So please to welcome in the new head coach of the Carolina Panthers. He's
got an interesting background in the football life in his personal life as well.
What a journey it's been for Dave Canalis. Welcome to Charlotte, Dave,
Hey, thanks a lot, appreciate you having me on the show. John,
It's a pleasure man. Of course you're a great follow on social media.
We all love that. But first of all, family, we understand
how important that dynamic has been to you over these years, the journey to
get to be a head coach with the support of your wife, Lizzie and
that beautiful growing family of years. I'm a father of three. Can you
give me some advice on what it's like to travel that path? My friend?
You know, a lot of sacrifices made over the years, and it
starts with Lizzy. It starts with her. She put into motion something twenty
years ago. And I was a JV junior varsity head coach at Carson High
School in southern California, and after two years, she kind of just said,
you know, you're really good at this and we can go as far
as you want to. And I got your back, and she meant it,
and you know, she was working three jobs at times. You know.
I remember in junior college she actually took over the cheer program and she
had a master's so she got a walk jog class because I wasn't making any
money, and she did that just to like make sure that our bills were
paid and also she can be closer to the to the program and kind of
you know, help out. She always kind of saw it as our dream.
And you know, as we've added our kids to the mix, you
know, they make big sacrifices with just me being so involved with the team
stuff during the season, and so I really like honoring them first because it's
taken its biggest toll on our family, but it's also been such an exciting
adventure. How excited are the kids. I mean, this is a big
step for you, but how excited are they to say, you know,
my dad is a new head coach in the NFL here. I think it
hit them when they got on a private jet for the first time, you
know, with all the snacks and everything. You know, it kind of
felt like the kind of felt like the movie Annie, you know, like
often to the helicopter AND's got like you know, snickers at your disposal.
So anyway, there, we're all kind of geeking out about this, especially
how fast it's happened in the last couple of years, with the jumps,
with going to coordinator and then head coach this quickly. But I'm really excited
because as they've been driving around the Charlotte area, just my daughter Ashby she's
going to be fourteen in her excitement for this beautiful city, and Ben just
kind of they got to go to the uh, mister Hendrick's private private car
collection and got to see some amazing things cool, so that got him all.
He's in the cars, so he's all fired up about NASCAR now.
And then then just my wife and I wanted to explore the Carolinas, you
know, wanted to go to Charleston and Hilton Head and Asheville some of the
things we had on our to do list being over here in Tampa. So
the whole family is so excited about it. Well, shifting the football here.
Bryce Young obviously a former Heisman winner, number one overall pick last season.
You got to see him twice last year, and I think that's a
unique perspective. You talked about it in your press conference your initial evaluation of
Bryce during the draft, and what excitement level do you have in getting to
coach this guy one on one? Now, Yeah, I pulled my old
reports and I said, this guy's got everything you want and I checked all
the boxes from football stuff to personal stuff, you know, because you're looking
for a leader too at that role. And I said, well, if
there was one knock, he's not six three, you know, and that's
pretty much it. He's accurate, he's got courage in the pocket, he's
a leader. He approaches his preparation the right way. You know, got
a chance to kind of cruise through the locker room and wouldn't you know it,
his is the most organized one in there. You know. He just
has the right mentality. And so he's got everything, and now what he
needs is just a really strong identity. Offensively, he needs the football to
be right over there. And then we'll grow into we will become us,
and we'll grow into an offense that features Bryce Young as the quarterback. But
he doesn't have to be the star of it. He just has to do
his one eleventh and get him to trust that and see what good football looks
like. Dave's a football junkie. Don't know if this question was asked yet
of you, but a player you faced twice last year Derek Brown, who's
come into his own as one of the dominant interior defensive linemen in the league.
A word on Derek Brown what you saw on tape and what you witness
first hand in playing Big number ninety five last year. Yeah, general comment,
he affects everything you do. He affects pass protection, he affects runs,
he affects when to try this play or that. Like, he just
has such a great impact on the opponent. And then he helps everybody that
plays around him. The linemen that play on the sides of him their freer
because people have to draw attention to him. The linebackers behind him, they're
protected. It's no different than having a great offensive line and handing the ball
to a running back. While that running back feels a lot better when those
guys are awesome, while same thing for those linebackers. You know, they
feel more protected, like they can you know, run sideline to sideline to
make their plays and then you know, pushing the pocket and you know,
creating that stress on the quarterback, it helps the secondary. So he really
is a focal point of the defense, and it was a real challenge to
play against him. Dan Morgan's new general manager, and he's gonna be working
hand in hand with you, and he means a lot to those here in
Carolina who know the history of this team, and that was evident that press
conference yesterday. Dave, just a word about your history with Dan Morgan.
You were side by side there in Seattle for years. How excited you to
share that continuity of thought with a guy you know very well in this league.
It just adds to an already crazy dream coming true with me realizing something
that I've been shooting for for twenty years, but then to be able to
do it with Dan. I spent seven years with Dan and Seattle. Three
of those years we were two doors down from each other, so just like
you know, I'd come over and we'd have conversations about this player or that,
and he just always had a really clear opinion about talent, about players,
and like then the track record kind of shows up later when you look
in hindsight and you remember or Dan really liked this guy and he was a
player like he nailed it, he knew it, and just the way that
he was firm about his opinions, and even as he was just starting his
career in the scouting world, you know, he really warranted a good amount
of respect from the guys that he worked with there just based on his input,
you know. So, knowing that we're looking for the same style of
player, knowing that we're looking to have that alignment for what we want the
whole thing to look like and what we're trying to build, I think is
a really critical piece long term as we look to build a championship environment here.
Coach, you know you've got a lot of work to do here,
and we're gonna let you go here. One last question, your message to
Panthers fans who've seen the highs and lows over the past two plus decades here,
It's going to be good football every day. We're going to approach it
as a championship opportunity. We're going to be crazy about the ball. We're
going to attack it, we're going to get after it in practice. And
for Panthers fans who have the opportunity to come out and see us during training
camp or whenever those availabilities are, they're going to see a brand of practice
where we're going to be making us. They're going to see the building of
a champion, the energy that it requires, the intentionality, the toughness,
the intelligence putting our players in, trying to put them in as live a
situations for the game as possible so that we can grow our football IQ.
Those are the things that Panthers fan can look forward to. And the last
part is finish. That's gonna be our calling card. We'll finish days,
we'll finish drives, we'll finish has, we'll finish games, and ultimately we'll
finish seasons the right way. If we can build that mentality that's our nature,
then we're gonna be really hard to beat. Dave Canalis, the new
head coach of the Carolina Panthers, rolling up as sleeves getting to work with
Dan Morgan and company. Dave, you've been too kind of make some time
for us here, Good luck this season and can't wait to see what this
looks like as a finished product. My friend, Thanks John, look forward
to talking again.