TAMPA, Fla. — Having an athletic quarterback can be a powerful weapon.

The Falcons know this because they have one of their own, but Josh Harris was not the story on Saturday night. USF’s quarterback Marquel Blackwell was the story.

He did everything. He rushed, passed, punted and even tipped a pass to himself late in the game.

“Athletic quarterbacks are hard to find and are hard to stop,” said head coach Urban Meyer.

Blackwell carried the ball nine times for 56 yards and completed 21 of 40 passes for a total of 220 passing yards.

Overall the Bulls had a total of 84 offensive plays for 383 yards. “You think we held them to that many yards and three or four pass interference penalties and he scrambled around,” Meyer said. “I thought we played very good defense. Are athletic quarterbacks going to get some yards? Yeah. If we do what we’re supposed to on offense this game is down to the wire.”

But the Falcons’ offense wasn’t able to do anything, therefore Blackwell controlled the game.

In the third quarter he reached 10,000 yards for his career on a 7-yard pass to DeAndrew Rubin. He also ran his streak of consecutive pass attempts without an interception to 199.

“He’s a good player,” said USF head coach Jim Leavitt. “He’s been a great leader for us. I thought he did a great job of moving and running on key third downs, he kept moving the chains. That was probably the best he’s run all year in key situations. He’s very courageous, he’s a great leader, he’s a tremendous quarterback and I’m glad that we still have him. He’s awfully good. I’m just really proud of him.”

Blackwell is now 29-12 as the starter at USF.