LINCOLN, Neb. — On one side of the glass is the weight room where Nebraska football players grunt and clang their way through their workouts.
On the other, opera music plays from desktop computer speakers, the majestic voices of Andrea Bocelli and Luciano Pavarotti — Pava-row-tee, as the office’s occupant says — a constant soundtrack.
Beside the glass overlooking the weight room, a dresser showcases three dozen books, neatly positioned around a jar of Tootsie Pops. This is no typical football library, aside from the half-dozen books by or about Bill Walsh. The rest of the collection seemingly has nothing to do with the sport. There are multiple works by Friedrich Nietzsche, books on religion, on biomechanics and on focus. One book is titled, “Motor Control and Learning”, written by Richard A. Schmidt, a former nationally ranked college gymnast-turned UCLA scientist.
This is the office of Mario Verduzco, the second-year quarterbacks coach at Nebraska. He is 63, has thick, gray, feathered hair and wears round-framed glasses much like the ones favored by John Lennon. Verduzco is prone to slipping off his shoes while discussing the throwing motion and rattling off philosophical quotes and physics formulas. He cites Schmidt’s name and his work while talking about the intricacies of the quarterback position to the point where one wonders if the late UCLA professor should be considered one of the godfathers of quarterback coaching.
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