Penn State WR Mehki Flowers talks position switch, road back from injury

Late last season, Mehki Flowers found himself in Penn State head coach James Franklin’s office looking for a fresh angle. Then a redshirt freshman safety, Flowers had a move to offense on his mind. Given his background as a two-way standout in high school in the Harrisburg area, it wasn’t a far-fetched conclusion.

“Mehki, we recruited like we recruit a bunch of our guys, we thought he could play both sides of the ball,” Franklin said in the spring. “Between his dad reaching out and Mehki came in at the end of the season and said that he would like to make the move. So that’s really how that happened. We were obviously open to it, because again, recruiting Mehki, he was an explosive athlete on both sides of the ball with a ton of talent and ball skills.

“So it was really what he wanted to do, but also we were comfortable with it because we recruited him in a way that we felt like he could help play on either side of the ball.”

Flowers played in two games as a true freshman in 2022 but only saw that number double in 2023. Most of those reps came on special teams. With a glut of talent ahead of him at safety, Flowers started working in at receiver late in the year.

“I went to Dex [safeties coach Anthony Poindexter ] first and made sure that he was basically OK with the decision,” recalled Flowers. “I let him know what I wanted to do, and that’s how the meeting came about with coach Franklin. He basically said that nothing changes and you’re still going to have to work just as hard as you were working on defense to get onto the field. That’s really the biggest thing, working hard, the effort that you give and learning to trust your teammates.”

Flowers hurt ahead of Penn State’s bowl

Further complicating the move was a major injury that wiped out bowl practice and most of his spring.

“I tore my ACL, but we have a great training staff here and being with them every day we were on it,” said Flowers. “The focus was to be full-go when camp came around, and I am full-go now. So being able to regain that confidence that I had in my abilities coming out of high school, that’s what we focused on.

“It feels good knowing that my knee won’t be a problem anymore. After the first couple of days of practice I felt great, honestly. Just knowing that I can trust in my knee and trust what the trainers are telling me, that’s a big help.”

Now three years into his career and trusting the knee again, Flowers hopes to make more of a dent at his new position.

“I feel like can contribute a lot to this room, with mental toughness and physical toughness,” he said. “Being able to make the big play and just being confident in knowing what I can do.”

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