With 39 years of football coaching experience including working with veterans Bill Walsh and Terry Shea, Mario Verduzco (ver-doo-skoh) has been announced as UCF’s quarterbacks coach on Tuesday.
ORLANDO, FLORIDA (UCFKnights.com) – With 39 years of football coaching experience including working with veterans Bill Walsh and Terry Shea, Mario Verduzco (ver-doo-skoh) has been announced as UCF’s quarterbacks coach on Tuesday.
Scott Frost
“When I became a quarterback coach again after coaching a lot of other positions, Mario was the first one I went to in order to brush up on quarterback fundamentals and coaching the position,” UCF head coach Scott Frost said.
“He’s the best I’ve ever been around in terms of getting a quarterback ready to play. A lot of the things I taught (Oregon quarterbacks) Marcus Mariota and Vernon Adams were what I learned from Mario.”
Verduzco’s most recent stop on the coaching circuit before Orlando was as the Missouri State offensive coordinator, and prior to that spent 14 years at Northern Iowa as the quarterbacks coach (2001-14) and co-offensive coordinator (2006-14). Two of those seasons were with Frost, who was the UNI linebackers coach in 2007 and the defensive coordinator in 2008.
With the UNI Panthers, the program won six Missouri Valley titles and make eight trips to the FCS playoffs. Verduzco helped mentor seven quarterbacks who earned all-conference accolades a total of 13 times. Five of those signal-callers were named as either the league’s freshman or newcomer of the year.
One of Verduzco’s top athletes was Eric Sanders who was a 2007 Walter Payton Award finalist, which goes out to the best offensive player in the FCS, and the MVFC Offensive Player of the Year. Sanders finished his collegiate career ranked No. 1 all-time among FCS quarterbacks with a 69.6 completion percentage, and held the school records with 714 completions and 9,579 total offensive yards. Sanders also set the FCS single-season record with a 75.2 completion percentage in 2007.
In all, Northern Iowa had a winning record in 12 of 14 seasons with Verduzco on staff.
Verduzco was at the FBS level at Rutgers from 1996-00 where he worked with the quarterbacks and also serving as recruiting coordinator. During his time in Piscataway, he coached Mike McMahon who later played for the Detroit Lions.
Mario Verduzco
California served as Verduzco’s coaching home from 1977-95. He was the offensive coordinator, quarterback and receivers coach at De Anza College for three seasons (1991-93) before taking over as head coach for 1994 and 1995. While coaching at De Anza, he spent time with both Walsh and Shea as they conducted a private NFL quarterback camp.
Verduzco made a stop at San Jose State as a graduate assistant from 1990-91, was the offensive coordinator at Gavilan College during the 1987-89 seasons and spent 10 years at Soquel High School from 1977-86.
Verduzco has coached four quarterbacks who have gone on to play in the NFL.
Hailing from Pittsburg, Calif., Verduzco earned a bachelor’s degree in human performance from San Jose State in 1988, and a master’s degree in biomechanics and exercise physiology from SJSU in 1990. He is married to Cate, and they have a son, Charles.
Coaching Experience
1977-78 – Soquel (Calif.) High School – Defensive Backs
1979-81 – Soquel (Calif.) High School – Defensive Coordinator/Defensive Backs/Linebackers
1982-86 – Soquel (Calif.) High School – Pass Offense Coordinator/Quarterbacks/Receivers/Defensive Coordinator/Defensive Backs/Linebackers
1987-89 – Gavilan College (Calif.) – Offensive Coordinator/Quarterbacks/Receivers
1990-91 – San Jose State – Graduate Assistant
1991-93 – De Anza College (Calif.) – Associate Head Coach/Offensive Coordinator/Quarterbacks/Receivers
1994-95 – De Anza College (Calif.) – Head Coach
1996-99 – Rutgers – Assistant Quarterbacks/Recruiting Coordinator
2000 – Rutgers – Quarterbacks/Recruiting Coordinator
2001-05 – Northern Iowa – Quarterbacks
2006-14 – Northern Iowa – Co-Offensive Coordinator/Quarterbacks
2015 – Missouri State – Offensive Coordinator/Quarterbacks
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ABOVE VIDEO:Scott Frost’s introductory press conference last week.
