Touchdowns And Flowers: The South Florida Bulls’ All-Time Great Passers

South Florida quarterback Quinton Flowers set a touchdown passing record that could stand for a time in Tampa. But before Flowers blossomed as the Bulls' best gunslinger in program history, a trio of other QBs fought over the TD mark. Let's look at some of USF's best-ever passers, and the hero who eclipsed them all.

QB Marquel Blackwell did more than set the standard for all USF signal-callers to come. Blackwell did so much for South Florida Bulls pigskin that his record-setting performances are just part of the story.

Blackwell took the helm as a freshman when the USF Bulls were transitioning from Division II to Division I in 1999. Despite the challenge, the St. Petersburg native flourished as a dual-threat weapon, leading the Bulls to 17 combined wins in 2001 and 2002, building a program that would soon be welcomed into Conference USA, and later, the Big East. Blackwell set a Y2K-era program record with 67 TD passes, combined with a tremendous 21 rushing scores. He finished his South Florida career with 9,108 passing yards, and went on to spend time with the New York Jets in the 2003 season and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2004.

Furthering a successful coaching career that followed his playing days, Blackwell is currently employed as the running backs coach at South Carolina.

Quarterback Matt Grothe lifted USF into Big East contention in the 2000s and helped make South Florida into a bowl winner in three of head coach Jim Leavitt's final four years with the program. Also known for his fast feet, Grothe would score 23 rushing TDs in three and a half years as the Bulls' starting QB. When he posted a meek pass-completion percentage of 59.2% in his sophomore year of 2007, analysts were skeptical that Grothe would turn into an elite passer. Boy, were they proven wrong in a hurry.

Grothe had a breakout season through the air in 2008, improving to 63.2%, and throwing 18 TD passes to go with 591 rushing yards and four rushing TDs. Grothe's honors as an upperclassman included a spot on the Manning Award watch list and the MVP award from the 2008 St. Petersburg Bowl. Regretfully, an ACL tear stole Grothe's senior season after a 3-0 start, before he could break Blackwell's record for TD tosses. Grothe threw 52 TD passes at South Florida despite the injury, the same number as QB B.J. Daniels.

One of the longest-employed NFL athletes to hail from Tampa's program, South Florida quarterback B.J. Daniels' intimidating frame (6 feet, 217 pounds) gave USF a power-running option from the QB spot, in contrast to a typical dual threat. Daniels took over for the injured Grothe in 2009 and kept the Bulls winning bowl games under Leavitt and Skip Holtz. His 25 rushing touchdowns broke Blackwell's program record at the time.

Daniels impressed NFL scouts by throwing for 52 touchdowns while keeping his yearly interception totals low. He finished with single-digit INTs in two of his four seasons as the starter. The Tallahassee native went on to be active for eight NFL games between the Seahawks and Texans, most notably serving as Seattle's scout-team quarterback in their 2013 Super Bowl-winning season.

Quarterback Quinton Flowers never got as consistent as Grothe in passing the ball, and he wasn't always as reliable a rusher as any of the three QBs listed above. But when he was on his game, the streaky quarterback's ability was the best thing to ever happen to USF Bulls football behind center. It's no coincidence that in Flowers' second year as a starter, South Florida had its best season of college football on record.

Flowers' downfield arm was so dangerous that he might have broken USF's passing touchdown record as a junior in 2016, had he played as much as an underclassman as the Bulls' other fabled QBs. Flowers passed for 49 TDs over his last two seasons while rushing for 27 more, obliterating campus records with 71 career touchdown tosses and 112 combined TDs by ground and air.

Flowers was the driving force behind head coach Willie Taggart's Birmingham Bowl-winning team of 2016. The field general was named Offensive Player of the Year in the American Athletic Conference after scoring 42 combined TDs that season, leading USF to its finest-ever 11-2 record and a tie for first place in the AAC. Flowers and the Bulls went on to defeat South Carolina 46-39 in a thrilling Birmingham Bowl contest, with the quarterback throwing a 25-yard touchdown pass to manufacture the winning points in overtime.

It's no wonder South Carolina hired a USF quarterback for its coaching staff.