USA TODAY

University of South Florida quarterback Quinton Flowers was just 7 years old, sitting on his father’s lap in the front porch of their apartment in Liberty City, one of the poorest areas of Miami.

It was a Sunday morning — the Miami Dolphins game would be coming on their TV screen soon — and Quinton decided to leave his father, Nathaniel, for just a minute to go to the bathroom.

On his way back to the porch, Quinton heard a gunshot.

“I looked through the window, and my dad was laying face down on the floor,” Flowers said. “I was just a kid. I was sad. I couldn’t believe that had just happened.”

Nathaniel Flowers, who was a trash collector for the City of Miami, died that day. His son said the shooter was caught and that Nathaniel died as a result of an errant bullet meant for someone else.

That bullet, the one that took Nathaniel, must have felt like an atomic bomb for all the damage it did to Quinton and his family.

But that wasn’t the only tragedy Flowers has had to cope with in his life. Shortly before the start of his senior year at Miami Jackson High, Flowers lost his mother, Nancy, to cancer.

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Nancy had raised Flowers on her own, even putting up a basketball hoop in front of her apartment.

On one occasion, when Flowers was 12, his mom drilled a three-point on him, showing the form she had during her younger days, when she played basketball and ran track at Miami High.

But now she was gone, too.

“I knew what his mom meant to him, and that was heartbreaking,” said USF defensive back Deatrick Nichols, who grew up in the same apartment building and has been one of his best friends since age 7. “His mom (passing away) — that was another chance for (Flowers) to give up. But he kept pushing, and I respect him for that.”

As it turns out, there’s no quit in Quinton.

Not even the recent departure of his USF head coach, Willie Taggart, who took the opening at the University of Oregon, can stop Flowers, who will lead his Bulls (10-2) against South Carolina (6-6) on Dec. 29 in the Birmingham Bowl in Alabama.

FATHER FIGURE

Flowers, who is soft-spoken by nature, was nicknamed Winky by an aunt, but no one seems to know why.

Maybe it’s because if you wink or blink, you might miss one of his electric moves on the football field, where his elusiveness might just be his best attribute.

Former Jackson coach Antonio “De La” Brown was the first one to spot Flowers’ talent.

But before Brown started coaching, he was just a regular parent, coming out to Pop Warner games to support his son. Then, when a coaching vacancy came up, the league commissioner told Brown that the kids needed him to run the team.

Brown, who had a three-year NFL career with the Buffalo Bills and Washington Redskins, accepted the challenge, and that’s when he got to know Flowers, who was a linebacker and tight end at the time.

Quarterback was Flowers’ destiny, though, and by the third game of the Liberty City Warriors’ season, Brown made the move.

Flowers, 10 at the time, had found his calling, even though there were still obstacles to overcome.

As a high school freshman, Flowers was again being used out of position. Nigel Dunn, who was Jackson’s coach at the time, had him at wide receiver.

Flowers said Dunn “didn’t believe in me” as a quarterback initially. But by the third game of his freshman season, Flowers was given a chance at quarterback, and he quickly emerged as the team’s star.

Brown, who was Dunn’s offensive coordinator for Flowers’ first two years of high school, became his head coach for his final two seasons. Flowers went on to produce career numbers that included 6,042 passing yards and 2,002 rushing yards.

Through that time, Flowers and Brown built a close bond. It’s a friendship based on common experiences.

Brown said he was so poor as a kid that he couldn’t afford haircuts. He, like Flowers, lost family members way too soon.

For Brown, that list of loved ones who have died include his father, killed in a home invasion; his 14-year-old brother, killed over a pair of sneakers; his cousin, ambushed in a Burger King drive-through; and his sister, who died of a drug overdose.

Flowers can feel Brown’s pain. Even after Flowers left Miami behind, the city’s mean streets haunted him again as his step-brother, Bradley Holt, was killed just a few days before Quinton’s first college start.

