Matt Canada to be Maryland's Offensive Coordinator

Submitted by The Wolverine … on
college-football/story/_/id/22190865/maryland-hires-former-lsu-offensive-coordinator-matt-canada

I Like Burgers

January 23rd, 2018 at 6:42 PM ^

You do realize you're using the same "wearing out his welcome" nonsense people use with Harbaugh, right?

Canada bouncing around to different schools has a whole lot more to do with him looking for new jobs after staff changes and moving up the ranks quickly than it does with him being "difficult to work with."  From 2004-2010, he was a longtime Indiana offensive assistant and OC under a few coaches including Bill Lynch who was fired in 2010.  Canada landed at No. Illinois in 2011 for a year, moved up to Wisconsin for 2012, and then had to look for a new job again when Bert left for Arkansas and didn't take Canada because of different offensive philosophies. 

He landed at NC State for 3 seasons, got a better offer to join Narduzzi's new staff in 2016, then got an even better offer to join Da Coach O at LSU.  Coach O, being the super smart guy he is, didn't want to run the offense of the guy he hired to run his offense (which is a very Rich Rod move), so he forced him out.

The only falling outs he had were with Bert and Orgeron who hired him to run an offense he doesn't run.  But yeah...."super difficult to work with."

jmblue

January 24th, 2018 at 12:02 AM ^

It's not as simple as the poster above suggests.  He didn't just leave NC State, he was fired.  He had a good year at Pitt, then bolted for LSU, where he was fired again.  And now he's at a lesser P5 program, for what will be his fourth job in four years.  That is not analogous to Harbaugh.

 

CrayonBrainedHomer

January 24th, 2018 at 6:46 AM ^

The previous posters analogy is not intended to suggest that Canadas career runs perfectly paralel and is identical to Harbaughs. To imply that the clearly intended point of his analogy was broader is intelectually lazy or dishonest.

The clear point was that bouncing around is not not ipso facto good or bad and requires closer inspection. People failed to do this with Harbaugh and you are doing the same with Canada.

This closer inspection was provided by him and largely ignored by you.  Disagreements with Dave "The Dumbass" Doeren, Bert Bielema, and Coach Orangutan aren't necessarily a bad thing.  They are actually a mark of having an IQ.

As for ending up with DJ Durkin at Maryland, it may just be that he had "better" offers, but was tired of working with morons(of which there are many in the coaching ranks). 

 

With excellent coaching on both sides of the ball and decent $ backing, Maryland may end up being a team that can overachieve relative to their historical standards and springboard Canada to a head coaching gig if he so desires. Certainly dealing with bright young guy like Durkin vs Coach 0 and co will improve quality of life and prevent meddling/fucking things up.

CLion

January 23rd, 2018 at 6:56 PM ^

I remember. They had Piggy who was awesome and won that game vs. Texas before getting hurt. And the backup Kasim Hill looked pretty good too before he also got hurt. They may not translate very well but both of those kids looked very dynamic.

BroadneckBlue21

January 23rd, 2018 at 7:38 PM ^

As I live in Maryland, they have Kasim Hill, who is a star in the making. He got injured after taking over as starter in one game. Maryland almost had OSU’s Haskins, until Meyer ripped him away. Plenty of local talent for Canada tonrecruit to MD. Since Durkin is not an O’s guy, this is a great hire.

XiX

January 23rd, 2018 at 6:06 PM ^

It'll be interesting to see how the spring/summer plays out with Drevno, Pep, Enos, and Warriner along with Harbaugh. Lot's of voices but can they come up with a coherent scheme that will put the offense in positions to win? That's the proverbial Million dollar question.

I'm still trusting Harbaugh to get things corrected but I'm wondering if he's putting too much on the offense and they're drowning in the complexity of the scheme.

corundum

January 23rd, 2018 at 5:48 PM ^

Hell of a hire by Durkin and a perfect situation for Canada, since he works best when he has full control of the offense without input from the HC.

Stringer Bell

January 23rd, 2018 at 6:04 PM ^

Man, Durkin is recruiting well and making some good coaching hires.  If Maryland's QBs stay healthy they could be pretty tough next year.

If we continue with the Pep/Drevno experience at OC this will be very disappointing.

DrMantisToboggan

January 23rd, 2018 at 6:33 PM ^

I don't know. I thought he was great when he got to Michigan, but we lost one player on an otherwise solid defense and the unit cratered against the remaining competent offenses on the schedule. He's never going to recruit at a top 15 level, and if he keeps them at a top 25 level that's incredible for Maryland, but I'm not sure that he's a good enough defensive mind to win without elite talent. He's not a Don Brown mind that could whip up a top 5 unit out of nobodies. I don't think he's a good enough DC to do anything better than 7-5 as long as they're in the East.

Mr Miggle

January 23rd, 2018 at 6:22 PM ^

It looks like a good move under the circumstances, but I think Maryland would have been better off if Durkin could have kept the OC he already had.

I was impressed by the job Walt Bell did. Willie Taggert has done well raiding the Big Ten. Possibly getting some well informed advice on his targets? I'd bet he could have hired Canada instead if he wanted him.

 

 

stephenrjking

January 23rd, 2018 at 6:53 PM ^

Canada is a good coach but his scheme is quite different from what Maryland had been recruiting and I wonder how well this will work. Now, it's possible that Canada can adapt a bit to the mobile QBs and OL situation he's equipped with (his offenses haven't been spread-type things but he has also been working for under-center style HCs with under-center style rosters) but if he wants to line up with multiple TEs in I formations I would expect a lot of growing pains.

I felt like Maryland was ascending, in large part because their offense was building with young talent and good coaching. I wonder if that trend will continue.

Swazi

January 23rd, 2018 at 6:22 PM ^

Maryland is gonna be that team that wins the conference every once in a while and that really tells you how good of a coach Durkin really is. Canada is a great hire for them.

JonnyHintz

January 23rd, 2018 at 6:32 PM ^

10-15 while taking over a 3-9 Maryland team in THIS division and having terrible injury luck. There’s more to judging the job a coach is doing than wins and losses. Especially two years in. The circumstances are just as important

DrMantisToboggan

January 23rd, 2018 at 6:38 PM ^

Maryland was 17-21 in the 3 years before Durkin. I know he did not inherit a blue blood program, but unless he goes 8-5 this year, then he hasn't been an improvement over Edsall. The circumstances are different, and Durkin's program feels like he's an improvement, but I don't think he's out of the job-security-woods yet.