Potentially the biggest hire this offseason in the SEC came from Baton Rouge, with LSU head coach Ed Orgeron naming Matt Canada as the team’s new offensive coordinator. If Canada can do for the Tigers what he did for Pittsburgh, there’s no reason to think LSU can’t compete for the SEC title in 2017. If you are unaware of his previous achievements, Canada helped increase Pitt’s offensive scoring average from 28.2 points per game to 42.3 points per game in his only year at the school after replacing now Georgia OC Jim Chaney.

With LSU in its first spring with Canada on the team, the players on the team seem to be taking well to his coaching. Last week, returning quarterback Danny Etling talked about how much better he expects to be in Canada’s offense and now the team’s star running back Derrius Guice has also publicly praised the new offense.

“I like it. I don’t want to get too detailed about it, but I like it,” Guice said Thursday during his media availability. “It’s going to be a great fit for us this year.

“It’s a lot of fun, we’re doing a lot of different things with the offense. A lot of players are moving from position to position, we’re moving a lot around the field. (Canada) is pumped up like Coach O is, he get a little scream in his voice every now and again.”

While Guice didn’t reveal any specifics, he also noted that the team’s progress this spring can’t all be put on the coaching staff. In an example of the steps he’s taken in leadership with Leonard Fournette now gone and preparing for the NFL, Guice said it was on his fellow players to bring the energy and passion necessary to move the program forward.

“To be honest, it’s still not even about the coaches, it’s still about us having that dog and fight in us mentality,” Guice said. “A coach can’t really make a player feel the way he feels about the game, the player has to find that within his teammates or himself. Coaches can only do so much.”

Guice is right, a coach can only do so much. But as we’ve seen in recent seasons at LSU, coaches can hinder the potential of players as much as help them. Judging by his past coaching history and the continued positive statements regarding Canada’s hire at LSU, it appears the time of offensive coaches holding back the talent on the Bayou may be finally over.

Follow Michael Wayne Bratton / SEC Mike on Twitter.