All-time Great Blackwell Returns To Face Bulls in 25th Anniversary Season
By Joey Johnston
It's homecoming week for the USF Bulls. Talk about appropriate timing. Marquel Blackwell, one of the best quarterbacks in USF history, is coming home.
Blackwell is running backs coach for the No. 20-ranked Houston Cougars (7-1, 5-0), who face USF (2-6, 1-3) in Saturday night's American Athletic Conference game at Raymond James Stadium.
"It's the first time in my life to be on that other sideline,'' Blackwell said with a laugh. "I might need directions. Even in the spring game, I don't think I was ever on that sideline.
"It's good to come back home. I'm sure I'll get to see some familiar faces. But, hey, we'll have a job to do.''
Nothing new there.
Blackwell, a St. Petersburg native and one of USF's original #BayMade stars, did a magnificent job as a four-year starter for the Bulls (1999-2002). That's when USF's up-and-coming program transitioned from the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) to an independent in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS).
Living in both worlds for a time, Blackwell helped to engineer a victory against FCS No. 1 Troy State, along with USF's first monumental upset, a 35-26 triumph at Pittsburgh that ESPN described as "the worst loss in Pittsburgh's 111-season football history.''
"The bottom line is it didn't matter that we were a young program,'' Blackwell said. "We had good players, Florida players, and we were willing to take on anybody. And every team we lined up against, we thought we were going to win.''
Winning. It's something that Blackwell did particularly well at USF, which was 30-12 with him as the starter. In 2002, the Bulls were 9-2, losing only at Oklahoma (No. 2 at the time, finishing No. 4 and winning the Rose Bowl) and Arkansas (which played in the SEC Championship Game). Those Bulls defeated No. 25-ranked Bowling Green (and a young head coach named Urban Meyer), while going 4-0 against teams from Conference USA, a league USF officially joined in 2003.
"I would put our 2002 team up against any of the USF teams,'' Blackwell said. "We were good on offense, good on defense, good on special teams. We had a killer instinct and a bunch of tough guys who hated to lose. That team deserved better.''
The 2002 Bulls, because they weren't in a conference, were denied a bowl bid. There was a slight opening, a conditional bid to the Hawaii Bowl. It depended on the result of an East Carolina-Cincinnati game. Bulls players gathered at a restaurant to watch and a USF-to-the-Hawaii Bowl news release had been prepared, just in case. But the game went the other way — and USF was left with nothing.
It seemed unfair that Blackwell — along with many other USF senior luminaries such as linebacker Kawika Mitchell and wide receiver DeAndrew Rubin — couldn't play in the postseason.
The accomplishments of Blackwell's USF era are secure. He accounted for 10,343 total yards and 87 touchdowns with the most career starts (42) of any USF quarterback. He remains USF's career leader in passing yards (9,108), attempts (1,417) and completions (795). He threw for 67 career touchdown passes and had a USF-record five at East Carolina in 2002. He rushed for 1,235 career yards and 20 touchdowns, while going a USF-record 235 consecutive pass attempts without an interception in 2001.
But his true shining moment was the 2001 upset win at Pittsburgh, when he completed 37 of 65 passes for 343 yards.
"We all had a chip on our shoulder,'' Blackwell said. "We were a confident group. We believed in what we had going on as a program. Not trying to sound arrogant and cocky, but we believed we could compete with anybody in the country. Obviously, we had a lot of good football players. We did not fear anybody.''
Blackwell sat in the stands for USF's initial game, an 80-3 victory against Kentucky Wesleyan in 1997. He was a USF staff member under Jim Leavitt, Skip Holtz and Willie Taggart. He worked with Matt Grothe and was involved in the recruitment of B.J. Daniels. He was present for many of USF's biggest victories, such as the wins at Florida State and Notre Dame, and the bowl triumph against Clemson.
After his first USF coaching staff season, serving as Taggart's director of player development in 2013, Blackwell has been an assistant coach at Florida, Toledo, West Virginia and now Houston. He considers it a sweet irony to once again head to Tampa Bay, the native home to himself and his wife, Sharvettye.
Blackwell said he has followed the nostalgia of USF's 25th anniversary season and considers it an honor to be part of the Bulls' quarterback fraternity.
"It's interesting to me that USF has had several four-year starting quarterbacks between myself, Matt Grothe, B.J. Daniels and Quinton Flowers (who actually was a three-year starter),'' Blackwell said. "That's 16 of the 25 years. That's a lot of stability at that position. Not many programs have had that.
"I think we were a bunch of tough quarterbacks. Maybe a little undersized, maybe a little under-recruited. We all started a lot of games, even when we were hurt, and did what was asked. We at Houston have a lot of respect for what has been accomplished at USF. Obviously, I do because I was part of it. I've been a lot of places, but it's still my hometown.''
And that makes for an intriguing homecoming angle.
Marquel Blackwell, one of the best to ever do it at USF, is coming home.
