Reports: LSU likely to split with offensive coordinator Matt Canada after one year

Canada was considered a home-run hire when he was swiped away from Pittsburgh in 2017

The highest-paid offensive coordinator in college football might not get a second year to implement his system at LSU as the Tigers are planning to split with Matt Canada after the Citrus Bowl, according to the Daily Advertiser and the Advocate.

Canada and coach Ed Orgeron have seemingly been at odds since LSU lost to Troy on Sept. 30, when Orgeron would not allow Canada to run the offense the way he saw fit. Following that 24-21 upset loss, Orgeron admitted to the press he had been meddling in Canada's offense before the game.

One of the tenets of Canada's offense has always been presnap movement and motion with players sometimes running across the formation to the other side. Orgeron wasn't a fan of it and thought that it was inhibiting LSU's ability to move the ball and score, so he told Canada to do away with it before the game.

LSU wound up falling to a Troy team that it should have overmatched after taking this straight-forward approach, despite finishing with more total offense and gaining 5.6 yards per carry. Of course, LSU also turned the ball over four times compared to Troy's two turnovers. That likely had a bigger impact on the final score than any pre-snap motion.

Still, that's where the rift between Orgeron and Canada began, and it hasn't been mended since. While philosophical differences are playing a key role, there's also the fact that LSU's offense didn't improve much -- if at all -- under Canada in 2017. After scoring 28.3 points per game in 2016, LSU scored 28.1 points per game in 2017. After the Tigers averaged 423.1 yards per game and 6.71 yards per play in 2016, they averaged 412.1 and 6.28, respectively, in 2017.

Had there been marked improvements in the team's offensive performance, odds are Orgeron learns to live with pre-snap motion, but there wasn't, and now it looks as though Canada is about to be back on the open market.

It had previously been indicated by Orgeron that longtime assistant Steve Ensminger, who has coached at LSU since 2010 and served as interim offensive coordinator in 2016, would be the likely choice to be elevated from tight ends coach into the role as Canada's replacement.

Time will tell if Orgeron and LSU simply needed to show more patience or if this was the right move to make.