If there’s one grudge Adam Bisnowaty holds against Matt Canada, it’s a play design the offensive coordinator adjusted midway through Pitt’s 2016 season. The Panthers had been working on a gadget play where Bisnowaty, the left tackle, takes a handoff, then throws a pass to the fullback for a touchdown. But by the end of the year, right tackle Brian O’Neill had scored two touchdowns thanks to Canada’s trickery, so Pitt’s play-caller reconfigured the formation to where O’Neill would be the offensive lineman with the run-pass option.
And they tried it in a game, too — twice, actually — but O’Neill had to throw it away the first time and got chased out of the, uh, pocket the second time.
“I’ll tell you what, it was tough whenever he changed the play,” Bisnowaty was saying with a laugh the other day. “That was designed for me, but it was like all eyes were on Brian running the ball, so they moved our positions. I was like, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me.’”
It’s a what-could’ve-been moment that would haunt any lineman, but five years later, it also serves as another reminder of the innovative offensive mind the Steelers promoted from quarterbacks coach to offensive coordinator last week. In Canada’s lone season at Pitt, his offense averaged the most points per game and the second-most yards per game in modern program history, scoring at least 28 in all 12 regular season games.
That unparalleled run of success for the Panthers included unforgettable wins over rival Penn State (42-39) and eventual national champion Clemson (43-42), not to mention a 76-61 victory over Syracuse that Bisnowaty still refers to as “the basketball game.”
“When we beat Clemson down in Death Valley, one of their coaches told me [later] they went into halftime and were trying to watch film on how to stop the shovel pass,” recalled Quadree Henderson, a receiver who had his breakout season at Pitt that year with Canada. “I talked to him after the season and he said they really couldn't find a way. He told me, ‘Coach Canada’s an offensive guru.’”
Henderson was part-receiver, part-running back for the Panthers in Canada’s system. He caught 26 passes for 286 yards but rushed for 631 on 60 carries, many of them jet sweeps on which Henderson would come flying into the backfield before the snap, then leave a trail of defenders in his dust while the linemen, fullbacks and tight ends blocked it up.
Pitt would use those end-arounds so often that Scott Orndoff can remember questioning some of Canada’s play calls. But Orndoff, a tight end who had more receptions and yards his senior year with Canada than his first three seasons combined, came to realize Canada was just a perfect fit for the pieces at Pitt. And Canada himself went from super-serious newcomer to loose and fun players’ coach once he saw how well his schemes were working.
One story that still resonates with Orndoff was the postgame locker room after that Syracuse shootout that proved to be the highest-scoring affair in FBS history at the time (and still is, not counting overtime results). Defensive-minded head coach Pat Narduzzi gave a “somber” speech to the team that day, according to Orndoff, but Canada then pulled the offensive players aside.
“He said, ‘Listen, guys, I don't want the mood of that to affect you because you played a damn near perfect football game. I’m so proud of the way you guys played today and the way you played this season, so don't let that postgame meeting bother you at all,’” Orndoff relayed. “Stuff like that, as players, I think we really appreciated. Because after the game, we’re all sitting there, we won by a couple scores and we feel like we lost. It was one of those games you didn't feel good after hearing the coach and taking your equipment off.”
Perhaps by then Canada already knew he might be moving on. About three weeks later, he left Pitt to become LSU’s offensive coordinator, and he struggled to recapture the magic in the SEC. He was gone after just one season, amid reports that he and head coach Ed Orgeron didn't get along. Orgeron later called Canada’s hiring “a mistake” and “not a good fit” after the Tigers ranked in the bottom half of FBS teams with 27.2 points per game en route to a 9-4 mark.
But it’s not easy to find a Pitt player who holds it against Canada that he bolted for a national powerhouse. Bisnowaty, who was graduating anyway, understood that Canada couldn’t pass up an opportunity that could be great for his family. Henderson, whose production dropped considerably without Canada, was surprised by the sudden departure, though the two had a good conversation about it.
“I think the SEC is just a different ballgame,” Henderson said. “It’s a pass-and-run game, not for all the trickery and stuff like that. I think that’s pretty much what it was with him and the coach from LSU.”
Of course, there were rumors that Canada and Narduzzi butted heads at times, too, a narrative that was bolstered by a video that went public last year. At a 2019 coaching clinic, someone filmed Narduzzi telling the room that Canada “wasn’t even that good” to be worth a million-dollar salary as an assistant. Narduzzi walked that back last September, praising Canada as an “unbelievable” coordinator and adding that he was happy to see Canada back in Pittsburgh on the Steelers’ side.
“Coach Canada and Coach Narduzzi, if they did have any tension, they never showed it within the building, not in the games,” Henderson said. “Coach Narduzzi was always in the offensive meetings back then, so I pretty much think that gets overblown.”
Now Canada will be under a bigger microscope than ever, tasked with calling the shots in what could be the last hurrah for a future Hall of Fame quarterback trying to lead a proud franchise seemingly at a crossroads in 2021. Henderson, who was with the Steelers at times the past three years, thinks Canada has what he needs to translate his style that worked in college to the NFL — “Chase Claypool is that deep threat, Diontae [Johnson] basically would be me in that personnel, Anthony McFarland and Benny Snell can pound the ground.”
Bisnowaty, a Fox Chapel native, and Orndoff, who grew up in Waynesburg, are eager to see their former coach at work with their hometown team. They’re both living here again after a few years in the NFL themselves, and Bisnowaty texted Canada to congratulate him on getting the job. Canada answered right away.
“I hope he does well, but going from college to the NFL, it’s not easy for a lot of people,” Orndoff said. “The way you work, the way you interact with your players is so different. I’m interested in seeing them run some of the same plays that we ran. I’ll be at home saying, ‘There’s the arc, there’s the jet, there’s the rocket motion,’ and all that. It will definitely give me more of a vested interest in watching their games.”
Brian Batko: bbatko@post-gazette.com and Twitter @BrianBatko.
First Published: February 3, 2021, 11:00 a.m.