Carolina Panthers Head Coach Dave Canales spoke to reporters today about a myriad of topics and he says he’s “encouraged by [Panthers Coaches] teaching.” Canales also discussed his thoughts on the new renderings of the proposed upgrades to 28-year-old Bank of America Stadium.
Dave Canales Learned from the Best
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For 13 seasons, Canales worked under arguably one of the best coaches in the entire football world, Pete Carroll. In fact, Pete Carroll is just one of three coaches to win both a college football national championship and a super bowl (along with Barry Switzer and Jimmy Johnson). In those 13 seasons, Canales served as the Seattle Seahawks wide receivers coach from 2010 to 2017, then quarterbacks coach 2018 to 2019, 2022 and passing games coordinator for 2020 and 2021. It’d be impossible (and downright foolish) to not pick up some words of wisdom to coach by.
One of those mantras, if you will, is “a field is a field.” Canales explains, “As far as the stadium itself—what I try to sell to the guys is . . . it’s gonna be green, it’s gonna be 53 and a third, it could be grass, it could be our artificial turfs that we use, it could be frozen, it could be kind of, late in the season, a lighter tan color,” he replied. “So for me, it’s all about what happens in that 53 and a third right there and the guys on the sideline.”
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Expounding on his thought, he continued: “With that being said though, all the excitement of the new stadium—I can’t help but just get fired up about that. Saw the renderings that became public. And for me, as you get to know me, it’s like I have this huge possibilities mindset of just like picturing what it would be like to have championship-caliber team, a team that the Carolinas can be proud of, to get that football part ready.
“So as much as I get focused and excited about what’s happening, it just brings me right back to this practice today. And we got a long way to go to be able to play the kind of ball that we want, with the communication and all that. But it’s certainly an exciting time.”
Dave Canales Likes the Familiarity
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Canales said he was “really encouraged where we’re (Panthers coaches) at with our teaching of our systems.” Canales does note that because of the familiarity of the staff on offense and on defense with the carryover from the previous coaching regime, things are going smooth. “It’s a group of guys that we’re used to working together with so I really feel I feel like we’re ahead of where I was at last year not trying to compare but just looking at you know coming into a situation where I have some some familiarity the carryover has been really refreshing for me.”
Regardless of the level of familiarity Canales may have with his staff, it’s the language and verbiage that must be aligned and Canales finished his thought saying, “As we talked early on, communication is the vehicle.”
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