Coordinator carousel
SEC teams expect much from top assistants
FAYETTEVILLE — The CFL has come to the SEC.
Among the SEC’s 10 new coordinators are Canada and a Canadian.
Matt Canada, Bret Bielema’s offensive coordinator at Wisconsin in 2012, is now at LSU, and will go against Bielema, Arkansas’ head coach, when the teams meet in November.
Alabama’s new offensive coordinator is Brian Daboll, a native of Canada who was born in Welland, Ontario.
Auburn Coach Gus Malzahn also has a new offensive coordinator, Chip Lindsey.
Paul Rhoads, the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville’s new defensive coordinator, will be matching wits with Canada, Daboll, Lindsey and new Ole Miss offensive coordinator Phil Longo in the SEC West.
The other new SEC coordinators: Wesley McGriff (defense, Ole Miss); Todd Grantham (defense, Mississippi State); Randy Shannon (defense, Florida); Larry Scott (offense, Tennessee) and Matt House (defense, Kentucky).
The new coordinators are being paid a combined $8.54 million per year.
Canada tops the group at $1.5 million, although he’s only the second-highest paid LSU assistant behind defensive coordinator Dave Aranda’s $1.8 million salary.
Daboll is making $1.2 million, McGriff $1 million and Shannon $890,000.
Rhoads is at $700,000 along with Lindsey. Grantham, Longo and Scott each are at $650,000, with House at $600,000.
It’s the second SEC defensive coordinator stint for Rhoads, who held the same job at Auburn in 2008 for Camden native Tommy Tuberville.
Arkansas is paying Rhoads more than twice as much as his $305,000 salary nine years ago at Auburn, evidence of the money SEC schools continue to pour into their football programs.
The revenue at stake also plays a role in the high turnover rate of SEC coordinators, with a combined 37 changes at the 14 schools the past three seasons.
“I think the game overall has changed with the finances that are generated,” Rhoads said. “This particular league recognizes the value that’s associated with it and pays the going rate.
“There’s a lot of responsibility and pressure to perform that comes along with the title. Here in 2017 that’s what you’ve got and that’s what you’re expected to go out and accomplish.”
Ed Orgeron, a former Arkansas graduate assistant who was retained at LSU after replacing Les Miles on an interim basis four games into last season, hired Canada in the hopes of injecting more life into the Tigers’ offense.
LSU (8-4 last season) ranked 59th nationally in total offense (423.1 yards per game), 68th in scoring offense (28.3 points) and 101st in passing offense (190.2 yards).
In the Tigers’ losses to Wisconsin, Auburn, Alabama and Florida, they allowed just 60 points, but scored 37.
Canada was among five finalists last season for the Broyles Award — which goes to the nation’s top assistant — when he was Pittsburgh’s offensive coordinator.
The Panthers averaged a school-record 40.9 points per game and 446.8 yards with a nice balance of 225.1 rushing and 221.7 passing.
Canada was hired at Pittsburgh to replace Jim Chaney, Bielema’s offensive coordinator at Arkansas from 20132015, who is now at Georgia.
When Bielema took the Arkansas job after the 2012 season, he hired Chaney — who had been at Tennessee — and Canada went to North Carolina State.
“We’re very excited to have Matt Canada as an offensive coordinator,” Orgeron said at SEC media days. “Matt runs a very diverse offense, a lot of shifts, motions, use of personnel, fly sweeps.
“He makes it difficult to defend, but the thing I like best about Matt was he talked about being a team player, and he talked about running a
balanced offense: 50 percent run and 50 percent pass. I think he’s going to do an outstanding job.”
Clemson defensive coordinator Brent Venables won the Broyles Award last season, but Canada got the best of him in Pittsburgh’s 43-42 victory over the Tigers during the regular season. It was the only loss for national champion Clemson, which beat Alabama 35-31 in the title game.
That was Steve Sarkisian’s lone game as Alabama’s offensive coordinator after Crimson Tide Coach Nick Saban decided Lane Kiffin should devote all of his attention to his new job as Florida Atlantic’s coach.
