Rice safety Tyson Flowers committed to Virginia Tech on Saturday. (Nick Brown)

Tyson Flowers
Safety
Rice
5-11, 211
2 years remaining (r-Jr.)

Virginia Tech added a second commitment on Saturday night from Rice safety Tyson Flowers.

The Fort Worth, Texas, product was an honorable mention All-AAC selection this year, per College Football Network, after racking up 38 tackles and three TFLs. He only missed four tackles, too, while intercepting two passes, breaking up two passes, posting one quarterback hurry and forcing one fumble.

Flowers had an impressive year and earned a 76.8 overall defensive grade from PFF. He also had a coverage grade of 84.1, which ranked 31st in the country, 11th among Group of Five players and third in the AAC.

For comparison, here’s where his grades stack up against Hokies safeties Quentin Reddish, Jaylen Jones and Mose Phillips:

Flowers is a crucial addition given the state of the Hokies’ safety room. They lost starters Jaylen Jones (graduation) and Mose Phillips (Missouri), along with former starter Jalen Stroman (portal).

He’ll now anchor a young group alongside sophomore Quentin Reddish and Clemson transfer Sherrod Covil Jr., who committed on Wednesday. Flowers has 867 career snaps while Covil has 402 and Reddish has 242.

Flowers got his first career interception this year in Week 2 at Texas Southern and returned it 34 yards for a touchdown. His second came in early November against Navy. On Oct. 26 at UConn, he tied his career-high in tackles with eight.

His production was there in 2023, too. Though he only played 317 snaps as opposed to his 544 in 2024, he had 25 tackles and was terrific for the Owls in the First Responders Bowl against Texas State, tallying two tackles for loss and a sack while breaking up a pass. Moreover, his PFF coverage grade for the season was 84.0.

He was a two-way player at Southwest Christian High School at quarterback and safety — and was an all-state pick at the latter spot — while leading his team to two state semifinal berths.

Flowers was a three-star recruit with Group of Five offers from Ball State, Buffalo and Liberty. He had Ivy League offers from Dartmouth, Harvard, Penn and Princeton too.

He comes from an athletic family. His father, Jeromy, was his head coach in high school and is a former college football player at Arkansas (1996-99) who had seven career interceptions for the Razorbacks. His mother, Christy Smith, was a four-time All-American in women’s basketball at Arkansas and played in the WNBA.

With the addition of Flowers, the Hokies have nine scholarship safeties for the 2025 season. It’s a slightly older group than the cornerback position, though with a similar level of experience. Six of the guys in the room will be sophomores or older next season; the exceptions are redshirt freshman Noah Jenkins and incoming freshmen Sheldon Robinson and Luke Stuewe.

Flowers is Tech’s sixth transfer portal addition of the offseason, joining Covil, Bowling Green running back Terion Stewart, Central Missouri running back Marcellous Hawkins, Hampton defensive tackle Jahzari Priester and East Carolina cornerback Isaiah Brown-Murray.

For more information on Virginia Tech’s comings and goings in the portal, click here for Tech Sideline’s roster management page.

Tyson Flowers links:

247Sports ESPN Rice bio