Verduzco on Quarterbacks

Mavric

Mavric

Yoda
Staff member
In this article: Albert Einstein, Alexander the Great, Joe Montana, "psychomotor", janitors, cheerleaders, pajamas ......

Six areas of focus:

1. He emphasizes leadership qualities in a quarterback.

"To me the essence of leadership is performance," Verduzco said. "Albert Einstein was a leader — maybe a reluctant leader. But because of his performance in physics, he had a lot of credibility. People listened to him. Alexander the Great was a tremendous leader. A proactive guy. By his performance and how he did things — albeit how young he was — he was a tremendous leader."

2. Verduzco takes the discussion a step further — actually, several steps further. A quarterback has to be a leader and performer in four domains of learning: affective, psychomotor, cognitive and physical.

3. Think about this for a second: "(Quarterbacks) have a want of power," he said. "They like to be in charge. So if you were to ask, 'What's the self-conscious goal of every quarterback?' It's the acquisition and retention of power. They like telling people what to do."

4. Oh, those damned interceptions. Tanner Lee threw 16 of them last season.

"As you (Nebraska football media) know as well as anybody in the country, we have to take care of the football," Verduzco said.

He mulls reasons why interceptions occur.

5. Because Verduzco needs quick-thinking QBs who are solid citizens and self-starters, he does detective work in recruiting.

He talks to janitors, school secretaries, cheerleaders, whoever it takes. Sometimes they reveal potential issues.

6. I wrote recently that Lee unwittingly takes full advantage of an aspect of modern football that's rather bizarre. That is, the process of evaluating (and touting) players based on what they do in combines, summer camps, seven-on-seven competitions and the like, as opposed to emphasizing what they do in 11-on-11 situations with, you know, tackling.

"It's all-too-common," Verduzco said. "It's one thing to play in pajamas, it's totally another when bullets are flying."
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LJS

 
Verduzco and Dewitt make for two of the most interesting coaches we've ever had, very heady guys. 

 
In comparison to the the last 2 coaching staff, this staff is way a head in the 'heady guys' category - starting at the top wt SF.   It seems they have everything though through to the final degree. 

 
gorp512 said:
To be fair, if Bob Diaco said this stuff it wouldn't be shocking. 

It's ok if Mario is the new Football Guy. Every staff needs one. 
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I was waiting for someone else to say it. I immediately thought of Diaco with some of this stuff. The difference with Verduzco, we hope, is that he's a good coach. He's shown to be that but Diaco did some good stuff before Nebraska too. Eccentric guys are fine as long as they don't suck at coaching.

Although I have to add - watching video interviews of Verduzco, he seems smart and way less full of crap than Diaco.

 
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Every time I see a picture of Coach Verduzco, he reminds of a mad scientist who somehow left the chemistry lab.  He looks like he'd be right at home amongst bunson burners and vials of acids and bases all around him.  I picture him standing over a cauldron with a bubbling concoction of unknown substances; he's wearing a lab coat, Dr. Hugo Strange glasses, and thick, heavy rubber gloves on his hands as he stares manically into the cauldron, willing his unholy creation to come to life.

 
Making Chimichangas said:
Every time I see a picture of Coach Verduzco, he reminds of a mad scientist who somehow left the chemistry lab.  He looks like he'd be right at home amongst bunson burners and vials of acids and bases all around him.  I picture him standing over a cauldron with a bubbling concoction of unknown substances; he's wearing a lab coat, Dr. Hugo Strange glasses, and thick, heavy rubber gloves on his hands as he stares manically into the cauldron, willing his unholy creation to come to life.
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Scientists don't use enough cauldrons.

 
Just as "the essence of leadership is performance" so to is "the essence of 'crazy crap football coaches say being acceptable' is performance." If Verduzco and his QBs perform well we will look at him like a genius. If not, I suspect he will be viewed similarly as Diaco.

In sum, everything is driven by performance and results.  

 
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When you've heard Scott Frost say it's too early to give a pecking order at quarterback, it's not just words to fill the air. Spring practices ended maybe, but Verduzco hasn't yet closed the book on his spring evaluations.

"The post-spring evaluation period will finish as soon as I get the numbers from the playbook test, and then I get the numbers from their strength development stuff with Coach (Zach) Duval," Verduzco told Husker247.

That will give him all the data to evaluate his QBs on the four domains of learning that he focuses on. Affective domain: relationships with coaches, teammates, media, etc. Psychomotor domain: mastering the repetitive physical movements of playing QB. Cognitive domain: knowing that playbook inside and out. Physical domain: weight room work, nutrition and such.

Verduzco will then sit down with each quarterback and go through his post-spring evaluation of them. Quarterbacks will sign that evaluation. It will be sent to their parents.

The coach doesn't know if any other QBs coach in the country does something like that, but he knows for sure why he does it this way.

"It's important for this reason: There's an objective, not subjective aspect to it, where I tell each quarterback, 'These are the things you need to improve on,'" Verduzco said. "And they're all maybe a little different within the framework of each of those domains. And then it's important that the parents are on the same page as the player, and the player is on the same page as me, and I'm on the same page as the parents."
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247

 
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Verduczo will only be responsible for one position on the team and not the entire defense like Diaco did. He also explains "the how" much more than Diaco did. He also has a thesis on the QB mechanics, whereas Diaco falsely claimed a master's degree while at Eastern Michigan. Outside of being Italian decent, both seem to be completely different. Besides Frost doesn't strike me as the type to employ a fluff at the team's most important position.

 
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