Which begs the question: Why does Nebraska recruit guys who sometimes aren’t traditional quarterbacks?
Verduzco said Thursday it’s a mix between a gut feeling and the quarterbacks “stroke” or throwing motion.
"You watch a guy and you ask yourself, 'Is he athletic? Can he do the things Coach (Scott) Frost and Coach (Troy) Walters expect a quarterback to be able to do in our offense, a la, Marcus Mariota, Vernon Adams, McKenzie Milton, so on and so forth,'" Verduzco said.
Some guys, he said, are so dynamic you have to take a good look at them, despite maybe not having a perfect throwing motion. That was the case when Verduzco was recruiting Central Florida quarterback McKenzie Milton, who on some recruiting sites was technically considered an athlete.
When watching tape, sometimes you can see a throwing motion that’s salvageable. Sometimes it takes a trip out to see a recruit to diagnose the stroke, Verduzco said, which is what he’s been doing the past few weeks on the recruiting trail.
“Coach Frost and I feel like if a guy has some issues — (Milton) had some issues when he first came — we’ll get them corrected,” Verduzco said. “We have the drill work that is designed to first diagnose the problem, then you got drills that are designed to medicate, train and polish his stroke. (Milton) went through that process with us.”
Verduzco flew out to Hawaii to watch Milton throw, thought his “stroke” was close enough, malleable enough, and Milton got the offer. Milton started as a true freshman, and as a sophomore in 2017 threw for 3,795 yards, completing 69 percent of his passes with 35 touchdowns. He finished eighth in Heisman Trophy voting.
