Penn State football signee Mehki Flowers eager to continue growth in a place that feels ‘like home’
Kelly Spearman knew that his son and Penn State commit, Mehki Flowers, was destined to be different from a young age.
Flowers played right guard early on in his football career in a recreational league. Spearman recalled that Flowers blocked another player back 15 yards and continued blocking the player when the play was over. Despite his aggressiveness and physicality on the football field, he respected his opponents and wanted to show sportsmanship.
He always wanted to set himself apart from the rest of the pack.
“It’s always one thing that stood out and coaches and different players will tell you, he was a kid that would lay you out on the field and help them right up,” Spearman said. “It was always something different. I knew it was something special about him.”
Surrounded by family, friends, former teammates and coaches on Wednesday afternoon in Central Dauphin East’s gymnasium, Flowers signed his national letter of intent to attend Penn State and play for James Franklin’s 7th-ranked recruiting class in the nation. Playing just 64 miles from his college destination, Flowers was relieved to finish the process of his recruitment.
“It just feels good to get some of that stress off of my shoulders,” Flowers said. “Signing to Penn State meant a lot to me because all of the coaches that are there made it feel like home. Knowing that I’m going up there and having coaches that have my back at all times, that means a lot.”
Flowers played both wide receiver and safety in his three seasons at Steel-High and one year at Central Dauphin East. The 6-foot-2, 190-pound athlete is rated as a 4-star recruit, the 177th-ranked player nationally, the 7th-best player of his position and 5th-best prospect in the state of Pennsylvania, per On3.com.
Franklin introduced Flowers as a defensive back in Penn State’s “wall-to-wall” signing day coverage. While he has shown the ability to play either side of the ball at the next level, Franklin believes that he and fellow recruit Cristian Driver’s best fits are at safety, following in the footsteps of current Penn State safeties Jaquan Brisker and Ji’Ayir Brown.
“We want to recruit as many guys as we possibly can that you look at and say, ‘You know what? I think these guys could play either side of the ball,’” Franklin said. “The guys that we are recruiting should have that type of ability. The more DBs (defensive backs) that we recruit that have wide receiver skill sets, the better that we’re going to be at creating turnovers and making big plays on the defensive side of the ball. The more wideouts that we can recruit that have a defensive mindset and are physical and tough, the better we’re going to be.”
Franklin envisions them possibly returning kicks, punts or being versatile offensive-defensive hybrids.
Flowers’ former Central Dauphin East coach Lance Deane was the defensive coordinator at Steel-High, watching Flowers grow and develop in his defense as a dynamic playmaker and leader. Every year the Rollers continued to improve — going from 4-7 in Flowers’ first year, to 8-3 in his sophomore season and 12-0 his junior year. Following Deane to Central Dauphin East, the duo went 7-4 on the year.
It’s not just the improvement on the football field that Deane has seen from Flowers. He believes that Flowers is motivated to be a well-rounded individual — one committed to putting his community over himself.
“Growth and progress,” Deane said about Flowers’ development. “I think those are the two words that really define where he’s at right now. And when I talk about growth and progress, I’m talking about — obviously, yes there’s a ton of growth from a physical standpoint on the football field, but also his growth as a young man. I’ve been seeing that daily. To me, it’s more exciting than anything else.”
Flowers doesn’t just want to be a leader on the field. He wants to be a leader within his community of Harrisburg. He’s shown that through building a few relationships with young fans on the sidelines after games and getting to know them. His goal is to inspire his community, give them hope and see the next generation of athletes follow him with the same amount of success or more.
“My message to the youth and just everyone around the world coming up and watching guys like me do what I’m doing, it just takes hard work,” Flowers said a video call on Wednesday morning. “Sometimes it may get hard, but if you just push it out, everything is going to be worth it in the end. All of the hard times that you went through, God has a plan in my eyes. So, that’s how I see it.”
