UND's Flowers ready for bigger role at safety

Chuck Flowers isn't the most talked about athlete from his hometown of Chino Hills, Calif.

That distinction goes to the Ball family-Lavar, Lonzo and the rest of the basketball factory that has dominated sports news cycles lately.

Flowers, who trained some with Lavar as a youth but was older than Lavar's boys, has even flown under the radar at Memorial Stadium, where the UND football team is preparing for an Aug. 31 opener against Utah.

But Flowers, a fourth-year junior college transfer, enters his senior season in a key role for the first time in his Fighting Hawks career.

Flowers, who's 5-foot-11 and 180 pounds, is holding down the starting safety spot opposite of Big Sky Conference Defensive Player of the Year Cole Reyes.

"We've seen a big jump this fall," UND defensive backs coach Travis Stepps said. "He showed flashes last year. He played physical when he got a chance. Chuck has shown to be reliable and had a good summer. He communicates really well on the field, and he can take charge."

Flowers was a part of head coach Bubba Schweigert's first recruiting class at UND. He redshirted in the 2014 season after transferring from Citrus College in California.

He appeared in 11 games as a sophomore but primarily played on special teams. As a junior in 2016, Flowers played in 11 games and had 22 tackles.

He'll have a much bigger role in 2017.

"With Chuck, a good thing is he's a veteran leadership-wise but there's not a lot of miles on the tires so to speak," Stepps said. "He's a veteran guy, but he still has good spring to him. He hasn't been beat up on the field for four years."

It's a role Flowers is ready to embrace.

"I'm real confident with what we've been doing," Flowers said. "We've been training hard and drilling the playbook."

Flowers has come a long way at North Dakota from a time when he didn't know a thing about the program.

He had offers from Northern Colorado and Sacramento State out of Citrus College, but he said he was drawn to UND by the coaching staff-specifically Schweigert and defensive coordinator Eric Schmidt.

"I easily could have stayed home at Sac State and been comfortable, but I wanted to get out of my comfort zone," Flowers said. "I didn't even know North Dakota was on the map. I had no idea. I ended up taking a visit and was blown away. It was like, wow, these guys are serious."

Chuck isn't the only member of the Flowers family entering an interesting time in Division I football.

His younger brother, Emmanuel, was a heavily sought recruit. Emmanuel, who had an early offer from UND, eventually chose to play at Michigan State. He'll be a true freshman defensive back this fall.

Michigan State hasn't decided on Emmanuel's redshirt. But one thing's for sure, one of the Flowers brothers will be needed in Division I football.