LSU WR D.J. Chark on Canada: 'I heard he's brilliant'
Glenn Guilbeau
BATON ROUGE — One statistic of new LSU offensive coordinator Matt Canada’s attack at Pittsburgh jumped out at LSU fullback John David Moore recently.
Panther sophomore fullback George Aston has nine touchdowns this season — five rushing and four receiving. Moore, a junior from Ruston, has none in his two-year career.
Now, Canada did not run the wishbone at Pitt. Rather, he likes to run a lot of jet sweeps (a form of an end around), and he likes to fake the jet sweep to a receiver, then hand off to Aston, who has gained 73 yards this season on 21 carries and has 20 catches for 162 yards. Moore has gained 17 yards on seven carries this season and has caught eight passes for 45 yards.
“Yeah, that’s what someone told me,” Moore said Friday as the No. 20 Tigers (7-4) have opened practices for the Dec. 31 Citrus Bowl against No. 13 Louisville (9-3) at 10 a.m. on ABC from Orlando, Florida.
“So, that’s good news for me,” Moore said. “They’ve got some cool little red-zone wrinkles off the jet sweep, yeah.”
Canada, who was hired by LSU coach Ed Orgeron on Tuesday, will not be coaching LSU’s offense for the bowl as he will remain with Pitt through its Pinstripe Bowl in Yankee Stadium on Dec. 28 as the No. 22 Panthers (8-4) will play Northwestern (6-6) at 1 p.m. central time on ESPN. Interim offensive coordinator Steve Ensminger will continue to run the LSU offense through the Citrus Bowl.
“It seems like he (Canada) fits sort of what we’ve got going on here at LSU traditionally,” Moore said. “And then I think he’ll bring his own wrinkles to it. Obviously, they’ve put up a lot of points against a lot of opponents. Against Syracuse, they put up 70 something. They’re obviously very productive on offense, so that’s exciting to see.”
Canada has run a wide variety of offenses in his career from the spread to tailback power. Pittsburgh is 10th in the nation so far in the 2016 season in scoring with 42.3 points a game. LSU is 67th with 28.3 points a game. The Panthers beat Syracuse, 76-61, Duke, 56-14, Virginia, 45-31, and handed College Football Playoff final four entry Clemson its only loss, 43-42.
Pittsburgh quarterback Nate Peterman is No. 9 in the nation in efficiency at 161.2 on 172-of-288 passing for 2,602 yards and 26 touchdowns against six interceptions. Peterman is Canada’s eighth quarterback to throw for 2,500 or more yards in a season in the coach’s 11 stops as an offensive coordinator at Butler in 1997, Northern Illinois in 2003, Indiana from 2007-10, Northern Illinois in 2011, Wisconsin in 2012, North Carolina State from 2013-15 and Pittsburgh in 2016, according to research by Tiger Rag Magazine’s James Moran. LSU has had three 2,500-yard passers in a season over the last 11 years — Zach Mettenberger in 2012 (2,609) and 2013 (3,082) and JaMarcus Russell in 2006 (3,129).
“I heard he’s brilliant,” LSU wide receiver D.J. Chark said. “I’ve seen some of his games. Can’t wait to get to know him better.”
Chark, who leads LSU receivers with more than four catches in average yards per catch with 17.5 this season, hopes to watch Pitt’s bowl game on the afternoon of Dec. 28 if he’s not at Disney World or practicing.
“Oh yeah, I’m pretty sure if we’re in the room at that time, I’ll be watching it,” he said.
Chark also leads LSU receivers in rushing with 122 yards on 12 carries, which were end arounds or jet sweeps. He scored a 79-yard touchdown on an end around in the Texas Bowl win over Texas Tech last season and has two touchdown runs this season to go with three touchdown catches.
“Very interesting,” Chark said. “He has a different style of play, but similar in some ways. It’ll be very interesting to see how he uses us. Whatever Coach has got planned for me.”
Meanwhile, LSU junior quarterback Danny Etling is coming off his best game as a Tiger. He completed 20 of 28 for 324 yards and two touchdowns in the 54-39 win at No. 22 Texas A&M on Thanksgiving night. It was the first 300-yard passing game by an LSU quarterback in a win since Mettenberger in 2013. LSU will be without NFL Draft-bound junior tailback Leonard Fournette, who announced Friday he will not play in the bowl to heal his season-long ankle injury. But sophomore tailback Derrius Guice set the LSU rushing record with 285 yards on 37 carries at Texas A&M and is No. 25 in the nation in rushing with 1,249 yards on 157 carries.
“I’m very confident in our offense,” Chark said. “Danny’s embraced the role of being a starting quarterback for LSU. He works at it every day. He’s developing into a leader, and it’s very exciting to see what he’s become and what he’ll do under the new offensive coordinator. Guice stepped up and has been doing really good. I feel like we’re still going to be able to play LSU football.”
And Canada will likely be watching the Citrus Bowl on television or in person.
“He was introduced to us as a team on Wednesday,” Moore said. “He said how blessed and excited he was to be here. He seems like a coach who has worked his way up the ranks, and he seems very confident in his abilities. I look forward to being coached by him. He seems very creative in his play calls.”
Glenn Guilbeau covers LSU sports for the USA Today Network of Louisiana. Follow him on Twitter at @LSUBeatTweet. Coverage of LSU and commentary by Guilbeau supported by Hebert’s Town & Country Automobile Dealer in Shreveport located at 1155 East Bert Kouns Loop. Research your next Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep or Ram at http://hebertstandc.com/.)