This should’ve been a week of celebration for Quinton Flowers. Tuesday, USF head coach Willie Taggart announced that he would be giving the true freshman his first career start at quarterback this weekend against SMU.
Instead of celebrating, Flowers is mourning.
According to the Miami Herald, 24-year-old Bradley Holt was shot and killed outside of a Miami apartment complex Thursday evening. The Herald reports that Holt was playing the role of “Good Samaritan” in trying to protect a group of children from men driving erratically in a suspicious vehicle. When Holt “shouted at the persons inside the vehicle in order to protect [the children],” police said, one of the occupants opened fire and shot Holt in the head.
Holt, as it turns out, is the half-brother of Flowers, who took to social media to express his grief.
“Its crazy how when things go good for me but a blood member have to get took away,” Flowers wrote in Facebook. “R.I.P. BIG BRA BRAD Playing for you this week.”
In a press release, the school subsequently confirmed that Flowers will travel to Dallas for tomorrow’s game. What wasn’t explicitly stated was whether the plan of starting Flowers remains in place.
“The thoughts and prayers of everyone in our football program and the USF family are with Quinton and his family as they cope with this senseless tragedy,” Taggart said in a statement. “Quinton is a special young man who has had to endure far more at his young age than anyone should. We will do everything we can to help see him through this very difficult loss.”
Unfortunately, tragedy is something to which Flowers has become accustomed. His father was murdered when he was seven, while his mother succumbed to cancer a couple of years ago. In fact, as noted by the Tampa Bay Times, Flowers was the subject of an article on the school’s official website the very same day his brother was murdered. The title?