Mike Golic highlights the offensive philosophies that LSU can expect from its new offensive coordinator, Matt Canada, who's coming from the same job at Pittsburgh. (2:06)

BATON ROUGE, La. -- LSU’s new offensive coordinator, Matt Canada, has some work ahead to build the spread offense that head coach Ed Orgeron desires.

The good news for Canada is that Steve Ensminger already got the ball rolling during the past few months in the time that he served as Orgeron’s interim offensive coordinator. Ensminger did not make wholesale changes to the system used by Les Miles and Cam Cameron, but there were some noticeable alterations that will surely continue under the new regime.

Here are some of the areas that Canada will address in his new role:

QB development, attracting dual-threat QB: The most glaring issue for a significant portion of Miles’ tenure was quarterback development. There were solid seasons here and there, but LSU has long struggled to sustain any consistent play from the position.

Enter Canada, who has specialized in that department in the past decade -- particularly this year at Pittsburgh, when he was the nation’s only offensive coach to become a finalist for the Broyles Award. Canada’s work with Tennessee transfer Nathan Peterman and the rest of the offense helped the 2016 Panthers become the highest-scoring team in school history. Quarterback Peterman ranks 10th nationally in Total Quarterback Rating (81.8), the best score for any of Canada’s quarterbacks in five stops as an offensive coordinator in the past decade.

Matt Canada's success could largely be measured by how he develops quarterbacks, which has been a sore spot at LSU for years. Fred Kfoury III/Icon Sportswire

Generally, LSU’s new offensive coordinator has used dual-threat quarterbacks and traditional spread staples. In the past 10 years, he had quarterbacks rush for 1,379 yards (Northern Illinois’ Chandler Harnish in 2011), 736 yards (Indiana’s Kellen Lewis in 2007) and 529 yards (NC State’s Jacoby Brissett in 2014). His quarterbacks in the past decade averaged 392.2 rushing yards per season. LSU had just one season under Miles where a quarterback rushed for more than 300 yards (Jordan Jefferson with 450 in 2010).

LSU has prioritized recruiting dual-threat quarterbacks in recent years, but Cameron simply did a poor job of it. It will be mostly up to Cameron’s successor to reverse that years-long trend and to do a better job of developing the talent he attracts to Baton Rouge. There will be no greater measure of Canada’s tenure than that.

QB Play Under Canada New LSU offensive coordinator Matt Canada has been an offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at five different schools over the past decade. Here is how his quarterbacks have fared in those seasons: Year School QB Cmp Att Yards TD INT Rushing QBR 2016 Pittsburgh Nathan Peterman 172 288 2,602 26 6 291 81.8 2015 NC State Jacoby Brissett 237 395 2,662 20 6 370 65.5 2014 NC State Jacoby Brissett 221 370 2,606 23 5 529 68.9 2013 NC State Pete Thomas 149 247 1,667 4 9 163 40.5 2012 Wisconsin Joel Stave 70 119 1,104 6 3 -51 69.3 2011 Northern Illinois Chandler Harnish 237 384 3,216 28 6 1,379 73.8 2010 Indiana Ben Chappell 302 483 3,295 24 9 14 64.9 2009 Indiana Ben Chappell 268 428 2,941 17 15 -9 60.6 2008 Indiana Kellen Lewis 110 193 1,131 6 8 500 39.8 2007 Indiana Kellen Lewis 265 442 3,043 28 10 736 70.3

Personnel usage: LSU fans griped for years that Miles’ approach was not imaginative enough and that the Tigers’ ground-and-pound offensive philosophy was outdated.

Formationally, LSU certainly relied on an old-school approach under its former coach.

According to ESPN Stats & Information, no Power 5 program ran more plays out of two-back sets between 2011 and 2015 than LSU. Further, LSU also ran the most plays of any Power 5 program in that period using two running backs and two tight ends. In both cases, LSU was far ahead of the next closest team. Conversely, LSU was 53rd out of 65 Power 5 programs in plays with three wideouts and 61st in plays with at least four receivers.

Although Pittsburgh’s offense ran the ball 63.4 percent of the time this season, Canada does it in a decidedly different manner than the Miles-Cameron regime. The Panthers ran just 6.1 percent of their plays out of two-back sets and just 10 plays with two backs and two tight ends. Meanwhile, they ran 47.5 percent of their plays with at least three receivers on the field.

Ensminger nudged LSU into more spread looks in two months on the job, running one-back plays on 41.9 percent of all offensive downs. That was a modest change from the previous five seasons when LSU ran fewer one-back sets than all but three Power 5 teams.

He also diversified the offense by making better use of his skill personnel. For example, in seven games under Ensminger, the tight ends caught 20 passes for 295 yards. In the previous three full seasons under Cameron, LSU's tight end group averaged 14 catches for 187 yards per season.

Improving offensive balance: The personnel deployment complaints were closely tied to a second concern: that the Tigers were not balanced enough on offense.

Indeed, LSU has run the ball at least 60 percent of the time in each of the past seven seasons. The most balanced LSU offense in that time was a 60-40 run-pass split in 2012, while the least balanced was two years ago when the Anthony Jennings-led Tigers offense ran the ball a whopping 69 percent of the time.

While Cameron was LSU’s offensive coordinator, only seven Power 5 programs ran the ball more frequently than LSU’s 64.6 percent, and most of them run option offenses: Navy (85.1 percent run), Army (85.0), Air Force (80.8), Georgia Tech (77.6), New Mexico (76.1), Boston College (68.2) and Auburn (67.2).

Although Pitt has run the ball 63.4 percent of the time this season, that’s one of only two seasons in the past decade where Canada’s offense has run as much as 60 percent of the time. In fact, he had two seasons at Indiana (2009 and 2010) where he called pass plays more than runs and had another there that was nearly a 50-50 split.

Regardless of the percentage of plays called, Canada’s offense this season has been balanced and inventive. The rushing attack has produced 51.3 percent of the Panthers’ total offense this season and the passing attack 48.7.

LSU has run the ball 60.8 percent of the time this season and the rushing attack has produced 55.9 percent of the yardage.