Over at SB Nation I have a column up on Matt Canada’s offensive stylings and how they’ll work at LSU.
Now let me say this: LSU regularly has some of the best, most athletic talent in the country because Louisiana is loaded with athletes and the school tends to be able to pick out who they want from that pool. I think Les Miles was on the right track in wanting to emphasize a “let’s be tough and just shove it down people’s throats” approach to the game. But his offense made things too difficult for their QBs and lacked effective constraints for the run game.
But a smashmouth spread with tempo and lots of QB run game? Man would that ever be lethal.
I’m not sure if Canada will go in that direction, although he might, because he’s shown a preference for using TEs and FBs in the past. But it may be that he used those types of players at Pitt because those are the kinds of players one tends to have at Pitt and he’ll embrace LSU’s abundant supply of freakishly athletic WRs to instill more three/four-wide formations.
The main key is how effective a teacher he is. I had my doubts about Dave Aranda’s “total football” defensive stylings translating to LSU but it seems he did as well, because the path he took was to teach a few basic defenses and out-execute people. If Canada shows similar flexibility and teaching skill, this is going to go splendidly for the Bayoux Bengals and I think he might.