PITTSBURGH — Long before donning his signature straw hat, the one that makes him easy to spot on the field at Steelers practice, Matt Canada was 20 years old, hitting the books as a regular college student, toiling away in business school but still with a football itch to scratch.
As a two-year starting quarterback and double-figure basketball scorer in the Indianapolis area in the late 1980s, Canada had some connections and acquaintances on the Indiana football team in Bloomington, but no spot on the roster. Walking on might have been an option, or he could’ve continued his playing career at a lower level, but an injury hampered him in his senior season at New Palestine High School. Maybe it was a knee, maybe it was his back, but by 1992 it didn’t really matter. Canada was missing the game.
As a sophomore, he was fortunate enough to make contact with Bill Mallory, the longtime Hoosiers head coach. The two talked about whether this aspiring finance guy would be interested in pursuing a coaching career, but Canada expressed doubts. Could he go from normal life to football life without the natural bridge that most athletes-turned-coaches enjoy? And, perhaps in the back of his mind, if he did make that transition, what would be a realistic ceiling for him given that one major void on his resume? If there’s one thing Canada’s path has shown, it’s that he’s never been content to settle for anything.
“The love for the game he had, there was no question what Matt wanted to do,” said Curt Mallory, Bill’s youngest son and Canada’s longtime friend. “He wanted to be around the game, and if it wasn't playing, he was going to coach.”
In many professions, the saying goes that those who can, do; those who can’t, teach. But in football, it’s not easy to break into the business without at least a little bit of playing experience at the highest levels of the game. That’s especially true in the NFL, where Canada will be one of two offensive coordinators this season who didn’t play college football, and the only one who didn’t play any sport beyond high school (Pete Carmichael of the Saints was a baseball player at Boston College). Among active head coaches, only Denver’s Vic Fangio didn’t play college ball.
Most play-callers and NFL bosses weren’t stars of any sort. Former Chiefs head coach and Steelers offensive coordinator Todd Haley famously cut his teeth as the son of a scout rather than a player himself. Many others barely made a mark at tiny Division III programs, let alone major-conference powerhouses. But Canada’s path is still atypical, and while it doesn’t matter one iota now, it may have helped put a chip on his shoulder from an early age — the same motivation that burns in him to this day as he takes control of the Steelers playbook.
“I jokingly call them JAGs — ‘Just A Guy’ — and when you have JAGs enter football, you can tell they're in the room,” said Steelers offensive lineman Zach Banner. “Because they're a little quirky. There’s a reason why, right? It’s usually their brain. It’s usually their mental. They know how to draw stuff up. Never had a touch of athleticism in their lives since high school, but they're great at what they do. That’s exactly what Canada is. But at the same time, I would’ve never known.”
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Canada spent all of last season, his first in the NFL, behind a black face covering or a mask with a clear shield, but now he’s front and center. He declined to be interviewed for this story as he gets Steelers rookies and newcomers up to speed during the offseason program, but tracing his rise from “JAG” to first-year NFL coordinator begins with that leap of faith at Indiana.
Now at age 49, it’s fitting that Canada comes into his new role with the Steelers only 10 years older and far less experienced in this league than quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. Because 29 years ago, Bill Mallory gave him a job as a student assistant, and Canada was instructing players who were, literally, his peers. Not that he didn’t fit right in as one of the guys, even back then.
“I probably can't discuss the details of our first meeting,” Rod Carey said with a laugh. “We were in college.”
Carey was a junior center for the Hoosiers when Canada came on board and is now the head coach at Temple. It didn't take long for Canada to earn his respect, and it helped that Bill Mallory had a reputation for not judging a coach by his on-field accolades.
Even now, Carey marvels at the work ethic it took for Canada to pull long hours — “Living at the complex,” as Carey put it — as a student coach, not getting paid for any of it, no trade-off for on-field glory like a player, and still getting his schoolwork done in case he’d have to fall back on a 9-to-5 job. If that wasn't intelligence, motivation and passion, Carey thought, then what is? And who cares if he never took a snap after high school?
“I don't think that was a thing to coach Mallory. I don't think he ever made it a thing to Matt,” Carey recalled. “Matt may have been internally driven by that back then, but it wasn't as big of a [deal]. Like, if Tim Tebow wanted to coach, he’s now going to be a head coach. There wasn't that mindset. That’s a new phenomenon, which I don't think is always right because you're either good at a job or you're not. It doesn't matter if you played.”
Curt Mallory joined Canada on his dad’s staff in 1993 as a graduate assistant after playing a couple seasons at Michigan. Bill Mallory died in 2018, but Curt can speak for him now when it comes to Canada, who over the years has become an extension of the Mallory family.
Like Carey, he could see right away that Canada wasn’t your average student coach. Curt Mallory was stunned to find out Canada was younger than him and still an undergrad, given the responsibilities he had on his plate.
“That’s how much confidence and respect my father had for Matt,” said Curt Mallory, now head coach at Indiana State. “You just knew he was going to be a rock star. You could see how smart he was and just his teaching ability. Being around him, you saw his future was going to be bright.”
