{"id":114841,"date":"2025-12-31T10:46:18","date_gmt":"2025-12-31T10:46:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/114841\/"},"modified":"2025-12-31T10:46:18","modified_gmt":"2025-12-31T10:46:18","slug":"meet-the-hanson-family-the-secret-to-uscs-o-line-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/114841\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet the Hanson family, the secret to USC’s o-line success"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It\u2019s the final days before the Alamo Bowl<\/a>, the last gasps of USC\u2019s football season, and Rock Hanson is still getting over a fever.<\/p>\n

For USC<\/a> offensive line coach Zach Hanson<\/a> and his wife, Annie, who previously was Trojans recruiting director, the timing isn\u2019t ideal to be tending to a sick 1-year-old. The Trojans are shorthanded in trying to finish out a 10-win season on Tuesday against Texas Christian. The transfer portal opens three days after that. And the coaching carousel is already in full swing, with one assistant already gone<\/a> and Zach garnering outside interest, namely from his alma mater, Kansas State.<\/p>\n

But they\u2019ve been parenting long enough now to know not to stress over a fever. And they\u2019ve been working in college football long enough to know the timing is never ideal. Their past decade together has been a testament to that. Last December, Rock was born on early-signing day, hours after Annie had wrapped up USC\u2019s 2025 recruiting class. Two weeks after that, Zach was thrust into a new role as USC\u2019s offensive line coach<\/a>. They spent the bowl season in a Las Vegas hotel, walking the Strip with a three-week old, in a new-parent-induced delirium, their whole lives having suddenly turned upside down.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a lot of learning on the fly,\u201d Zach said. \u201cWe were figuring all of that out together.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Rock <\/p>\n

Rock Hanson, son of USC assistant coach Zach Hanson, wears a Trojans jersey while sitting on the team\u2019s practice field.<\/p>\n

(Courtesy of Hanson family)<\/p>\n

There aren\u2019t many in college football who have navigated all that the Hansons have during the past two seasons at USC. But their resilience has been the beating heart behind an unexpectedly strong season for a Trojans offensive line that overcame its own harrowing hurdles. Even as injuries forced USC to reshuffle the line on a near weekly basis, Zach still guided the group to its best season since 2022.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo lose all that we lost, then to have all the reshuffling on the offensive line we had, normally that could almost be a death sentence for an offense,\u201d coach Lincoln Riley<\/a> said. \u201cWe\u2019ve had some big challenges. We\u2019ve been able to respond.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a credit not only to Zach, who has become one of the most critical assistants on USC\u2019s coaching staff, but also to Annie, who has remained an essential part of the program, albeit now in a more unofficial capacity.<\/p>\n

That they\u2019ve proven so adept at navigating such adverse circumstances should come as no surprise considering the uphill climb they faced from the start of their relationship. When they first met on a blind date at an Eric Church concert in 2014, Annie worked at Oklahoma in the development office. Zach was a graduate assistant at Kansas State, a five-hour drive away in Manhattan, near where Annie grew up. They hit it off so well right away that both knew they had to make it work. A year in, just as Zach planned to propose, Annie got a job in Chapel Hill, N.C., leading the Tar Heels recruiting office.<\/p>\n

For years, they toiled away, rising through the ranks, hoping their paths would converge. They never did for long. They spent the 2015 season apart, before Zach got the job as North Carolina\u2019s special teams assistant coach in 2016. They spent a year together, then hired Annie was hired to run recruiting at Oklahoma in 2017. They spent another season apart, before Zach returned to Kansas State and that same five-hour drive into Oklahoma.<\/p>\n

When Kansas State coach Bill Snyder retired, Zach joined Riley\u2019s staff as a grad assistant in 2019, finally back at the same school as his wife. But in 2020, Tulsa offered him a job two hours away, coaching the offensive line. He took it. They bought a house. And Annie drove two hours every day, there and back, to work in Norman.<\/p>\n

It felt, by then, like a blessing.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou just find a way, right?\u201d Annie says.<\/p>\n

Zach dreamed one day of being a head football coach. Annie had gotten into college athletics to someday be an athletic director. At USC, they could pursue those paths for the first time together. Zach coached tight ends while Annie ran the recruiting office. For the first time, it felt like they might stay in the same place for a while. They decided to start a family.<\/p>\n

Annie got pregnant in 2024. Then last September, just before the start of the football season, she started to experience serious pain in her leg. One doctor brushed it off. But eventually she went back to the hospital. Another doctor discovered a significant blood clot running from the middle of her calf, all the way up near her belly.<\/p>\n

Emergency surgery was scheduled for the very next morning. Annie spent the next six weeks relegated to a wheelchair or a walker. With her husband in the throes of the football season, the Riley family insisted Annie live in the casita of their Palos Verdes home. So for six weeks, while she recovered, Riley\u2019s wife, Caitlin, waited on her every need. \u201cI mean, [she did] everything you could think of,\u201d Annie says, still blown away by the kindness.<\/p>\n

After all that, having a baby didn\u2019t feel so daunting. Riley told her to take the time after Rock was born. She still worked from home, setting up recruiting visits for January. She didn\u2019t want other women in the business to think you couldn\u2019t have a baby and run recruiting for a major college football program. But one day, she came into USC\u2019s football office and set Rock up in a pack-and-play in one room while she ran a staff meeting in another. As she spoke to her staff, Rock wailed silently on the baby monitor app on her phone. She couldn\u2019t take it.<\/p>\n

