USF Athletics

Best Friends and Team Builders

August 16, 2017

By TOM ZEBOLD
USF Senior Writer

TAMPA, AUG. 16, 2017 – Best friends since childhood, senior USF standouts Quinton Flowers and Deatrick Nichols have always wanted to blaze their own trail on the football field.

Years before leading the Bulls' rise back to national prominence, the dynamic duo first met at the age of 7 or 8 while playing pick-up games with older kids in the streets of Miami's Liberty City neighborhood.

"We were the youngest people out there, so it was just like we had to be together," Nichols remembered. "That's how we just got each other better at a young age without even knowing."

Wise beyond their years even back then, Flowers and Nichols developed a unique quality of making others better around them. Playing for Liberty City Optimist Club, they didn't want to be a part of super talented squads that just had to show up to win.

"We never played on a good team," Nichols said. "We usually tried to brighten up a team."

That's exactly what they did before going to separate high schools. Then, an eventful conversation changed the course of USF Football as we now know it.

"Our last couple years playing high school football, we were running around playing with college (options)," said Nichols of the many scholarship offers each was weighing. "I told him, 'Let's go to USF. It's close to home, it's something we've been doing – building programs."

Before the all-conference honors, record-breaking seasons and national award attention, the two rising stars were looking for much more than individual glory and found it with a unique opportunity to help build the Bulls program in their image.

The rest has turned out to be USF history.

With Flowers at quarterback and Nichols at cornerback, the Bulls doubled their 2014 win total by posting eight victories in 2015. They followed that with a season that really put the program back on the national map.

Flowers juked his way past defenders to American Conference Offensive Player of the Year honors in 2016 and rewrote many pages in USF's record books along the way. Now, you hear his name in the Heisman Trophy discussion and see it on four national award watch lists, a new USF milestone, after setting the Bulls' new season records for total offense (4,337 yards), rushing yards (1,530) and total touchdowns (42), just to name a few.

Last season, Flowers also put his name above Tim Tebow and many other dual-threat stars of the state's past by becoming the first FBS quarterback from a Florida school to throw for 2,000 yards and rush for 1,000 more in the same season. Schools like Miami and Florida had their chance to sign Flowers, but it was USF that thought of him as a quarterback with the skills and leadership qualities that have propelled the program.

"The only school that believed in me was USF," Flowers said.

USF also was a big believer in Nichols, who has gone on to earn national praise as a member of Bednarik, Nagurski and Thorpe preseason watch lists after leading the Bulls with four interceptions in each of the past two seasons. Devoted Bulls fans certainly remember Nichols' lockdown ability last season, when he batted away opponents' potential game-winning drives against SMU and at Memphis.

"We always said it was bigger than us," Nichols noted. "We love the individual things we have, but first and foremost, we go for the team goals – winning, being nationally ranked and everything like that. That's our biggest goals."  

As true leaders and trusted friends, like they were as kids in Miami, Flowers and Nichols now prepare for their final act at USF. The Bulls are ranked No. 21 entering the season and have been picked as the favorite to win the conference as excitement builds for possibly the greatest season in school history.

"Every day we go out to practice, you can see it in (Nichols') eyes and you can see it in a lot of other guys' eyes that came in with our class," Flowers said. "A lot of guys are driven to be the best and do whatever it takes to win."

Fortunately for the Bulls, a bond between best friends helped build the bridge for more program-changers to jump aboard.

"There is going to be a time and place to look back and say, 'Wow, we really did it,'" Nichols said. "For right now, we're just going to keep pushing and try to accomplish more goals."

More From Flowers and Nichols
Self-proclaimed "brothers" since childhood, Quinton Flowers and Deatrick Nichols sat down in USF Football's team meeting room as their last fall camp began to come to a close to talk about on their bond, USF and much more. Here are some snippets from the sit-down interview:

Q: Just how close is your relationship as best friends when it comes to football and beyond?
Flowers: "Every game, you will see (Deatrick) and I, we're the last ones off the field. After we're warming up, we talk to each other and tell each other, 'You're on the defensive side of the ball, you've got to get those guys going.' I'm on the offensive side of the ball, I've got to do what it takes to get us in the end zone. We see it in each other's eyes. It's like we can read each other's mind and know what we have to do and when we have to do it."

