LOS ANGELES – With the season ending injury suffered by junior wide receiver George Farmer, the depth of the USC receiving corps will be tested.
However wide receivers coach Tee Martin doesn’t have any concerns from a depth standpoint.
“We’ll be fine,” Martin said.
The No. 3 spot is even more wide open now after the injury to Farmer. There isn’t much game experience among the candidates but the talent is there. Fifth-year senior De’Von Flournoy, redshirt sophomore Victor Blackwell, freshman Darreus Rogers, and incoming freshman Steven Mitchell will all be competing for that spot.
They have a total of two catches between them.
“Somebody’s got to step up,” Martin said. “This is tough news for everybody but it’s an opportunity for some others. It’s time for somebody to step up and fill the void.”
He can take confidence in knowing he has the reigning Biletnikoff Award winner, Marqise Lee, as his No. 1 receiver.
In the No. 2 spot is sophomore Nelson Agholor.
Farmer was enjoying a great spring before the injury, but no Trojan is having a spring as fine as Agholor.
The USC sophomore had 19 catches for 340 yards and two touchdowns last season in his freshman campaign as the No. 3 wide receiver behind Lee and Robert Woods.
What’s even more impressive is Agholor was a running back in high school. He caught 10 passes as a senior at Tampa Berkeley Prep but only four of those receptions came as a wide receiver, according to Martin.
Agholor rushed for 1,983 yards and 28 touchdowns as a senior in high school. As a junior he rushed for nearly 1,500 yards and 18 touchdowns.
With Lee missing a lot of time this spring due to injury, Agholor has been the best receiver on Howard Jones Field.
“For him to go from that to what he’s doing now, can’t say enough about his development,” Martin said. “He’s been doing great. I couldn’t ask for a better spring."
Agholor says his focus is much sharper than it was during his freshman season, which has helped him to make a significant impact in his first spring. Not only has he done a nice job of providing a reliable target for Max Wittek, Cody Kessler, and Max Browne, he’s shown the ability to be a playmaker by creating separation after the catch.
Head coach Lane Kiffin believes Agholor could have had an impact as a freshman similar to that of Woods and Lee had he been afforded the same opportunity.
“He’s reliable,” Martin said of Agholor. “He can play multiple positions. He’s a big play guy. He can take something very small into a big play.”
In light of the injury to Farmer, Agholor feels the focus of the wide receivers as a whole is much sharper.
“As a corps, I think we understand that to just practice with great concentration and effort because things like that could happen and any minute somebody could go down,” Agholor said. “We all need to rise to a certain level that when somebody goes down we won’t skip a beat.”