\"USC <\/p>\n

USC assistant coach Zach Hanson embraces his wife, Annie, and son, Rock, share a hug on the field at the Coliseum after a USC football game.<\/p>\n

(Courtesy of Hanson family)<\/p>\n

\u201cI turned to my counterpart [current director of USC recruiting strategy] Skyler [Phan] and said, \u2018Girl, it\u2019s your turn. You\u2019ve got it,\u2019\u201d Annie recalled.<\/p>\n

She\u2019d already told Riley she was thinking about stepping away. Actually doing so \u201cwas incredibly difficult\u201d for Annie, Zach said.<\/p>\n

She made it official in March; though, she maintains it\u2019s just temporary.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy time in college football is not over,\u201d Annie says. \u201cI truly believe whenever I do return, I\u2019ll be a much better leader now that I\u2019m a mom.\u201d<\/p>\n

Just as Annie stepped away, Zach set out to put his imprint on USC\u2019s offensive line. Immediately upon taking over the group, he started switching up combinations, to ensure that each linemen learned multiple positions, never knowing which combinations he might need.<\/p>\n

He\u2019d also learned over the course of his career how critical chemistry could be up front. If it was off, it could sink the whole season. So he made a concerted effort from the start to bring the group together outside of football.<\/p>\n

\"USC <\/p>\n

USC offensive line coach Zach Hanson; his wife, Annie; and son, Rock, join linemen and staff for a group photo in the Trojans\u2019 locker room.<\/p>\n

(Courtesy of Hanson family)<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the coaches I worked for several years ago told me, the players aren\u2019t just going to come to you,\u201d Zach said. \u201cYou\u2019ve got to bring them in.\u201d<\/p>\n

So they hosted dinners at their house. Annie baked every lineman their favorite cake on their birthdays. They wanted the linemen to know that they cared about them as more than just football players.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a great coach,\u201d guard Alani Noa said. \u201cThere\u2019s nothing too personal. There\u2019s nothing out of whack. Everything is open as far as conversations.\u201d<\/p>\n

They\u2019ve even taken to holding Rock, who\u2019s now already 33 pounds.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s so important to Zach,\u201d Annie says, \u201cthat those kids understand, like, \u2018You can do this, and we believe in you, and we are going to prepare you to a point of trusting your training. So when you get out on that field, like there\u2019s not even a question, you know, and I think that those guys very much played that way this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

USC was without stalwart left tackle, Elijah Paige<\/a>, for half the season. Starting center, former walk-on Kilian O\u2019Connor<\/a>, played in eight games. And just two of its starting lineman \u2014 Tobias Raymond and Justin Tauanuu \u2014 started all 12 games heading into the Alamo Bowl. <\/p>\n

\"USC <\/p>\n

USC offensive lineman Alani Noa (77), Amos Talalele (75) and Kilian O\u2019Connor (67) warm up before facing Notre Dame at the Coliseum on Nov. 30.<\/p>\n

(Gina Ferazzi\/Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a position group where it\u2019s not always the most talented guys you throw out there,\u201d Zach said. \u201cIt\u2019s the five guys who played best together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zach managed to keep finding those five all season, keeping the front steady all season in spite of injuries. USC gave up just 15 sacks, fewer than all but 14 teams in college football. The line also cleared the way to average 5.29 yards per carry, the highest rushing clip at the school in over a decade.<\/p>\n

Other schools are starting to notice. At Kansas State, his alma mater, Hanson\u2019s name has been mentioned as a potential offensive coordinator under newly hired coach Collin Klein, who Hanson described to The Times as \u201cone of my best friends\u201d whose \u201cfamily is like family to us\u201d. Annie\u2019s family also hails from just outside of Manhattan, Kan. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat place is certainly a place that\u2019s special to us,\u201d Zach said of Kansas State.<\/p>\n

But in the same breath, Zach says he\u2019s \u201cextremely happy [at USC] doing what we\u2019re doing.\u201d It\u2019s not lost on the Hansons how much the Rileys have done for them.<\/p>\n

In the coming days, those questions will surely come up again. But for now, the Hansons were more preoccupied with kicking a 1-year-old\u2019s fever and preparing USC to play Texas Christian without three of its top seven linemen.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur philosophy has always been, as a family, we\u2019re going to be all in no matter where we\u2019re at,\u201d Zach says.<\/p>\n

At USC, that has certainly been the case. That includes Rock, who is a perfect 9-0 at USC games he\u2019s attended heading into Tuesday\u2019s Alamo Bowl \u2014 and can now say the word \u201cball.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whether he\u2019ll get to build on that record beyond the bowl game remains to be seen. But there have been other options elsewhere before. Options closer to family, for childcare purposes.<\/p>\n

But USC, Annie says, \u201chas made our experience so incredible and worth the sacrifices.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve chosen to stay because of how special this place is, you know?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s the final days before the Alamo Bowl, the last gasps of USC\u2019s football season, and Rock Hanson…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":114842,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[61339,32183,61342,1321,61341,61338,50012,48,52,51,56384,47,50,49,61340,4666,660,3533,8843,72,61337],"class_list":["post-114841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-10-win-season","tag-annie","tag-coaching-staff","tag-college-football","tag-final-day","tag-hanson-family","tag-kansas-state","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-lineman","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-offensive-line-success","tag-riley","tag-rock","tag-usc","tag-way","tag-year","tag-zach"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114841","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114841"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114841\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/114842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}