The purge begins.
Hat tip to our message forums where this news was already being discussed.
I remember getting intel in 2013 (Doeren’s first year) that he and Canada had disagreements and my connections didn’t expect Canada to make it to 2014. With this as a backdrop, it doesn’t surprise me that this is the first shoe to drop in what I expect to be a bit of an overhaul on Coach Doeren’s staff.
N.C. State’s football team will have a new offensive coordinator next season.
Assistant coach Matt Canada has been “relieved of his duties” after three seasons with the school, according to an athletic department spokesperson early Sunday morning.
Sports Illustrated was the first to report about Canada’s departure, which comes three days after N.C. State ended a disappointing 7-6 season with a 51-28 loss to Mississippi State in the Belk Bowl.
N.C. State’s offense had its share of success under Canada, who was also the quarterbacks coach. The Wolfpack ranked No. 31 in the country in rushing offense this season and averaged more than 200 rushing yards in back-to-back seasons. Prior to last season, N.C. State hadn’t averaged 200 rushing yards per game since 1992.
This season, the Wolfpack averaged 33.2 points per game, which was third most in the ACC this season.
But N.C. State’s offense also sputtered in some of its biggest games and Canada had a tendency to forget about his best players. The Wolfpack was held to 13 points in critical ACC losses to Louisville and Virginia Tech early in October when running back Matt Dayes was still healthy.
Sophomore running back Jaylen Samuels ran for two touchdowns in the bowl loss but only had three carries in the game. Samuels, who led the team with 16 touchdowns, was on the field for only 31 snaps in the 20-13 loss to Louisville on Oct. 3. He finished that game with five catches for 75 yards, and a touchdown, but had no rushing attempts.
Canada previously worked with N.C. State head coach Dave Doeren at Northern Illinois. Canada received a new three-year contract last January after Tennessee had interest in hiring him for the same position. Canada’s base salary was $560,000 for the 2015 season and was scheduled to increase to $615,000 on July 1.
Last month, Canada interviewed with East Carolina for their head-coaching position, which was eventually filled by Duke offensive coordinator Scottie Montgomery.
Next season, N.C. State could have as many as seven starters returning from this year’s offense but has to break in a new quarterback and replace three senior linemen.
I never thought Canada was that bad of an offensive coordinator…but, I think that Doeren needs to make wholesale changes to the staff and I welcome any moves that are designed to fix what our problems. I’d label our offense as ‘inconsistent’ as there would be games, or even stretches of the schedule, where the offense was grossly inconsistent. There were just way too many times that the offense didn’t feel like it was flowing at all and that we were trying to force fit puzzle pieces that weren’t meant for each other.
Additionally, there is no arguing that Jacoby Brissett did no improve over last year, and our pass game went backwards. Of course, the weak wide receiving corp and offensive line have impacts on this, but you can’t ignore Brissett’s role in the weak passing game.
I’m elevating this quote from choppack from our message forums:
As someone who has been baffled many times with Canada, I find his release very perplexing if hux is allowed to stay. So what you want about Canada, but he has shown signs of genius. He has shown he can do his part in engineering upsets…the same can’t be said about hux thus far in his tenure in Raleigh.
Of course, hux may be fired tomorrow. If that happens, what does it say about the head coach that he has to fire BOTH coordinators that he had hired 3 years into his tenure.
So, where might NC State turn for the replacement? One thing is for certain – there will be a lot of talk about State changing offenses and implementing something like the spread to serve to ‘level’ the playing field and not have to be so reliant on the importance of recruiting a bevy of top rated offensive lineman. Our brothers over at the Red & White Podcast have shared some interesting thoughts:
Names to keep in mind. Dwayne Ledford(NC ties), Frank Ponce (miami ties), Doug Ruse (Illinois ties), Eliah Drinkwitz (Malzhan guy) & more
— Red and White (@RedWhitePodcast) January 3, 2016
Coach D's new follows on twitter (and few JuCo kids ) pic.twitter.com/pqXXOY8r9d
— Red and White (@RedWhitePodcast) January 3, 2016
