Off The Hook Sports continues its 2022 Tennessee football preseason preview on the top 25 impact players for the Vols this upcoming season.

Coming in at No. 18 is covid-senior safety Trevon Flowers.

Past Performance

Vols safety Trevon Flowers returns for a fifth year in the Orange and White looking to build on what has been a solid last few seasons.

Flowers led the secondary with 82 tackles in 2021. He has long been a bright spot on a struggling back line, but has room to be that much better for Tennessee this moving forward.

Flowers’ growth was stunted in his early years with the Vols. He appeared in seven games as a freshman and notched his first career start in week one against West Virginia in Charlotte, recording five tackles and a pass breakup.

Missing five games his freshman season was one-upped in his sophomore season when he missed seven games with a broken leg. Flowers made two starts prior to his injury, nabbing his first interception as a Vol against Mississippi State.

The injuries were nothing but setback for Flowers, who broke out in his junior year. He started all 10 games at safety in a covid-shortened season, ranking second on the team with 62 tackles by year’s end.

Only in his senior year did Flowers usurp that total of 62 tackles with his 82-piece in 2021. He shined in Tennessee’s bowl game, tacking on three tackles and an interception.

Forty-eight of Flowers’ tackles in 2021 were solo tackles. He is the best at tackling in space among the members of the secondary by a pretty considerable margin if 2021 is any indicator.

Opportunities

Flowers seems to be one of the few members of Tennessee’s secondary that will be guaranteed a starting role week one, barring injury. Fellow safety Jaylen McCollough seems to be a safe bet, too.

But the truth is that Josh Heupel, Tim Banks and defensive backs coach Willie Martinez will be looking for any way to get the scar that was Tennessee’s bottom-tier secondary out of the picture for year two. A reality not so easily accomplished with two NFL draft picks on the ‘departing’ list this offseason.

One of those departing NFL draft picks is Theo Jackson, who was selected 204^th overall to the Tennessee Titans. Jackson spent most of his 2021 season at Star, a hybrid linebacker/defensive back that acts as one of the most important positions on the field for the defense to run smoothly.

Flowers took a lot of reps at Star in spring practice and could be one to look out for to fulfill Jackson’s role next season.

Plugging players in where their skillset will most benefit the Vols is a delicate process, especially this offseason. Despite the Vols not retaining a ton of talent, there is a lot of unproven potential in the secondary group. Players like Christian Charles, Georgia Tech transfer Wesley Walker and Ohio State transfer Andre Turrentine all have safety experience at the college level to varying degrees.

Flowers is the most talented free safety on the team. It makes sense to think that what’s not broken shouldn’t be messed with, but the fifth-year senior could also shine in a new role while allowing younger players such as Turrentine or Charles to perform at their highest potential at safety rather than being thrown into a significant role.

Time will tell.

Hear it from…

Flowers sees his best path for improvement in forcing more turnovers in 2022.

The Vols forced 15 turnovers last season – 13 interceptions and two fumbles recoveries. Two of those interceptions came from Flowers, with fellow safety Jaylen McCollough ranking first with three. Flowers wants to see that number rise.

No. 2 on the list of General Neyland’s seven game maxims is to, “play for and make the breaks,” after all.

“The key to the secondary improving … I would say, just creating more turnovers, not just interceptions, punching at the ball, stripping at the ball,” Flowers said. “Being more physical on our tackles and communicating is definitely a big piece. We all need to be on the same page every snap of the game.”

Flowers has taken that last part to heart as well. Secondary coach Willie Martinez has noticed Flowers’ obsession with improvement this offseason, and the fifth-year vet has been proactive about it.

Tennessee will have two new starters in the secondary in 2022.

“We’re doing a great job of leadership within the group. The first guys that come to mind, again I’m going to say, it’s Trevon Flowers and Jaylen McCollough,” Martinez said. “They’re actually on hand coaching every single play when they’re not in there. That’s been the biggest growth that we’ve made as defense, and especially in the back end, they’re holding each other accountable, which is really neat to see.”