFL, right tackle Mason Murphy entered the transfer portal, as did USC's most experienced reserve linemen in guards Gino Quinones and Amos Talalele.

Tobias Raymond logged 84 snaps at offensive tackle (82 at right tackle) as a redshirt freshman and is the only other lineman on the roster with any experience, so the Trojans should be aggressive in the transfer portal trying to find an experienced tackle and center.

"We've got a lot of young guys coming in that are going to be really talented players for us. We've got a lot of youth that's coming back that picked up a lot of work this year, and they're going to continue to get better too and have a good youth that's coming back that picked up a lot of work this year that they're going to continue get better with too, and have a good core nucleus of starter from this last year coming back," Hanson said. "So I'm excited to get to work and just keep getting better every single day."

It's been an eventful stretch for Hanson as he and his wife Annie, who is USC's executive director of football recruiting, celebrated the birth of their first child, Rockford, on Dec. 4.

"It's been a crazy couple of weeks, but honestly at this point of our lives and careers it's kind of expected. We're blessed to have our little boy Rock here a couple weeks ago, so just enjoying any time I can get with him and the show's got to go on here too," Hanson said. "We've got to continue to recruit well, we've got to recruit in the portal, we've got to continue to get our guys better and prepare to win a game against Texas A&M."