USC tight end Malcolm Epps said the trick to getting new Trojans wide receiver -- and by all accounts, man of few words -- Jordan Addison to open up in conversation is to start in casually about one of his interests.

"Nine times out of 10 Jordan's not going to say nothing -- he's just going to go out there, run his routes, catch passes, catch touchdowns," Epps said. "Crack jokes with him, go talk to him -- I'll play something in the locker room and I'll see him bobbing his head and I'll go ask him who his favorite rapper is, just stuff like that with Jordan. ...

"You've got to know how to approach J, but he is approachable once he figures out, 'OK, you're not trying to get at me or nothing like that.'"

A lot of people, starting with his former head coach at Pitt, have been trying to get at Addison since the reigning Biletnikoff Award winner transferred from the Panthers to USC in May.

And Addison wasn't going to have any particular shared interest in many of the questions that came his way Thursday at USC's football media day, but it was the first time he had been made available to local reporters since arriving in town and the questions were going to come about the reported -- unverified and denied -- tampering allegations from Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi (along with some of Narduzzi's biting on-the-record comments.)

To his credit, Addison took them all in stride one after another ... after another.

"It was definitely frustrating, but I wasn't really too concerned with it because the truth will always come to light. I knew what my focus is and my intent, so all of that is just outside noise," he said.

Just moments later, the question came another way ...

"Just some BS," Addison said this time. "But I mean, like I said, the truth always going to come to light so I just make sure I'm just going to keep working and make sure I'm ready for the season."