WEBVTT

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So please to welcome in the new
head coach of the Carolina Panthers. He's

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got an interesting background in the football
life in his personal life as well.

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What a journey it's been for Dave
Canalis. Welcome to Charlotte, Dave,

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Hey, thanks a lot, appreciate
you having me on the show. John,

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It's a pleasure man. Of course
you're a great follow on social media.

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We all love that. But first
of all, family, we understand

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how important that dynamic has been to
you over these years, the journey to

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get to be a head coach with
the support of your wife, Lizzie and

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that beautiful growing family of years.
I'm a father of three. Can you

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give me some advice on what it's
like to travel that path? My friend?

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You know, a lot of sacrifices
made over the years, and it

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starts with Lizzy. It starts with
her. She put into motion something twenty

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years ago. And I was a
JV junior varsity head coach at Carson High

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School in southern California, and after
two years, she kind of just said,

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you know, you're really good at
this and we can go as far

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as you want to. And I
got your back, and she meant it,

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and you know, she was working
three jobs at times. You know.

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I remember in junior college she actually
took over the cheer program and she

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had a master's so she got a
walk jog class because I wasn't making any

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money, and she did that just
to like make sure that our bills were

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paid and also she can be closer
to the to the program and kind of

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you know, help out. She
always kind of saw it as our dream.

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And you know, as we've added
our kids to the mix, you

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know, they make big sacrifices with
just me being so involved with the team

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stuff during the season, and so
I really like honoring them first because it's

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taken its biggest toll on our family, but it's also been such an exciting

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adventure. How excited are the kids. I mean, this is a big

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step for you, but how excited
are they to say, you know,

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my dad is a new head coach
in the NFL here. I think it

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hit them when they got on a
private jet for the first time, you

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know, with all the snacks and
everything. You know, it kind of

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felt like the kind of felt like
the movie Annie, you know, like

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often to the helicopter AND's got like
you know, snickers at your disposal.

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So anyway, there, we're all
kind of geeking out about this, especially

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how fast it's happened in the last
couple of years, with the jumps,

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with going to coordinator and then head
coach this quickly. But I'm really excited

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because as they've been driving around the
Charlotte area, just my daughter Ashby she's

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going to be fourteen in her excitement
for this beautiful city, and Ben just

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kind of they got to go to
the uh, mister Hendrick's private private car

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collection and got to see some amazing
things cool, so that got him all.

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He's in the cars, so he's
all fired up about NASCAR now.

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And then then just my wife and
I wanted to explore the Carolinas, you

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know, wanted to go to Charleston
and Hilton Head and Asheville some of the

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things we had on our to do
list being over here in Tampa. So

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the whole family is so excited about
it. Well, shifting the football here.

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Bryce Young obviously a former Heisman winner, number one overall pick last season.

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You got to see him twice last
year, and I think that's a

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unique perspective. You talked about it
in your press conference your initial evaluation of

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Bryce during the draft, and what
excitement level do you have in getting to

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coach this guy one on one?
Now, Yeah, I pulled my old

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reports and I said, this guy's
got everything you want and I checked all

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the boxes from football stuff to personal
stuff, you know, because you're looking

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for a leader too at that role. And I said, well, if

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there was one knock, he's not
six three, you know, and that's

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pretty much it. He's accurate,
he's got courage in the pocket, he's

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a leader. He approaches his preparation
the right way. You know, got

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a chance to kind of cruise through
the locker room and wouldn't you know it,

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his is the most organized one in
there. You know. He just

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has the right mentality. And so
he's got everything, and now what he

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needs is just a really strong identity. Offensively, he needs the football to

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be right over there. And then
we'll grow into we will become us,

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and we'll grow into an offense that
features Bryce Young as the quarterback. But

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he doesn't have to be the star
of it. He just has to do

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his one eleventh and get him to
trust that and see what good football looks

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like. Dave's a football junkie.
Don't know if this question was asked yet

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of you, but a player you
faced twice last year Derek Brown, who's

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come into his own as one of
the dominant interior defensive linemen in the league.

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A word on Derek Brown what you
saw on tape and what you witness

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first hand in playing Big number ninety
five last year. Yeah, general comment,

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he affects everything you do. He
affects pass protection, he affects runs,

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he affects when to try this play
or that. Like, he just

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has such a great impact on the
opponent. And then he helps everybody that

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plays around him. The linemen that
play on the sides of him their freer

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because people have to draw attention to
him. The linebackers behind him, they're

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protected. It's no different than having
a great offensive line and handing the ball

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to a running back. While that
running back feels a lot better when those

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guys are awesome, while same thing
for those linebackers. You know, they

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feel more protected, like they can
you know, run sideline to sideline to

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make their plays and then you know, pushing the pocket and you know,

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creating that stress on the quarterback,
it helps the secondary. So he really

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is a focal point of the defense, and it was a real challenge to

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play against him. Dan Morgan's new
general manager, and he's gonna be working

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hand in hand with you, and
he means a lot to those here in

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Carolina who know the history of this
team, and that was evident that press

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conference yesterday. Dave, just a
word about your history with Dan Morgan.

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You were side by side there in
Seattle for years. How excited you to

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share that continuity of thought with a
guy you know very well in this league.

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It just adds to an already crazy
dream coming true with me realizing something

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that I've been shooting for for twenty
years, but then to be able to

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do it with Dan. I spent
seven years with Dan and Seattle. Three

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of those years we were two doors
down from each other, so just like

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you know, I'd come over and
we'd have conversations about this player or that,

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and he just always had a really
clear opinion about talent, about players,

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and like then the track record kind
of shows up later when you look

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in hindsight and you remember or Dan
really liked this guy and he was a

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player like he nailed it, he
knew it, and just the way that

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he was firm about his opinions,
and even as he was just starting his

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career in the scouting world, you
know, he really warranted a good amount

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of respect from the guys that he
worked with there just based on his input,

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you know. So, knowing that
we're looking for the same style of

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player, knowing that we're looking to
have that alignment for what we want the

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whole thing to look like and what
we're trying to build, I think is

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a really critical piece long term as
we look to build a championship environment here.

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Coach, you know you've got a
lot of work to do here,

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and we're gonna let you go here. One last question, your message to

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Panthers fans who've seen the highs and
lows over the past two plus decades here,

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It's going to be good football every
day. We're going to approach it

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as a championship opportunity. We're going
to be crazy about the ball. We're

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going to attack it, we're going
to get after it in practice. And

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for Panthers fans who have the opportunity
to come out and see us during training

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camp or whenever those availabilities are,
they're going to see a brand of practice

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where we're going to be making us. They're going to see the building of

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a champion, the energy that it
requires, the intentionality, the toughness,

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the intelligence putting our players in,
trying to put them in as live a

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situations for the game as possible so
that we can grow our football IQ.

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Those are the things that Panthers fan
can look forward to. And the last

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part is finish. That's gonna be
our calling card. We'll finish days,

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we'll finish drives, we'll finish has, we'll finish games, and ultimately we'll

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finish seasons the right way. If
we can build that mentality that's our nature,

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then we're gonna be really hard to
beat. Dave Canalis, the new

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head coach of the Carolina Panthers,
rolling up as sleeves getting to work with

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Dan Morgan and company. Dave,
you've been too kind of make some time

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for us here, Good luck this
season and can't wait to see what this

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looks like as a finished product.
My friend, Thanks John, look forward

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to talking again.