LOS ANGELES -- Heading into this season, Marqise Lee had been a teammate of Robert Woods in four of the previous five years. Woods is someone he looked up to while learning the wide receiver position.
Recently, Lee was asked who would he turn to for playbook advise now that Woods was in the NFL. Without hesitation, Lee said "D-Flo."
De'Von Flournoy is known as D-Flo inside the USC locker room. For the last three seasons, he's been a guy that other receivers have looked to for playbook questions.
"There's been plenty of times where I come off the field asking him what the play is because D-Flo knows the playbook left to right, like the back of his hand," Lee said. "You could probably put (Flournoy) out there and he'd probably know the quarterback stuff too. He know how to read defenses and all that.
"The dude's pretty smart."
As a fifth-year senior and one of the last links on the team to the Pete Carroll era, Flournoy has been at USC longer than anyone else in the wide receivers room, and for that reason alone he believes he should know the playbook "backwards and forwards."
His production in meeting rooms throughout his career has far outweighed his production on the field, as Flournoy made his first career reception last season in a win over Colorado.
Last Saturday, he had as many catches as Lee. He made two grabs for 22 yards in the Trojans' 35-7 bounceback win over Boston College. The two catches established a new career high, causing his career reception total to triple.
The injury to Darreus Rogers in the win over the Eagles opened up extra opportunities for Flournoy.
Kiffin says he hopes Rogers will be able to play on Saturday when the team returns to the Coliseum to take on Utah State, but if he's not available, that could very well mean more balls thrown in the direction of Flournoy, the team's No. 3 wideout who has spent his career waiting for his number to be called.
"It was a dream come true," Flournoy said of Saturday. "You come to a university like this to play and you never know when your time's going to come. Mine presented itself.
"Who would've known coming in as a freshman that I would've only played my senior year?" Flournoy said. "But I'm playing. That's the thing that matters to me."