Sarkisian left Alabama to become offensive coordinator for the Atlanta Falcons and Saban turned to Daboll, an NFL assistant since 2000 — including time as offensive coordinator for the Cleveland Browns, Miami Dolphins and Kansas City Chiefs — and most recently tight ends coach for the New England Patriots.
Daboll’s only previous college coaching job was as a graduate assistant at Michigan State in 1998-1999 when Saban was the Spartans’ coach.
“I really think Coach Saban brought in one of the best guys for us,” Alabama receiver Calvin Ridley said at SEC media days. “It’s going to be a real good season for us on offense. We’re going to be a lot better.”
The Crimson Tide weren’t bad last season, averaging an SEC-leading 38.8 points and 455.3 yards, but Saban is looking for sophomore quarterback
Jalen Hurts to become a more dangerous passer.
“I think he’s exactly what we’re looking for in terms of helping us redevelop a pro-style passing attack that would go with the athleticism with some of the spread offense that we’ve used with Jalen and our other quarterbacks,” Saban said at SEC media days.
Malzahn, the former Arkansas high school coach and Razorbacks offensive coordinator, hired Lindsey from Arizona State to be Auburn’s play-caller after Rhett Lashlee — a former Shiloh Christian and Arkansas quarterback — left for Connecticut.
Lindsey also comes from a high school coaching background — in Alabama — and was an offensive analyst for Auburn in 2013 when the Tigers won the SEC championship and lost to Florida State in the national title game in Malzahn’s first season as their head coach.
Arizona State averaged 33.3 points last season and 390.8 yards in total offense under Lindsey, but more important, 259.3 passing yards.
“I’ve got a lot of confidence in Chip,” Malzahn said at SEC media days. “He’s going to provide more balance for us.
“He’s a quarterback guru, too. So I feel very good about that.”
Mississippi State is the second SEC stop for Grantham, who was Louisville’s defensive coordinator the previous three seasons for Coach Bobby Petrino.
Grantham was Georgia’s defensive coordinator from 2010-2013 before joining Petrino — the former Arkansas coach — at Louisville.
Mississippi State Coach Dan Mullen and Petrino swapped defensive coordinators the same day Jan. 11.
Mullen announced that afternoon he had hired Grantham as Mississippi State’s defensive coordinator and Peter Sirmon — the Bulldogs’ defensive coordinator last season — was announced as Grantham’s replacement at Louisville that night.
Grantham has a big challenge considering Mississippi State ranked 110th nationally in total defense (459.1 yards per game) last season.
Shannon, Arkansas’ linebackers coach from 2013-2014, had the same job at Florida before being promoted to defensive coordinator in place of Geoff Collins, who left to become Temple’s head coach.
Florida Coach Jim McElwain said it was an easy transition with Shannon already on staff.
“We didn’t have to change the terminology, get to know guys, that kind of stuff,” McElwain said. “Yet Randy brings his own flair, and having a guy like that on your staff, it’s really been good.”
Ole Miss is the only SEC team with two new coordinators to go along with interim Coach Matt Luke, who was promoted when Hugh Freeze resigned under pressure as coach in late July.
Longo came to Ole Miss from Sam Houston State, which led Football Championship Subdivision teams in total offense (547.3 yards per game) and ranked second in scoring offense (49.5 points) last season.
McGriff was an assistant at Auburn last season and an Ole Miss assistant in 2012 sandwiched around a threeyear stint as an assistant for the New Orleans Saints.
Tennessee Coach Butch Jones promoted Scott from tight ends coach to offensive coordinator after last season.
“Larry was a very easy choice,” Jones said on the SEC coaches’ spring teleconference.
“I was able to evaluate him for a full year and what he brought into the offensive staff in terms of how he managed personalities, his input on game day. Larry knows our current players, and he understands our expectations.”
House at Kentucky and Rhoads also were in-house promotions.
Rhoads, the former Iowa State head coach and Pittsburgh defensive coordinator, was Arkansas’ defensive backs coach last season. He moved up to defensive coordinator when Robb Smith left for Minnesota.
““I knew I had a coordinator-in-waiting,” Bielema said last spring of Rhoads. “I knew if I had a transition on the defensive side of the ball, I had a guy I could promote immediately.”