CANADA LANDS ON FEET AT MARYLAND
Interim coach leads Terrapins to 2-0 after LSU debacle
When things ended the way they did at LSU, nobody would have blamed Matt Canada for fighting back.
Just one season into a guaranteed three-year deal that made Canada the highest-paid assistant coach in the country, he was looking for a new job — again — because somebody had to be the scapegoat for the dysfunction on Ed Orgeron’s watch.
Not that anyone should have felt sorry for Canada. By the standards of the fickle coaching business, landing at Maryland with a $650,000 salary after pocketing $1.7 million in buyout money from LSU isn’t the worst outcome in the world.
Still, Maryland was Canada’s fourth employer in four years and seventh coaching stop in nine seasons. Though every move was unique, going from LSU to Maryland meant Canada’s reputation as a play caller was no longer in ascent.
Rather than try to explain or fight against that narrative, Canada just focused on his work, declining to take shots at LSU or Orgeron, who called the decision to hire him a “mistake.”
So far, the job Canada has done at Maryland is saying way more than his words ever could.
Given the interim head coaching job when DJ Durkin was suspended, Canada has Maryland at a surprising 2-0 entering this weekend’s game against Temple and might end up hotter than ever on the coaching market by season’s end, whether it’s at Maryland or somewhere else.
“It’s a crazy business,” said DePauw coach Bill Lynch, who made Canada his offensive coordinator at Indiana in 2007 when he took over head coaching duties from Terry Hoeppner. “When you’re a coordinator like he’s been, new opportunities come along that are exciting and a lot of guys through the years who became outstanding head coaches they had to make a lot of stops along the way and build the résumé.
“It’s tough to get into the Maryland situation because I don’t know enough about it, but talking about Matt, there’s no question in my mind that he will be an outstanding head football coach.”
Given the circumstances, the early returns on that prediction have been impressive. With the Maryland program seemingly in chaos after the heatstroke-related death of offensive lineman Jordan McNair and an explosive ESPN report detailing a toxic culture under Durkin, Canada has kept things together impressively with a big season-opening upset of Texas and a businesslike 45-14 win at Bowling Green.
With winless Temple coming into College Park this weekend and Minnesota the following week, the Terrapins could conceivably be 4-0 coming out of September, which would rank among the more inspiring stories in recent memory given the circumstances.
“I don’t think anyone can question how hard our team is playing right now,” Canada said Tuesday at his weekly news conference. “I think it’s a credit to our players. There’s no magic formula for anything like this. We’ve said it over and over. All the things that have occurred have been unique. Grief is something we all deal with very differently. We continue to honor Jordan as a football team in our own way.”
The day before the Minnesota game, the Maryland board of regents will be briefed on the investigation into McNair’s death, which could provide further clarity on Durkin’s future. Regardless of when that decision is made, Canada getting Maryland to play this well early is drawing notice within the coaching industry.
On one hand, he’d be the logical favorite to replace Durkin if he can get the Terrapins to a bowl game, which will begin to look quite realistic if they beat Temple. But even if the school decides to clean house entirely, Canada could emerge as a head coaching prospect elsewhere, which would be quite a turn from the way things ended at LSU.
“I’m still taking it a day at a time,” Canada said. “That’s the only way to do it right now. I’m excited about the way our play- ers are playing. I’m focused on that.”
It would be hard for Canada to take any other approach given how uncertain everything is at Maryland, all the way up to whether President Wallace Loh and athletics director Damon Evans will remain in their jobs.
But uncertainty has sort of been the norm for Canada, rather unintentionally, despite the fact his offenses have consistently produced at a high level.
Because of how much he’s moved around lately, it’s practically forgotten that Canada spent seven years at Indiana before going to work for Dave Doeren at Northern Illinois in
2011 where his offense averaged
38.3 points for a team that won the Mid-American Conference title. That got him an opportunity at Wisconsin the following year under Bret Bielema, who turned around and left for Arkansas a year later.
Canada then reunited with Doeren at North Carolina State, where he had some success offensively with Jacoby Brissett at quarterback (43 touchdowns to 11 interceptions over two years). But after a disappointing 7-6 season, Doeren fired him, a move that took Canada by surprise and forced him to restart at Pittsburgh. His offense took off there in 2016, averaging 446 yards with Nathan Peterman at quarterback and James Conner at running back. In the final three games of that regular season, Pitt upset eventual national champion Clemson 43-42, scored 56 against Duke and 76 against Syracuse.
That run of brilliance earned Canada all kinds of praise for an offensive system that had some spread principles but couldn’t really be pigeonholed because of the multiple formations and variety of pre-snap motions he used, making his teams tough to prepare for.
“He’s very, very creative,” Lynch said. “In some situations, you have to give yourself an advantage. You may not have the same players your opponent has and you have to find a way to move the football and score points, and Matt was always looking for new ideas.”
The prospect of matching that creativity with LSU-level players was tantalizing for Orgeron, who offered him $1.5 million annually to leave Pitt.
But even though LSU went 9-4 last year, it was obvious that tension had developed between Canada and Orgeron, who initially said he wouldn’t meddle in the offense. That promise went out the window in late September when Canada’s pre-snap motions were mysteriously deleted from the playbook during a 24-21 loss to Troy.
From that moment on, a divorce was inevitable. But rather than complain or point fingers publicly, Canada simply found a new opportunity. It might turn out to be the most fruitful one yet.