With four decades of football coaching experience including working with veterans Bill Walsh and Terry Shea, Mario Verduzco joined the UCF coaching staff as the Knights' quarterbacks coach in December of 2015.
Verduzco mentored quarterback McKenzie Milton to the best season ever by a UCF quarterback in 2017. Milton's play was instrumental in the performance of an offense that exploded in 2017. The Knights' offensive output helped lead to UCF's first-ever undefeated regular season, a victory in the 2017 American Athletic Conference Championship game and a berth in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl. The Knights scored more than 60 points a school-record four times, while putting up 50 or more a school-record five times. UCF scored a school-record 73 points in a victory over Austin Peay on Oct. 28, 2017.
The following is a look at the Knights' national rankings for 2017:
2017 Offensive Stats (National Ranking)
- Scoring Offense - 49.4 (1st)
- Total Offense - 540.4 (5th)
- 3rd Down Conversions - 45.7% (16th)
- First Downs - 307 (10th)
- Fumbles Lost - 5 (16th)
- Passing Offense - 339.3 (7th)
- Rushing Offense - 201.2 (34th)
- Sacks Allowed - 1.00 (7th)
- Passing Efficiency - 183.66 (2nd)
- Turnovers Lost - 14 (25th)
- Turnover Margin - +12.5 (2nd)
Under Verduzco's leadership, Milton earned All-America honors, American Athletic Conference Offensive Player of the Year accolades and an eighth-place finish in Heisman Trophy voting.
Milton re-wrote the UCF record book for quarterback play during his sophomore season. He tossed 35 touchdowns to establish a new single-season school record. A single-season mark for passing yardage was also established at 3,795 yards. He set an American Athletic Conference Championship game record with five touchdown passes. Milton tallied seven 300-yard passing games during 2017, tying the UCF record.
In addition to the school records, Milton was statistically one of the top quarterbacks in the nation. He ranked No. 2 in the nation in completion percentage, No. 2 in passing efficiency, No. 4 in passing touchdowns, No. 5 in passing yards per completion, No. 5 in total offense, No. 6 in points responsible for, No. 6 in passing yards, No. 9 passing yards per game andNo. 25 in completions per game, (All statistics, records noted are prior to the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl)
Milton became the starter in 2016 as a true freshman. With veteran quarterback Justin Holman injured early in the year, Milton took over in the third game of the season. Under Verduzco's leadership, Milton recorded more completions than any other UCF freshman in the history of the program with 194. Milton also finished the year fourth all-time among UCF freshmen with 10 touchdowns and 1,983 passing yards. His completion percentage of 57.7 was also the fourth best in a season for a freshman with the Knights.
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 made 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 served as recruiting coordinator. During his time in Piscataway, he coached Mike McMahon who later played for the Detroit Lions.
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
2016 -- UCF -- Quarterbacks
As of December 2017