Pitt Head Coach Pat Narduzzi Critical of Former Maryland Offensive Coordinator
Matt Canada has moved on from his days as a college coach for the time being, but that does not mean that Pitt head coach Pat Narduzzi has forgotten the former Panther offensive coordinator.
A video from Narduzzi’s speech at the 2019 Nike Coach of the Year Clinic in Portland, Oregon surfaced on Monday where he appeared to take his shot at his assistant.
“I had an offensive coordinator—I won’t even mention his name—at Pitt. He spent eight months with me, left to take one of those big jobs for $1.2 million. I said ‘I don’t think you want to go’ and he’s like ‘well, it’s a lot of money.’ And I got him a lot of money, I got him a million at our place, so it’s like, maybe he went for $1.5, I got him a million which is just crazy, like are you shitting me? You know like really? I don’t even think he was worth a million, I mean he wasn’t even that good.”
Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi does a number here on Matt Canada.
— that SEC podcast (@thatSECpodcast) August 31, 2020
Canada left Pitt for LSU but as we all know, that didn’t last very longpic.twitter.com/uBn7UW6QSt
Canada’s lone season in Pittsburgh helped Narduzzi and the offense reached new heights offensively as they set new school records for points in a season (532) and points per game (40.9) while Pittsburgh was the only Power Five team to score at least 28 points in every regular-season contest. Canada was the lone offensive finalist for the 2016 Broyles Award, given each year to the nation’s top assistant, before Canada accepted the new position as offensive coordinator at LSU.
Narduzzi, however, worked to convince Canada to stay for another season before taking the next step in his coaching career.
“I was like ‘listen, you’re stupid to go. You go there you’ll start your whole career over again. I say stay here for another year, have a good year, I’ll send you out of here a head coach. No patience, so have patience in the profession. He goes there, gets fired before the end of the season, there’s turmoil all in the newspapers, it was a miserable season for the guy. He’s gone, goes and gets another job, okay after that, he’s gone from there and he’s been in three jobs in three years and he’s out of a job right now but he could’ve been at one place.”
Canada was hired by Maryland as the new offensive coordinator heading into the 2018 season before DJ Durkin was placed on administrative leave as a result of the investigation into Jordan McNair’s death. The vacancy vaulted Canada as Maryland’s interim head coach for the season as he earned the respect of players and fans. His lone season with the program helped guide the Terps to a 5-7 record that included a second consecutive season-opening victory over Texas, but Canada admitted to Ross Dellenger of Sports Illustrated that one game sticks out above the rest.
“That’s the one,” Canada says. “It sticks in my head more than others.”
Canada took the 2019 season off and is now the quarterbacks coach for the Pittsburgh Steelers, home of five former Terps including running back Anthony McFarland and safety Antoine Brooks. Pitt, meanwhile, hired Shawn Watson to replace Canada but Narduzzi parted ways after two seasons as the Panthers have turned to Mark Whipple since. In 2019, Pitt ranked 114 in scoring offense and 87 in total offense among 130 FBS programs.
