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Most on SFN have said DD needs let the assistants do there job, the team would be more successful. At the Broyles Award Ceremonies, former OC Matt Canada put out an interesting little dib a Coach Doeren concerning the same topic, “Let your assistants do there job”. We all knew there was a power struggle among them, perhaps this statement is more telling bout our football woes than results.
Matt Canada at Broyles ceremony on Narduzzi: "If your boss allows you the freedom, you have a chance to be successful."
— Chris Vannini (@ChrisVannini) December 6, 2016
Interesting. I also found this:
I don’t watch any football but N.C. State, so I didn’t see Pitt’s offense this year. Looks good scoring-wise, though.
Communism is not love. Communism is a hammer which we use to crush the enemy. Mao Zedong
Media’s been talking about this pretty much all season, how Narduzzi gave complete offensive control to Canada. So nothing really new.
Canada’s the same as he’s always been. Same plays, over and over, just tweaks to tease the defense into messing up. From the link above:
“Canada insists his scheme is “boring.” It sure didn’t look that way.
“We run the same plays over and over, just with different variations, from different formations,” he said. “People always ask, ‘What kind of offense do you have?’ An offense that scores points. That’s what I tell them.”
I still don’t miss him, but his season at Pitt is impressive. It wasn’t like Narduzzi was recruiting offensive superstars. Will Canada attract those recruits now?
I will say that I think this is symptom of the issues that we had with Canada. It wasn’t so much on the field results — though I’d argue that we were very predictable in down, distance, motion and formation. It was with the off the field stuff.
Before we ever hired Canada, I was told by a friend who is a huge Badgers fan that we were getting a guy who was highly divisive. He was at the center of a fight that got the OL coach fired 3-4 games into the season. He may have had play calling duties removed. It was a mess.
While we had Canada, there was seemingly turmoil around him. There was an issue initially right after he was hired. He looked in the offseason at least once before (Tenn job that got him a raise/extension). He interviewed for the ECU job. There were rumors of friction with HS coaches in clinics. I think the bowl game was just the last straw. He was hired so shortly after, that he may have already been talking with Pitt.
Now, the question we should ask ourselves is whether this was true. If so, are we doing the same thing with Drink? It’s clear that we scored fewer points this year and struggled in the red zone. I’m not sure that can all be blamed on our QBs, because it’s not like JB was all world.
With respect to Canada, it will be interesting to see how Pitt does next year. This year he had Connor, a great OL and a good QB. Half this board can coach an effective offense with that combination. The QB was a redshirt senior, and Connor will be gone. It will be interesting to see how he brings those younger QBs along.
There were rumors of friction with HS coaches in clinics.
The thing about play calling can be corrected IF that is the problem. Hard to correct friction with HS coaches. Disagreement about offense philosophy is the go to reason OC are let go. Something vague that doesn’t really make the HC or the OC to be at fault. If I had to bet, I’d go with the HS coaches friction as the culprit. DD invested a lot in healing previous relationship issues with HS coaches.
yeah, problems with NC high school stuff was the final straw. Still doesn’t mean DD doesn’t have a micromanagement problem.
ugh, it’s a bit annoying to hear that the assistants shuffling in both bball and football was more about chemistry among coaches and less about upgrading the coaching staff. But less disfunction leads to better function, right?!
I have no idea how much we were impacted by this, but if the coaches are the CEO’s Executive Management team and they don’t work well together, much less get along, then the results on the field will suffer.
Management 101 gents.
I’d like to think that when hiring HCs and Asst. Coaches, these things are taken into account. Unfortunately, I have seen proof otherwise.
yeah, problems with NC high school stuff was the final straw. Still doesn’t mean DD doesn’t have a micromanagement problem.
IMO it’s not so much micromanagement but getting in on the play calling and going conservative — call it what you will, meddling, interference, etc. There is just too much to manage in the modern day football program to micromanage — besides offense there’s S&C, recruiting, and a bunch of other stuff the HC needs to be the policy maker in and to lead.