“It’s a day-to-day fight in the inner city,” Brown said. “For a lot of these kids, football is the ticket.”

LEAVING MIAMI

During Flowers’ senior year at Jackson, since-fired Miami Hurricanes coach Al Golden visited him at school and offered him a scholarship … but the deal came with a catch.

“The first thing he said to me was that he wanted me as a running back,” Flowers said. “It was disappointing to hear your hometown school wanted you as a running back when you have been a quarterback your whole life.

“I told him, ‘If you can’t offer me a scholarship as a quarterback then this is not the place for me’. He said, ‘Nice knowing you and good luck.’ ”

Flowers said he had similar conversations with schools such as Alabama and Tennessee.

South Florida’s Willie Taggart was one of the few coaches who believed in Flowers as a quarterback, and that’s why he picked the Bulls. “I saw a winner,” Taggart said when asked why recruited Flowers as a quarterback. “He’s special with the ball in his hands.”

The Bulls had a losing record in each of the four years prior to Flowers’ arrival, and they have been a winning team in each of his three years on campus.

That’s not a coincidence.

After Flowers’ freshman season, Taggart changed the USF offense to suit his skills. Gone was the in which the quarterback operated under center.

In was the “Gulf Coast” spread offense, where Flowers works out of a shotgun snap and runs or passes as he sees fit.

As a result, the Bulls are 19-7 with Flowers as a starter, including 10-2 this year after beating rival Central Florida 48-31 in the regular-season finale.

The 10 wins are a school record for USF, and Flowers is a huge part of that, completing 61.5% of his passes for 2,551 yards and 22 touchdowns, with six interceptions.

In addition, he has rushed for 1,425 yards, 15 touchdowns and an 8.1 average per carry. Among FBS quarterbacks this season, only Louisville’s Lamar Jackson has rushed for more yards and scores. And among the top 25 rushers in the nation, Flowers’ average per rush is No. 1.

No quarterback in Florida FBS history — not Tim Tebow, not Charlie Ward and not anyone else — has more single-season rushing yards than Flowers.

In addition, his Bulls offense has scored at least 30 points in 16 consecutive outings, the longest active streak in the country.

“I don’t think Quinton has any weakness,” said Shaun King, who is in his first year as USF’s quarterbacks coach after playing the position for seven years in the NFL. “He’s an unbelievable athlete, he has a big-time arm and a great mind for the game.”

Flowers lacks ideal height for the NFL but is sturdy at 6-0, 215 pounds. He has been timed at 4.57 in the 40, but it’s his ability to make defenders miss that makes him special.

Click on his highlight video and find Flowers speeding past linemen, faking out linebackers, running over cornerbacks and leapfrogging safeties.

He has been compared to the elusive Tyrod Taylor of the Buffalo Bills, but Flowers has long tried to emulate Drew Brees of the New Orleans Saints, who is 6-foot tall, just like Quinton.

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Brees is known for his toughness, and Flowers has earned that same reputation. Then again, when you lose both your parents before you graduate high school, football isn’t scary at all.

“What he’s been through,” Taggart said, “a lot of adults couldn’t even handle.”

Flowers, who turned 22 on Dec. 2, is working on a double major in Communications and Criminology and is scheduled to graduate in the spring of 2018.

But he could submit his name into the NFL draft after this season. And although he said that the pro game isn’t something he will think about until after the season, there’s a rather new motivation for him to get paid for his talents.

Her name is Amayah — Flowers’ daughter and first child. She was born on Sept. 26, two days after a USF loss to Florida State.

Flowers was there for her birth, but he never missed a game. Five days after Amayah was born, Flowers led USF past Cincinnati 45-20. And whenever Amayah is around, Brown said he sees “joy” in the face of Flowers, who will raise the baby with his girlfriend, Demya McCullough.

“When the only thing around you is people losing their lives,” Brown said, “it’s great when you have the opportunity to bring a life into the world.”

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