Steel-High head coach Andrew Erby breaks down Mehki Flowers

There aren’t many people out there that know Mehki Flowers better than his head coach, Andrew Erby. Not only has Erby been Flowers’ coach since he entered high school, but even before that, Erby coached Flowers in youth football with the Steelton Raiders. He even coached him in junior high basketball, so if anyone knows what Flowers is capable of, it’s Erby.

“I've coached him since he was about 8 or 9 years old,” said Erby. “Every year, he's made the effort to improve his footwork and his route running. That goes back to when he was young. He's always committed himself to adding something to his game each year, and that commitment has really paid off for Mehki. Nowadays, he's like a coach on the field. He's become very coachable. He's always taken to coaching, but he really understands it now more than ever as he's gotten older.”

Erby said that even before Flowers entered high school, it was clear that he had a chance to play at college football’s highest level. Measurables were a key reason why, like every Division I prospect, but it was the work he put in that made it actually happen.

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“I've seen his potential since he was little. I'm not saying I'm the best at seeing all that stuff, but you could see with Mehki that he had the potential pretty early,” Erby said. “I thought that he had the measurables, so with some work, he could really put some separation between himself and others. But when you see the measurables and you know a kid is going to work hard, it's really not hard to spot. Once you get him committed, and Mehki was committed very early to this, all he had to do was continue to mature as a young player, physically and mentally, while also growing more and more with those leadership qualities.”

This season, Flowers led Steel-High to the PIAA 1A State Championship, beating Jeannette, 32-20. It was the school's first state championship since the Rollers won back-to-back state titles in 2007 & 2008. Flowers, who totaled 60 receptions for over 1,000 yards and 15 touchdowns, ultimately earned Offensive Player of the Year honors in Pennsylvania by the Patriot News.

“You can't tackle him one-on-one and he never gets caught from behind, so right away, his elusiveness and his speed to run away from guys is very good,” Erby said. “There are times where we'll put him out there, one-on-one, knowing that there's no chance the guy defending him will be able to bring him down. He's physical enough to run through you, shifty enough to run around you and fast enough to run past you. There are times where we tell our guys not to even block when Mehki is close to breaking it because we don't want to get caught blocking from behind or something like that. We know he'll make the play.”

Flowers still has one season remaining with Erby, and nothing short of a state championship will suffice. However, there’s also a ton of talk about which position he’ll play in college now that he’s committed to play for Penn State. Both wide receiver and safety are realistic options.

“I would just tell him to have trust in the coaching staff, and just understand that they're going to put you in the best position for the team,” Erby said. “I really don't know which position he’s going to prefer in college, but I do think he understands that it's always about doing whatever is best for the program. The player that puts the program first will see success sooner because they trust their coaches. But he's certainly a good enough athlete to play on either side of the ball, and I also believe he understands that. He's definitely a playmaker on both sides

Speaking of Penn State, Erby said that James Franklin and his staff simply outworked the other schools when it came to building a relationship. In the end, it was that, plus the proximity to home, that played the biggest part in Flowers' decision.

“Penn State absolutely just outrecruited everyone else,” Erby said. “That was the big thing with them. I think [Mehki] thought about other schools, but one thing Penn State did a great job with was just staying in constant communication. They were on him about academics and his family as much as anyone. You could get on the phone and talk to them about anything but football and that just felt normal with them.

"I appreciate the fact that, during this pandemic, they showed that they really cared about not just Mehki, but our entire program. They were always asking about kids that'll never step on that field, just because they cared about our team and how we were handling all this. So, just caring about family, caring about people, that played a big role with Mehki and it certainly made me appreciate their coaches even more than I already did.”

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