Tag: Josh Henson

Offensive lineman Emmanuel Pregnon will return to USC in 2025

Emmanuel Pregnon returning is absolutely central to USC’s fortunes in 2025. The Trojans needed this to happen.

It has not exactly been the best offseason for USC’s offensive line. The Trojans have already lost several key contributors from the unit to the transfer portal, including experienced starting tackle Mason Murphy. However, USC got some great news on the front on Wednesday, when new offensive line coach Zach Hanson announced that guard Emmanuel Pregnon for the 2025 season.

After starting his career at Wyoming, Pregnon transferred to USC ahead of the 2023 season. He has started at left guard each of the past two years, and has arguably been the Trojans’ best offensive lineman during that stretch.

Getting Pregnon back will be critical for a USC O-line in an otherwise precarious state. The unit has struggled the past two years, and has lost several key players to the transfer portal, in addition to four-year starter and team captain Jonah Monheim moving on to the NFL.

Having Pregnon around will also be critical for Hanson, who was officially named the offensive line coach on Wednesday after spending the last three seasons working with USC’s tight ends. He replaces Josh Henson, who left on Tuesday to be the offensive coordinator at Purdue.

USC acts quickly to name a new offensive line coach

USC acted very quickly to replace Josh Henson as offensive line coach.

On Tuesday, USC offensive line coach Josh Henson left to become the offensive coordinator at Purdue. It took the Trojans just one day to find his replacement. On Wednesday, head coach Lincoln Riley officially announced that Zach Hanson will be USC’s new offensive line coach. Hanson has spent the past three seasons coaching the Trojans’ tight ends.

Prior to arriving at USC, Henson was the offensive line coach at Tulsa for two seasons. Before that, he worked under Riley as a senior offensive analyst at Oklahoma in 2019.

Hanson played offensive line at Kansas State from 2008 through 2011. He began is coaching career as a graduate assistant with the Wildcats the following year, and has been working his way up the coaching latter since.

Hanson is married to USC executive director of recruiting Annie Hanson.\

We will have more reaction to — and analysis of — this promotion by Lincoln Riley, a key development on the USC football coaching staff heading into 2025.

USC loses starting offensive lineman to transfer portal

Mason Murphy goes to the transfer portal, adding to the uncertainties surrounding USC’s offensive line for 2025.

On Monday, USC football starting offensive lineman Mason Murphy became the latest Trojan to enter the NCAA transfer portal.

After redshirting his first year on campus in 2021, Murphy has appeared in every game for the Trojans over the past three seasons. In 2024, he started all 12 regular season contests at right tackle.

Much like the rest of USC’s offensive line, Murphy’s 2024 season was a bit of a rocky affair.  His PFF grade for the season was 55.5, according to 247Sports.

Murphy was set to be USC’s most experienced returner on the offensive line in 2025. Now, with him hitting the portal and both Jonah Monheim and Emmanuel Pregnon moving on to the NFL, the Trojans will return just two starters from the struggling unit: Alani Noa and Elijah Paige.

Prior to this year, Lincoln Riley had expressed hesitancy to building an offensive line through the transfer portal. But given the current state of USC’s room, it appears he will not have much of a choice. The Trojans will need to go out and acquire some serious talent at the position if they want to have any shot at competing in the Big Ten next season.

Plain and simple, the Trojans have not recruited well enough at offensive line under Riley and Josh Henson. The majority of USC’s best offensive linemen of the past few years—Andrew Vorhees, Brett Neilon, Justin Dedich, and Monheim—have all been holdovers from the Clay Helton era.

While Riley and Henson have hit on a few transfers—namely Bobby Haskins and Pregnon—there have been far more whiffs than hits. Until that changes, with both transfers and high school recruits, the Trojans are not going to be serious contenders.

Amos Talalele, Gino Quinones hit the portal as USC loses O-line depth

Two portal departures on the USC offensive line will force the Trojans to go into the portal. Josh Henson has not developed this OL room as well as he could have.

USC football is watching its offensive line depth get reduced. Two linemen have hit the transfer portal in the past 20 hours. First it was Amos Talalele who declared his intent to transfer. Then Gino Quinones announced that he would enter the portal. USC has promptly lost interior offensive line depth, making the team’s situation entering 2025 a lot more precarious. Offensive line coach Josh Henson did not do a good job over the course of the full season. The line did improve in the second half of the season, but by that point, the Trojans had already lost three games, falling to Michigan and Minnesota before mid-October due to critical offensive line breakdowns.

