Adam Breneman knows all the street names in Mehki Flowers’ hometown. He knows the best restaurants, the local history. He knows the area coaches, high schools, and stories about what the rivalries were like at the start of the decade.
Much like Flowers, Adam Breneman knows central Pennsylvania.
Breneman, a former Penn State and UMass tight end who is now a graduate assistant at Arizona State grew up in Mechanicsburg, Penn., which sits a short 10 miles west of the nearby town of Steelton, the hometown of Flowers, an athlete in the class of 2022.
“It helps a lot because I feel like he will understand me more because of the area he came from and the school I go to now, they were rivals back around his time,” Flowers said of Breneman. “We have a very tight relationship. We talk very often. I connect with him on a different level because, of course, he’s from down here so he knows what football is like down here.”
Breneman was first in contact with the 6-foot-1, 185-pound athlete about a month before his April 6th offer. And, though he’s only a sophomore, Flowers had already accumulated 18 total offers, including eight from power-five programs. There’s still two years of wiggle room before he makes his decision but, at the moment, he listed Rutgers, Virginia Tech, West Virginia, Nebraska, and Arizona State as the five schools recruiting him the hardest.
The Sun Devils may seem like the underdogs for a prospect who lives 3,000 miles away and holds an offer from powerhouse hometown school in Penn State. But, Flowers said, the Sun Devils have made up significant ground through their relentlessness.
“(They’re in) just constant communication,” Flowers described. “Staying close to home is not a priority for me in my recruitment. I’m not looking to stay home, but if I feel as though Penn State is the top school for me heading into my senior year, that’s where I’ll pick.”
Flowers was very upfront that his relationship with Breneman, and the relationship they’ve formed as two kids from central Pennsylvania -- is heading his excitement and intrigue with Arizona State. But right behind that may be the Sun Devils ‘Pro Model.”
“That’s one of the biggest, actually,” he said. “They have a lot of experience. So if I go there, I have a very good chance of playing in the NFL.”
If nothing else, at least right now, Flowers has the skill that offers a hint of optimism at that thought. But there’s still a long way to go. Flowers recently finished up his sophomore season at Steelton-Highspire High, which means the earliest he could put pen to paper would be in a year and a half. Regardless, he said he hopes to commit next summer.
Though listed as an athlete, Flowers said the Sun Devils -- and mostly every other school for that matter -- are recruiting him to play safety.
“I’m a play-maker. I’m always looking for the big play,” he said. “I’m a hard-hitter, a play stopper.”
As Flowers continues to evaluate his suitors, it seems as if the Sun Devils have already hit on a few key areas of his wish list.
“The top thing would be family, going to where the players and coaches all feel like family,” Flowers remarked. “(If you were to tell me I’d eventually commit to ASU), it would probably be because of the relationship I have with the coaching staff and how I would feel at home there knowing I have a coach who comes from the same area as me.”
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