Nichols: "It's like a communication without talking. It's just like if he sees me down, I don't have to come to him like, 'I don't feel good.' It's just something you see. That's just something like your mom knowing what's wrong with you. How do you know something is wrong? Just knowing someone all your life, you know when they've got their ups and downs, when they're pushing hard and everything. It's just being around a brother. We just know each other very well."

Q: Quinton, you had a lot of offers to play other positions for college programs before you and Deatrick decided to help build up USF. What were some other offers you were listening to at the time?
Flowers: "For me, I was really big on leaning toward Marshall or Nebraska. They were in the mix. Florida came and talked to me. I (originally) wanted to go to Miami because that's the hometown team. I wanted to do something for the hometown, but once Al Golden said what he said to me about playing running back, I shut that down. Florida didn't bring a quarterback coach to me, so I shut that down, too. The only school that really believed in me was USF and Coach Taggart."

Q: What do you enjoy most about coming from Miami to USF?
Flowers: "I enjoy the atmosphere a lot, it's quiet around here. A lot of times you go out and you don't have to look over your shoulder and think something is going to happen. We could go out any time of the day and know we're safe where we're at. We don't have to worry about people doing something else or trying to stop us from doing what we're doing. We're away from home, but not too far away from home. This is a place we just wanted to change."

Q: How special is it for you to become success stories so people from Miami and beyond can look up to?
Flowers: "It's a great feeling for both of us, knowing we made it out and we're trying to be something in life. We don't want to be those guys that go back and be like, 'Oh, I wish I could have done this, I wish I could have done that.' We want to be successful because we know there's a lot of kids back home and there's a lot of kids in Tampa, probably a lot of kids all over the world, that we don't know about that watch us. We always try to be a good role model and make the right decisions."

Bulls Bits

• Head coach Charlie Strong is set to appear at the second annual GTAC Bulls Block Party held Saturday, Aug. 19 in Ybor City. Day-of registration takes place at the Italian Club on Saturday from noon to 1:30 p.m., where Strong will speak along with other guests from 1:30-2 p.m. From 2 p.m. to 6 p.m., the party continues with stops at Tequilas, Bad Monkey, Big Easy, Brass Tap, Coyote Ugly, Gaspar's Grotto, Prana, Kelly Day's Firehouse and Buffalo Wild Wings. Early bird registration is $10 (through Aug. 14). General admission tickets are $15 (Aug. 15-17) and day of event tickets cost $20 (Aug. 18-19). Fans can register online HERE.
• Hear more from Coach Strong about the season ahead by attending The USF Football Radio Show at World of Beer on East Fowler Ave. (near the USF campus) on Tuesday, Aug. 22. The show airs from 6-7 p.m. on the USF Radio Network (820-AM locally) and can be streamed live via GoUSFBulls.com. Get the entire season show schedule HERE.
• The Atlanta Falcons were the latest team to send a scout to watch the Bulls practice on Wednesday. Other NFL teams visiting USF fall camp have included Buffalo, Cleveland, Dallas, Denver, Indianapolis, Jacksonville, Miami, Seattle and the New York Jets.

Up Next
USF is back on the practice field Thursday morning for the fourth of six sessions to conclude fall camp this week. Practices are closed to the public.
 
ABOUT USF FOOTBALL
USF finished the 2016 season ranked No. 19 in the Associated Press poll with a school-record 11 wins following the program's fifth-ever bowl victory in the Birmingham Bowl. The Bulls' 11-2 record marked the fifth-best winning percentage in FBS football in 2016 and one of just 11 teams to reach 11 wins. USF set nearly 40 team and individual records in 2016, including team records for total yards (6,650), rushing yards (3,714), touchdowns (77) and scoring (569). Junior quarterback Quinton Flowers was named the American Conference Offensive Player of the Year and led a school-record 10 players named to the all-conference team, six of which, including Flowers, will return in 2017. 

Purchase tickets for the upcoming season by following the USFBullsTix.com link HERE.
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