There are two big components to these stories: First, USC will need to go to the portal for offensive line depth. Second, Lincoln Riley faces fresh questions and tensions connected to the decision to either retain or fire Josh Henson. Riley has to ask himself if this offensive line situation is good enough to retain Henson, who has struggled the past two years and did not put Miller Moss or Jayden Maiava in the best possible position to succeed in 2024. USC has lacked an elite offensive line. Riley has to be ruthlessly honest and make sure that if he does retain Henson, he will get the very best from his offensive line in a crucial 2025 season.

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Four-star offensive lineman flips from North Carolina to USC

Josh Henson picks up a huge flip of a 4-star offensive lineman. This is what Henson must do to save his job at USC. Is it enough? Lincoln Riley must have an answer.

USC football recruiting just scored a notable win on Friday. Four-star offensive lineman Alex Payne flipped from North Carolina to the Trojans. The 6-5, 285-pound prospect gives USC a significant addition to its offensive front. The story is important in itself and on its own terms, but it also contains value relative to the one big coaching drama at USC right now, the question of whether Lincoln Riley should — and will — fire offensive line coach Josh Henson.

We said this about Henson’s job status:

Josh Henson has not built this offensive line at the standard one should expect at USC. He has fallen short. Unless Riley knows that Henson is going to get it right in terms of roster construction this coming offseason, he has to find someone else to do the job at a higher level.

The Alex Payne flip is a big win for Josh Henson. Lincoln Riley needs to ask himself if this is enough to meaningfully change the calculus at USC football. No one would say this is enough for Henson to be retained, but if other elite prospects are about to come in — on the trail and in the portal — that could definitely alter the equation for Lincoln Riley on the Josh Henson question.

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Four-star offensive lineman decommits from USC

Colorado’s performance on the field has seemingly swayed a USC football commit away from the Trojans and toward Deion Sanders. Results matter, folks.

This has not been an encouraging week for USC football recruiting. On Wednesday, four-star offensive lineman Carde Smith announced his decommittment from USC.

A native of Mobile, Alabama, Smith is the No. 227 overall player in the Class of 2025, per the On3 Consensus rankings. He is also the No. 20 offensive tackle and the No. 15 player in the state of Alabama.

Smith had been committed to the Trojans since August. However, in recent weeks, momentum had begun to build toward a Colorado flip. Following his decommitment from USC, the Buffaloes are currently the heavy favorites to land the blue-chip offensive lineman.

“The chatter behind the scenes has been picking up for some time and Colorado looks to be close to flipping Carde Smith,” said On3’s Chad Simmons last week. “The one-time Auburn commit flipped to USC and now the Buffaloes look to be on the verge of flipping him from the Trojans. Smith sees an opportunity to play right away in Boulder and the way the program has performed on the field this season has caught his attention.

The Trojans’ 2025 recruiting class currently ranks No. 14 in the country and No. 4 in the Big Ten, according to On3’s team rankings.

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USC, Josh Henson land Utah decommit Aaron Dunn in crucial flip pickup

Josh Henson badly needed a big-time offensive line recruiting pickup. Aaron Dunn fits the bill at USC.

There are two things USC football offensive line coach Josh Henson needs to do to save his job. One is that he has to coach the 2024 USC offensive line a lot better. Second, Henson has to recruit better. USC simply needs high-end offensive linemen and an overall talent upgrade. Henson came through on Friday, landing Utah decommit Aaron Dunn in a big flip and overall pickup for USC.

Dunn is a highly-coveted offensive lineman with size, length and reach at 6-8 and 290 pounds. The body, the agility, the natural tools — this is the package of physical attributes and overall skills Henson can work with to mold USC’s offensive line into a more formidable fighting force. This is the kind of big-fish recruiting score Henson needs to continue to accumulate.

However, whether Henson deserves the chance to coach Dunn and the 2025 Trojan offensive line should also depend in part on how he coaches the second half of this season. This is clearly the toughest decision facing Lincoln Riley in terms of the composition of his 2025 coaching staff at USC football.

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As USC’s offensive line struggles, Josh Henson’s recruiting isn’t measuring up

There’s a highly-rated offensive lineman who has spoken of his love for USC. The Trojans aren’t recruiting him vigorously. What is Josh Henson doing?

