There's a situation here in Pittsburgh football. No, with not Pitt, the situation there hasn't changed in forty years, with their Heinz roomies the "Stillers." "Stillers" lost today in Green Bay. It was the pro club's third straight loss. They have scored 23, 17, 10, and 17 points in their 1-3 start. I don't even know how you do that with Ben Roethslisberger your QB. Ain't gonna win many National Concussion League games scoring an average of 17 ppg, and the "Stillers" ain't win many.
Now, mebbe it's just unfortunate coincidence, they have lost eight of their last ten going back to last COVID season (which I didn't realize and which shocks me) but "Stillers" have a new offensive coordinator this year. Matt Canada, ex-Pitt. I noted Roethslisberger said in explanation of an earlier failure to generate much O "Well, we have a new coordinator, a new system." He mentioned something else, maybe players out on the line, but he definitely said that.
I believe that I am the world's biggest promoter of Matt Canada so today's result in addition to the rest of this season's games is a stark reversal. Did Matt Canada have one good year as an assistant, at Pitt in 2016? Was that it, the Canada high water mark never to be equaled again? The questions come naturally and reasonably. Canada was surprisingly let go by North Carolina State. Pat Narduzzi brought him on staff at Pitt and it was frigging Showtime. I still have not seen anything like that transformation in my 45 years of watching foo'ball. Canada was named a finalist for the award that goes to the nation's top assistant coach. Then, to wailing and the gnashing of teeth in Pittsburgh Canada said bye for the Bayou. Lasted one season before "Ed" "Orgeron", on whom Canada was forced, fired him. Then Maryland where he was OC, and then HC when scandal forced the resignation of the HC. Canada was absolutely superb. But, a little understandably, the MD admin wanted a new start and passed him over for the head man job. Then the "Stillers" as QB coach and for this year Mike Tomlin promoted Canada to O-coordinator. The only negative thing I'm aware of being said about Canada is that he's difficult to work with. It is my distinct impression that that was not a problem at Pitt and that the problem at LSU was that "Ed" "Orgeron" is an asshole. But he was fired at NC State by Dave Doeren, who he had worked for at Northern Illinois in 2011 and then for three years, 2013 through 2015. In his one year at NIU the team went 11-3. He then decamped for Wisconsin in 2012. The "Boogers" finished 8-6 but won the B1G championship 70-31 over Nebraska. He then reunited with Doeren in Raleigh. In his three years there the team was 18-20. It was not dissatisfaction with the job Canada did at NC State that got him fired. Apparently he had angered Doeren by interviewing for the same position at Tennessee in 2014. Doeren let him go at the end of the 2015 season. From Sports Illustrated in January 2015:
NC State and offensive coordinator Matt Canada have agreed to a three-year extension, reports SI's Pete Thamel.
From SI January 2016:
According to Thamel, interest in Canada from a "major power" prompted the deal. ESPN's Brett McMurphy reports that Canada was one of three finalists for the offensive coordinator job at Tennessee.
The surprising move by Wolfpack coach Dave Doeren comes on the heels of his team being third in the ACC in scoring this season (33.2 points per game) behind only North Carolina and Clemson. That ranks 38th in the FBS this season.
Under Canada, North Carolina State is also 32nd nationally in rushing yards per game this season (201.4). Last season, his offense averaged 6 yards per play and racked up 5,311 yards of total offense, second- and fourth-best respectively in school history.
The Wolfpack also had 2,659 rushing yards last year, the fourth highest total in school history. The past two seasons Canada has also helped rejuvenate the career of graduating starting quarterback Jacoby Brissett.
We can conclude from this history that Canada has a perpetual wandering eye but I would have thought results would trump that distraction. They did at Pitt! "Panther" officialdom did not want him to leave. But now the "Steelers" and a clearly out-of-sync offense. Now, I don't really know what the story is with Matt.