IMO aggressiveness needs to be a part of our identity along with the tough, physical, hands in the dirt identity. An aggressive philosophy is attractive on both sides of the ball to recruits. It’s a “let’s go win this sucker” attitude and not what sometimes appears to be ‘let’s not lose this sucker.’
We can call DD’s decisions ‘boneheaded’ if it makes us feel better but on closer examination I think we’d find those bonehead decisions to be a reflection of being overly conservative. Just saying…
Canada has a big mouth. It follows him.
I knew Canada and I had something in common. Now if I could just create offense like he can.
CD and Greywolf….suffer from the same….have wished there was a 5 second delay from what Brain THOUGHT and allowed MOUTH to transmit on many occasions. Have had to bail my butt out with a lot of songs and dances numerous times…
BUT, I will also add this little tidbit. MC is agoing to LSU as there TOP candidate. Maybe LSU has more head space and they can have multiple ego folks there….but remember, WE FIRED HIM…and Pittsburgh almost gave UNC another L this year. It was NOT for lack of an OFFENSIVE effort from Pitt. Their D fell apart in the last 1 1/2 Quarters…..
In Canada, LSU would get a seasoned offensive coordinator who in his first year at Pittsburgh this season shaped the Panthers into the highest-scoring offense in school history. They averaged 42.3 points a game, ranking 10th nationally, and were the only team to beat Clemson, scoring 43 points in that victory. Pitt capped the year scoring 56 and 76 points on Duke and Syracuse, respectively.
Canada was one of five finalists this year for the Frank Broyles Award, given to the nation’s best assistant coach.
Pitt players raved about Canada’s coaching style and creativity. He’s not afraid of trick plays, either. For example, one Pitt offensive lineman has scored two touchdowns this year, and his tackles routinely shift before the snap, swapping sides.
Canada holds a physical philosophy in running the football, but he uses misdirection, shifts and motions out of various formations to employ a power ground attack — similar to concepts that Ensminger employed this season. Canada described his offense in the same way Orgeron this season described the offense Ensminger ran after replacing the fired Cam Cameron four games into this season.
“We run the same plays over and over, just with different variations, from different formations,” Canada said. “People always ask, ‘What kind of offense do you have?’ ‘An offense that scores points.’ That’s what I tell them.”
Interesting. I’ll bet this move was not money driven. Course, as the old saying goes, “get it while the getting is good” and this year for Canada was impressive at Pitt. So he may have decided to cash in the results. Then again, he may have seen the cupboard pretty bare for next season and decided to get out before it got bad. Either way it screams problems at LSU. Two Offensive Coords? Just don’t see Canada sharing duties and limelight…. after all, he was rumored to have left State because of power struggles with DD. Could see Canada leaving Pitt for a Head Coach job but not to share duties with another assistant. Even if it is SEC. Or maybe more because it is SEC don’t understand this move.
BassPacker,
Don’t know about the “why I’m leaving Pitt” motivation. If you go back through the Matt Canada GOTTA GO threads, he was looking for a job when he came here. He interviewed for Ruff’s position at ECU and maybe one or two others. He was in the $500 – $600 K range and he got (base) $560K at Pitt.
LSU was after Lane Kiffin (now why does that name ring a bell and I think of the William Tell Overture). Kiffin will go to Florida Atlantic as a HC. He WAS Alabama’s OC and making in the $1.5 MILLION Range and LSU was ready to give him a raise. So, Lane’s departure BACK to a HC job probably cost him about $1 Million as he is around $950K at FL Atlantic. He says they have done an “Update” on his personality and that you will see Lane Kiffin, Rev 3 or maybe Lane Kiffin 4.0 and wants to establish himself as a REAL HC type of Power 5 guy.
SO, you GOTTA figure that with Canada’s new found status, he will probably double his salary. Time and today’s headlines and leaks will tell.
It is interesting….my DW, not a FB freak, commented that we had gotten lazy and conservative and that Coach Doeren was more spunky and unpredictable in his first year.
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