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So, Canada took a chance — on himself, on the industry, on his mentors — and never looked back. Tossing touchdowns on Saturdays didn’t grease the wheels for his future, but his wunderkind prowess on the Hoosiers staff did.
After three years as a graduate assistant from 1994-96, Canada spent one year at Butler coaching quarterbacks and coordinating his first offense. In 1998, Joe Novak — a Bill Mallory disciple who worked with Canada at Indiana — hired him to coach running backs at Northern Illinois. By 2003, Novak had made Canada one of the youngest offensive coordinators in the country, and that year the Huskies went 10-2, averaged 32.2 points per game and knocked off Maryland, Alabama and Iowa State.
That was enough to catch the eye of Gerry DiNardo, entering his third year as head coach at Indiana. In Canada, he had a candidate who was ahead of his time and also happened to be an alumnus, a local guy born and raised in the state. Plus, Bill Mallory recommended him to be the quarterbacks coach.
If there’s an edge to Canada, it may have come out in that 2004 season. Indiana limped to a 3-8 record, hitting 30 points in each of the first three games but only once in the final eight. Imposing offensive line coach Steve Addazio was in his first year doubling as offensive coordinator, and in comes Canada, a quarterback guru who had different ideas on how to move the ball.
“I found out later on there was an issue. You could call both those guys really stubborn, and you could call their philosophies, offensively, drastically different,” DiNardo remembered. “So, then the rub comes in when there’s two stubborn coaches on the same side of the ball, and one’s calling the shots. The guy who’s not calling the shots, it’s tough for him.”
It’s almost ironic that the Steelers are Canada’s seventh coaching stop since 2011, because from 1998-2011, he spent 14 years between Northern Illinois and Indiana. When DiNardo was fired after that 2004 campaign, he let slip to the athletic director that Canada would make a great offensive coordinator. Next thing he knew, DiNardo was out and Canada remained on staff under new head coach Terry Hoeppner, who was hired after a nice run at Miami (Ohio) where he thrived with a promising young quarterback named Ben Roethlisberger.
Addazio was gone, too, but grudges can persist in the coaching fraternity, as in any walk of life. DiNardo, now an analyst for the Big Ten Network, thinks back to a few years ago when Canada was being considered for the offensive coordinator job at Maryland. Then-Terrapins coach D.J. Durkin called him to ask about Canada, and DiNardo believes it must have been because Durkin didn’t get a glowing recommendation from Addazio. DiNardo told Durkin “not so fast” and put in a good word for Canada, despite only coaching with him for one year, a season that got DiNardo fired.
“I’m a big fan. I’m sure he’s not perfect,” DiNardo said. “And he and I have talked about this, when you look at his resume and think about hiring him, don't you have to ask the question, ‘What’s going on here?’ And the answer better be a good answer before you decide to hire him.
“But I would hire Matt Canada today if I was coaching. Is he stubborn? Yeah, I guess he is. So am I, and so are a lot of people.”
And plenty have hired Canada. After his seven-year stint back at Indiana, the last four as offensive coordinator, he turned into a human whack-a-mole, running offenses wherever there was an opening. Dave Doeren’s Northern Illinois program was a familiar landing spot in 2011 after the Hoosiers cleaned house. He helped lead that team to a conference championship, then got a step up at Wisconsin, where fans wanted head coach Bret Bielema to go after a bigger name for the job.
Canada left after one season, not because he failed — the Badgers reached the Big Ten title game — but because Bielema left for Arkansas. Rather than wait and see who’d be calling the shots at Wisconsin, he went to N.C. State and reunited with Doeren. It was a surprise that Doeren fired Canada after three seasons, the last of which was one of the most productive in school history, and one year into a three-year contract extension.
But that paved the way for Canada’s record-setting season at Pitt. Being right next door, the Steelers might have taken notice, but so did LSU, and the Tigers made Canada one of the highest-paid coordinators in college football. With that, despite yet another one-year stint, he was off to Baton Rouge. Problem was, the Tigers seemed to regret their investment. They went 9-4 and scored 30 or more points in four of their final six games, but coach Ed Orgeron publicly called it a “mistake” to hire Canada after the two sides parted ways in early 2018. Cue those whispers that Canada can be hard to work with.
“You’d have to go ahead and ask someone who knows him a little less than I do if he has that rep because I just know him for who he is,” Carey said. “Listen, we all better have an ego in this thing as coaches. We all better be a little stubborn. We all need those things. If you don’t, I don't think you’re successful.
“I don't know how to answer that one because I love the guy.”
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From the failed LSU experiment came the opportunity of a lifetime for Canada, though not in the manner he expected. Less than seven months after hiring him, Maryland placed Durkin on administrative leave following the death of offensive lineman Jordan McNair, and Canada was elevated as the interim replacement.