We can all see that USC football needs better offensive linemen. It’s more than that, too. USC needs experienced offensive linemen. Many of these current offensive linemen are struggling not because they lack the talent or size to play the position, but because they are young and frankly need some time to develop and learn. That’s part of the problem, though: Why hasn’t USC, under Josh Henson, been able to fill specific spots with transfer portal veterans who can play well? Emmanuel Pregnon has been solid this season, but it took him two years to finally settle in at USC. The ideal portal pickup is ready to shine from the start. Bobby Haskins was an example of an ideal offensive line portal addition which becomes a crucial piece on a largely successful team.

Josh Henson was not able to land that really big fish — that polished, veteran offensive lineman — in the transfer portal in the 2024 offseason. That being the case, he needed to recruit at a higher level to offset that deficiency. He hasn’t. Given the need to bring in higher-caliber offensive linemen, you would think Henson would be extra attentive to the need to do his homework and make sure he is reaching out in a timely way to players who might consider USC.

In at least one case, Henson is falling short:

https://twitter.com/ShotgunSpr/status/1843702923781665172

USC football fans have to be losing their minds right now. There’s an offensive lineman who has dreamed of becoming a Trojan but is not being courted heavily by Josh Henson. Sounds like a real missed opportunity. This is simply not what USC can afford at a point in time when the offensive line is costing this team wins on the field. Josh Henson is not doing himself any favors.

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Recruiting analyst predicts Alabama-based offensive tackle will commit to USC

USC might be about to land a big fish up front.

Tom Loy, national recruiting analyst for 247Sports, is predicting that offensive tackle Carde Smith will commit to the USC Trojans football program.

Last week Trojans wire discussed how we felt the Trojans were trending for the 2025 blue chip offensive tackle Carde Smith’s official visit to USC.

“Carde Smith, a 6-foot-6, 300-pound four-star offensive tackle from Mobile, Alabama, has decommitted from in-state school Auburn. Smith was scheduled for an official visit to Mississippi State in Starkville, but he cancelled to attend the final summer recruiting weekend at USC. Smith had glowing comments about USC after his official visit last weekend. The offensive line coach at USC, Josh Henson, has been under pressure from fans to land more highly rated prospects as graded by the recruiting services. This would certainly qualify if Henson can close the deal.”

Henson just added a massive offensive tackle from local Rancho Santa Margarita High School earlier this week, bringing in Elijah Vaikona. Now the Trojans are the leaders to land Smith, a consensus four-star offensive tackle who holds offers from 10 SEC schools. If Smith does commit, he will become the third offensive lineman and the second tackle for the Trojans’ 2025 class, joining Willi Wascher and the aforementioned Vaikona.

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6-foot-8, 368-pound offensive tackle Elijah Vaikona commits to USC

USC gets a big boy at offensive lineman, just what the doctor ordered.

Elijah Vaikona, the offensive lineman who lives just down the I-5 Freeway at Orange County’s Rancho Santa Margarita High School, chose USC over Jedd Fisch and the Washington Huskies. The impressive 6’8″ frame jumps off the screen immediately when watching his tape.

USC offensive line coach Josh Henson was evidently impressed by Vaikona’s size, extending an offer last month. This contrasts with previous classes’ tackles, such as 6-7, 265-pound Kalolo Ta’aga and 6-7, 270-pound Tobias Raymond, who joined the Trojans in 2023 and 2024, respectively. Raymond has spent a year with USC’s director of sports nutrition, Rachel Suba, and strength and conditioning coach Bennie Wylie. Raymond gained 47 pounds to weigh in at 314 pounds after redshirting his freshman year with the Trojans.

In Lincoln Riley’s offense, tackles and guards must be athletic; they are frequently required to pull. It will be interesting to see Vaikona’s agility and speed on the field against college defenses.  It will be more intriguing to see the impact he has on a defense’s second level when he does get there.

Donovan James of Trojans Wire had this to say a few weeks ago when offensive line coach Josh Henson gave Vaikona a late offer:

“USC obviously needs more depth on its offensive line, a point which requires no elaboration, but the notable part of this recruitment and this prospect is that USC will not have to bulk up this particular lineman in a strength and training program. At 6-8 and over 350 pounds, Vaikona would come to USC with the heft and size the Trojans are looking for. Developing agility to go along with the size and length would be the priority if the Trojans can bring him inside the walls of the school.”

Riley and Henson are clearly targeting much bigger linemen such as Amos Talalele, Alani Noa, Hayden Treter, and now Vaikona — offensive linemen who all entered the program north of 320 pounds.

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