New assistants Ike Hilliard, Matt Canada face unique challenges prepping Steelers rookies

The two new faces on the Pittsburgh Steelers coaching staff for this season work with the skill positions on offense.

It just so happens two of their first three draft picks play skill positions on offense.

In the midst of this peculiar offseason, relationship-building between coaches and players isn’t conventional. Trust needs to be built, personalities need to mesh and messages need to get across not face-to-face but over smartphones and laptops.

Thanks in part to a preexisting connection, the Steelers’ most important rookies on offense say they are off to a good start in establishing rapport with their coaches.

Matt Canada and Ike Hilliard were hired as quarterbacks coach and receivers coach in January and February, respectively. Though each worked at UPMC Rooney Sports Complex for several weeks, like the rest of the league’s coaches, government and league edict have since limited them to working from home during the coronavirus pandemic.

Limiting the work of new coaches to video conferencing is less than ideal, but Tomlin reports no issues.

“It has been really good,” Tomlin said via conference call this past weekend. “(Hilliard and Canada) were part of our staff even prior to the shelter-in-place (order), so we had a lot of opportunities to work with those guys in an office-like space. I have known both men for a number of years. A lot of guys on our staff have. So, there is a lot of things to call upon.”

After a two-year absence, the #Steelers will have a designated quarterbacks coach for the 2020 season.

Matt Canada, who spent the 2016 season as the offensive coordinator with @Pitt_FB, will take the role. https://t.co/mxY3hRLcef

— Tribune-ReviewSports (@TribSports) January 16, 2020

Much has been made of Canada’s prior connections to the Steelers. He spent 2016 in the same building when he was Pitt’s offensive coordinator, and he was interim head coach at Maryland when Tomlin’s son, Dino, committed to join the Terrapins.

Three players on the Steelers’ 90-man offseason roster were also on that 2018 Maryland team, including rookie running back Anthony McFarland. The Steelers’ third draft choice last month (No. 124 overall), McFarland gushed about Canada, calling him “one (heck) of a coach.”

“He’s one of my favorite coaches I’ve ever had,” said McFarland, who was a redshirt freshman when Canada took over the program in the summer of 2018. “He left a big, big impact on me when he left Maryland. He showed he cared not just for us on the field; he showed how he cared for us — me, specifically — off the field.

“He was always checking up on me and making sure I was doing the right things. … When a coach coaches you hard like Coach Canada does, you know he wants to make you better. The guys in the room gravitate toward him and his attitude toward the game. The way he speaks, he’s positive always. That’s what I love about Matt Canada.”

Canada helped guide Pitt to its heralded 43-42 upset of eventual national champion Clemson and guided the Panthers to a program-record scoring offense in 2016. He served as the offensive coordinator at seven Division I colleges. Tomlin has indicated Canada will have input on the Steelers’ scheme.

“I’m super excited to be around him again and pick his brain,” McFarland said. “That guy knows a lot.”

Ike Hilliard replaces Ray Sherman, who came out of retirement to serve as #Steelers interim wide receivers coach following the death of Darryl Drake in training camp. https://t.co/gdqEc9WboR

— Tribune-ReviewSports (@TribSports) February 18, 2020

The Steelers’ top draft choice (49th overall), receiver Chase Claypool, has quickly taken to Hilliard, who had spent the past nine seasons as an NFL wide receivers coach, seven of those with the Washington Redskins.

“He seems like he really knows what he’s talking about,” Claypool said. “Obviously, he’s been in the game for a long time (including 12 NFL seasons as a player), so he’s able to of teach me things and make it easy to learn. Rather than just saying things verbatim based off what he hears, he kind of says it in his own words.”

There is a general view of McFarland and Claypool as being high-ceiling, higher-risk prospects. If that is true, coaching would seem paramount. Two of the men responsible for coaching them (alongside second-year running backs coach Eddie Faulkner and offensive coordinator Randy Fichtner) are new to the staff and operating in a unique environment away from a usual one-on-one, in-person instruction at a team facility.

“Much like the instruction and the introduction of the players, we have been able to utilize a lot of the platforms to aid in (Canada and Hilliard) getting settled into their responsibilities,” Tomlin said. “We are excited about having both men. So far, so good.”

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