Taylor ISD on Monday night promoted defensive coordinator Earven Flowers to athletic director/head football coach at Taylor High School.

Flowers replaces Brandon Houston, who moved to a new role within Taylor ISD on March 1 after leading the Ducks for two seasons.

“Honestly it was just a relief to get the call," he said. "I’ve been working with these kids for a while and I’m just glad we got it done.

“My first two years here, we went 0-20, but Coach Houston did a great job. He steadied the program and got all our sports on the right page and being successful. I felt like in the process, my big selling point was keeping things going, keep the continuity in place, because we are on the right track."

A native of Temple, Flowers played at the University of Kentucky where he was a three-year starter for the Wildcats and a team captain.

Flowers began his coaching career as an assistant coach at Rosebud-Lott, before moving to his native Temple where served as a middle school coach in Temple ISD. He then moved to Belton where spent five seasons on staff at Belton working with the secondary and eventually getting the co-defensive coordinator title.

In 2019, Flowers came to Taylor where he’s served as the defensive coordinator under two different head coaches.

“We are going to bring the juice," Flowers saiid. "I want the kids to have fun, play with class, but you’ve got to have energy when you play football. I want us to be a tough team; we are going to work hard in the weight room. I learned that in Temple and Belton and have brought that with me here. I want people when they play Taylor to say, 'man that’s a tough team.'"