Everything From Virginia Tech Safety Tyson Flowers After Wednesday's Practice

Virginia Tech safety Tyson Flowers spoke with the media after practice on Wednesday; here's the entirety of what Flowers had to say:

On if the safety room needs the bye week the most:

"I don't know. I feel like every every position is going to get banged up throughout the season. So, yeah, I think this bye week falls great for us and of course, in the safety room, to get get some reps for everyone in there. And yeah, just to recover from [this], we're all banged up a little bit, but I think it'll do us well."

On the level of difficulty due to a rotating crew:

"I think it's more fun than anything. This kind of happened at at Rice a little bit too. I think it was my my sophomore year there. But we just had a kind of a rotation of guys and you work and spend so much time with all the guys in your position group. And you love those guys so much and you want to see them succeed so much to to see Brennan [Johnson] and Sheldon [Robinson] to get out on the field. Like, that just makes me even more excited to go play with them and watch them make plays and watch them ball out. That's I think it's exciting. You don't really control who goes in the game, right? You just trust, you know, [safeties coach Pierson Prioleau and defensive coordinator Sam Siefkes] to control who goes in the game and you just have fun from there. You don't really think about who's out there with you."

On advice to the newer safeties:

"So, I think something I struggled with when I when I first started playing a lot [of it] was overthinking, like, gosh, I just want to be right. I want to do my job. I want to make sure I don't mess up too much. And I think that stifles you a lot. It's hard to make plays when you're playing like that and when you're thinking that much. And so, [that's] something I need to remind them, not that they need any reminding of it all. I'm probably reminding myself more than anything is, dude, just go play. Like you're here for a reason. You can play ball. You can play safety. You know what you're looking at. You know what you're doing. Obviously, go out there and do your job, right? But don't think too much. Go out there and play ball. Have fun. Like this is such a blessing. Like I try to remind myself that I'm walking in answered prayers right now every time I get to go play football. And so, I think that frees me up and I hope it frees them up too to just you know go play play and have fun. And I think that's when you're you're most dangerous and when you can make the most plays, too."

On the change in mindset from freshmen safeties Brennan Johnson and Sheldon Robinson:

"I think that'd be a better question for Brennan and Sheldon, I think. But, I think they've done a great job of coming in and wanting to play. Everyone wants to play when they're you're a freshman, right? And there's only so much you can do to control how much you play, but I think they've done a great job of learning from the older guys that have been in the room, that have come in and out of the room. But also like being prepared. I think when they stepped on the field, they were never nervous or they never felt unprepared. They were like, 'Okay, it's my time. Let's go ball.' And so, I think they've done a great job of just kind of balancing both of those as freshman. And then like you said, I think they're gearing up to they have played a lot more the past couple weeks and so, I think they're they're gearing up and getting ready to go for this this back half of the season."

On Flowers' evaluation of whether the team is in the present and where it hopes to be over the next five games:

"[The year] obviously hasn't started how we wanted it to, but I think our focus, and I think [interim head coach Philip Montgomery's] done a great job of let's just take this one week at a time. Let's do everything we can this week to recover and get our bodies right, get our bodies back under us, get ready to go. And then, next week is we're going to hit the ground running, and let's just go beat Cal. Let's go beat Cal and see what happens. And if we treat it one week at a time, I think we'll be really happy with where we look up at the end of this thing."

On the strangeness of being in such a rotating crew team-wise:

[Editor's note: The question was asked by Tech Sideline's Andy Bitter, who cited safety Christian Ellis as an example. Ellis, in his final snap, tallied the game-sealing pass breakup of NC State's Justin Joly to grant the Hokies' their first one-score win since Liberty in 2022.]

"My coach got fired last year too at Rice. I'm a little bit more familiar, but it wasn't this early in the season. And so, this has definitely been a different journey, but something that my mom has kind of been telling me and a story that's been on my mind a lot, in the Book of Judges, the story of Gideon. God calls Gideon to free his people from his oppressors, the Midianites. And so, Gideon's got this army of like tens of thousands of men and he's getting ready to go do what God tells him to do. And God's like, 'No, you know, I need less people, less people.' Basically whittlles his army down to 300 men. And my mom's like, 'Dude, this is exactly what's happening to you guys. Like you guys are you're losing people. You're losing people.' And I think the the cool thing about that story is that Gideon does go on to free God's people from the Midianites. And though it didn't make sense, Gideon didn't understand it in the moment. [He was] like, 'Geez, God, I'm about to go to war and you're taking away all my soldiers. Like what's going on here?' And I think that Gideon's faithfulness, it it it ended up helping him in the end. And God delivered and God provided for him. And so, I think that's something that's been on my mind is like, yeah, I may not understand what's going on right now. But I know the character of my God and how he's going to hold our hand and walk us through everything that we're going to go through."

Q: How do you think that that faith has sort of helped you through this time of adversity?

I think it's been a challenge um with so many moving parts, with how the the season's gone. With the coaches, with the guys who've been in and out of the room, with not starting how we wanted to. I think it's really easy and I've definitely fallen into just some a lot of frustration, right? And I think a lot of the guys around the locker room, Jahmari DeLoatch and Tucker Holloway, who used to be here, I still talk to him a lot, Coach [Jeff Eaton, Associate Director of Strength and Conditioning] has done a great job. Like, those guys pull me aside and kind of remind me of my faith. And [they] just remind me that God is good, regardless of whatever circumstance I'm in. My situation and my circumstance doesn't determine God's greatness, right? He's done more than enough. He sent his son to die on the cross for me. I can't ask any more of Him than that. And so, I think that kind of helps put things back into perspective and helps me just attack every week as it is. And like I said earlier, I put it in perspective that I get to, I'm so blessed to be able to play this game. And it helps me just go out there."