The grind had led him to a head coaching job, at last, but it didn't last. Maryland went 5-7 and struggled down the stretch, narrowly missing a chance to save face with a 52-51 loss to Ohio State in overtime. Canada didn’t get the permanent gig and was exasperated enough by the whole situation that he took 2019 to sit out entirely from the coaching life that had been all-consuming since 1992, when he wasn't sure if he could ever make it in the football world.
“That year he was out of coaching, I want credit for him not getting into the restaurant business,” DiNardo joked. “I definitely told him to slow down. I don't know how serious he was about a pizza place on the beach or whatever, but the problem with coaches is they work a lot, and then when they don't have a job, they need something to fill their time.”
“I know that every damn time I called him, he was on the beach,” Carey chuckled. “We probably didn't talk as much in big, grandiose terms at that time. … When you’ve been doing something so long and you’re out, not of your choice, that’s hard. I was just trying to be a friend. I’m sure he got time to reflect and think and clean up things. I know he went and visited people, different college staffs and NFL staffs and stayed involved in the game. He probably got a chance to step back and do those things that everyone does because, in that case, he had the time. I don't know if there was some master plan.”
Which brings us to this, the biggest job so far of Canada’s once-unlikely football journey. As Steelers offensive coordinator, he succeeds Randy Fichtner, who had been in the NFL and with the franchise since 2007. Roethlisberger has been at this 17 years as the starting quarterback. Canada’s got one NFL season under his belt and will make his debut as a coordinator in this league. All eyes are on the tall task he has to reinvigorate a moribund running game while also playing nice with a future Hall of Fame quarterback and keeping a bevy of talented receivers happy in the process.
“Matt will be the first to tell you, he jokes all the time, ‘Hey, I’m just a college guy,’ ” said Steelers backup quarterback Mason Rudolph. “I think guys appreciate he’s not trying to be more than he is. He’s an unbelievable coach. He’s got a great offensive mind, but he’s hungry like everybody else.”
Rudolph added that he likes Canada’s demeanor, that he’s not a “yeller,” but more of a teacher. What shape will the offense ultimately take, combining the visions of Canada and Roethlisberger, not to mention head coach Mike Tomlin?
There might be no one outside the organization more equipped to answer that than Matthew Symmes, an offensive assistant the past three seasons for the Steelers. He was in the coaching booth during games, but every other day he worked closely with Canada and the quarterbacks, including Roethlisberger.
“I’ll be honest, I don't pay a ton of attention to what fans are saying or whoever, but they’re both professionals, they both want to win, and I think that’s as good as anything because they're going to find a way,” Symmes said. “I don't know how much conflict there’s really going to be. They got along well last year.”
Symmes was particularly impressed by the way Canada navigated his role in the room last season, taking feedback from Roethlisberger, incorporating it when the coaches formulated each week’s game plan, and chiming in with ideas respectfully. On the flip side, he witnessed Canada facilitating some of Roethlisberger’s no-huddle thoughts, trying to keep an open line of communication in an unprecedented year of virtual meetings and Zoom calls.
As someone who’s coached at both the college and pro level, Symmes acknowledges that there’s a transition from one to the other. Athletes are no longer playing for you, they’re working with you. Most of the time, the stars of the team have been there far longer than the coaches. In Roethlisberger’s case, Canada’s first shot at getting this right may well be the quarterback’s last, and that storyline will be one that looms over the entirety of the 2021 Steelers season.
“I can’t say enough positive things about Matt. And I was really lucky to work with Ben,” Symmes said. “I can only say, from my perspective, I was a 29-year-old kid coming in there, supposed to be running drills for this guy. He could've told me to get lost, and that’s just not the kind of person he is. I would assume that same kind of respect for coaching is always there with Matt. I really like Ben. He was really easy for me to work with, and it’s a hard dynamic for a guy who, when I got there, he’d been in the league longer than I’d been coaching.”
Like many casual observers, Symmes is eager to see how Canada tweaks the offense and expects to see more pre-snap movement, play-action and outside runs — concepts he didn’t have the full latitude to implement while coaching the quarterbacks. Symmes also believes the passing game can be more nuanced, given the experience returning at wide receiver.
Symmes won’t be around to see it firsthand, as he’s now a senior defensive analyst who’s excited to get to work at East Carolina. He’s getting to know a student assistant on the staff by the name of Chris Canada, one of Matt’s two children. When Symmes entered into the coaching ranks in 2012, he did so without playing college football, and since then he’s learned a thing or two about what it takes to travel that road.
“I think to be successful when you haven't played, you have to show a distinguishing trait,” Symmes said. “With Matt, it’s teaching ability and creativity, and those two things together have allowed him to get to where he is.”
Last year, after he was hired by the Steelers, Canada referred to his one-year hiatus spent mostly on Topsail Island as his personal “halftime.” He got that phrase from a conversation about coaching he had with Ellie Mallory, Bill’s wife and Curt’s mother. For Canada, it could be the dividing line between when a high school guy-turned-college guy morphed into an NFL guy — if his offense works, that is.
“We’re about to find out if his system can, aren't we?” Carey said. “But if I were a betting man, I‘d bet on him.”
