Mike Cordaro (born 1957) is a former

American football American football, referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada and also known as gridiron football, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular American football field, field with goalposts at e ...

player. He started as quarterback for the

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

Longhorns in 1976.

Early life

Mike Cordaro played high school football at San Antonio Highlands High School. Though he would play quarterback in college, he didn't in high school where he was a kicker and played defensive back.

College career

Mike Cordaro came to Texas in 1975 without being recruited by the school and walked on to the team. His only scholarship offers had been to play baseball and football at Angelo State or to play at the junior college level at Bee County or Ranger. In his freshman year he didn't even make the roster and was redshirted, but by the following season he'd become the starting quarterback. Cordaro was originally placed on the defensive team of the scout team and he requested to be moved to the offensive team. During summer practices in 1975, secondary coach Timmy Doerr spotted him playing catch with other walk-ons and Head Coach

Darrell Royal Darrell K Royal (July 6, 1924 – November 7, 2012) was an American college football player, coach, and athletics administrator. He served as the head football coach at Mississippi State University from 1954 to 1955, the University of Washington ...

had him added as a quarterback. In the spring of 1976, he was battling

Randy McEachern Randy McEachern (born October 5, 1955) is a former American football player. He started as quarterback for the Texas Longhorns. He started the 1977 season as the 4th string quarterback on an unranked team and finished as the starter of the #1 t ...

for the backup roll behind

Ted Constanzo Ted Louis Constanzo (born c. 1956) is an American former football player who started as quarterback and later at punter for the Texas Longhorns in the late 1970s. Early life Ted Constanzo was a star quarterback at Churchill High School in San ...

. He played surprisingly well in the spring finale and entered summer as the #2 quarterback. McEachern injured his knee in August and after an extremely close competition, Royal settled on Cordaro for the starting job over sophomore Constanzo who had started several games the previous year. He became the only walk on to ever start as quarterback for Royal, though he had been given a scholarship in the spring before he played. The Longhorns entered the season as the favorite to win the Southwest Conference Championship. The team featured future Heisman Trophy winner

Earl Campbell Earl Christian Campbell (born March 29, 1955), nicknamed "the Tyler Rose", is an American former professional football running back who played in the National Football League (NFL) for eight seasons, primarily with the Houston Oilers. Known f ...

and Olympic gold medalist

Lam Jones John Wesley "Lam" Jones (April 4, 1958 – March 15, 2019) was an American athlete who won a gold medal in the 4 × 100 meter relay at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal and played professional football in the National Football League ( ...

. But when Earl Campbell pulled a hamstring in the opening game, and Texas was upset, the season started to slip away. Cordaro started the first seven games that season, including a 6-6 tie to #3 Oklahoma. But Royal lost confidence in him, pulling him in the first quarter against Texas Tech and trying two other signal callers in a 30-0 loss to Houston the following week. The following week, Constanzo was named the starter, though Cordaro saw significant playing time, in an embarrassing 30-0 loss to Houston. That led to both Cordaro and Constanzo being benched for the rest of the season in favor of true freshman Mark McBath. Cordaro would throw one more pass, incomplete, against TCU that season, and it would be the last time he'd play for Texas. He finished with a 3-2-1 record. It wound up being Darrell Royal's last season too. In 1977, he skipped much of spring drills to try his hand at baseball and thus was never in contention for the starter's job the following season, so instead he redshirted. In 1978, under coach

Fred Akers Frederick Sanford Akers (March 17, 1938 – December 7, 2020) was an American football player and coach. He served as head football coach at the University of Wyoming (1975–1976), the University of Texas at Austin (1977–1986), and Purdue Uni ...

, he transitioned to offensive end and the next year to wide receiver, but after the 1976 season he never took the field again.

References

External links

Texas stats
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cordaro, Mike Living people American football quarterbacks Texas Longhorns football players Players of American football from Texas 1957 births