PHOTO | TROY HULL

Johnson C. Smith football coach Maurice Flowers is determined to leverage his connections to Charlotte-area high schools to recruit talent for the Golden Bulls.

Maurice Flowers is taking the local approach to remaking Johnson C. Smith football.

Flowers, who was officially announced as Golden Bulls coach last week, believes the Charlotte region’s depth of high school talent is the key ingredient to making the Golden Bulls relevant after four decades of consistent losing. It’s his job to convince area recruits JCSU, which went 16-42 over six years with Kermit Blount as coach, is worth the commitment.

“When you talk about football in Charlotte, and specifically a Johnson C Smith University, we have not been successful here for a very, very, very long time,” he said. “But the ingredients to start building a championship program are within 40 to 60 miles, and what I mean by that is the recruiting base.”

Mecklenburg County has been the hub of North Carolina high school football for a couple of decades and the region dominates produces top tier teams in both Carolinas. Flowers, who coached Olympic, West Charlotte and Chester (S.C.) high schools to playoff berths in the early 2000s, understands the value of creating relationships with high school programs.

“Charlotte area football is the strongest in the state of North Carolina,” he said. “It's not something I'm just making up but it’s in the fact that you go back to the year 2000 and just start from there. How many state champions from all classifications; how many state runners-up, how many quarterfinalists, semifinalists from the Charlotte area? They just play such great football in this area, a bunch of good coaches here, and I just would say that's what we are going to be built on. Our roster, when it gets finalized as we move into the future here, I look for us to have 70 to 75% of our roster from the Charlotte metro area.”

That attitude is what impressed the search committee that recommended Flowers for the job. His deep roots here – Flowers graduated East Mecklenburg High and was a two-sport athlete at JCSU – were a bonus.

“Coach Flowers’ passion for collegiate athletics and understanding of the role of sports in connecting colleges to their communities bring a fresh perspective to football at JCSU,” athletics director Steve Joyner said in a statement. “As a former Golden Bulls football and basketball athlete, coach Flowers has a love for his alma mater and is dedicated to building on a tradition that began in 1892 when JCSU won the first ever Black college football game.”

One trend that could work in JCSU’s favor is the growing trend of Division I schools tapping into the transfer portal as a recruiting tool. As scholarship opportunities for high school players shrink at the upper level in favor of experienced collegians, smaller programs have a better chance of snagging talent that can play immediately and contribute long term.

“So many coaches, because it’s a win-now situation with them at their schools, they’re really just using the portal and high school players – very good high school players – are getting left behind,” Flowers said. … “I’m going to build with the high school kid. I believe the situation that we’re in, we’re going to get a few from the portal if there’s a position that’s a must need for us, but I want to recruit the high school athlete and build them from year to year.”

Getting talent to JCSU also means upgrading facilities. Flowers said the school is committed to weight room, locker room and academic program improvements that closes the gap to Division II programs in the CIAA and neighboring South Atlantic Conference.

“Our president [Clarence Armbrister] and our AD, they know that we were going to make improvements,” Flowers said. “Football now is an arms race as far as who has good facilities and those things are so important with kids right now and parents … not just in season, but all year round. … There [are] so many things that go into building a championship program and when you really look at the teams that win on any level, they’re the teams that invest. No one’s winning by accident too much anymore.”

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