Dave Canales - Head Coach, panthers Event: Press Conference | Date: 2026-09-11 | Full transcript (primary source).
Dave Canales, Head Coach of the Panthers, addressed the media during a press conference on September 11, 2026. The conference included discussions on various topics, including the recent sanctioning of high school girls flag football in North Carolina and updates on player health and performance.
Transcript
Canales: Okay, first of all, huge congratulations, high school girls flag football in our state, North Carolina across the state. This week's their first week of competition. I can't even imagine how much work went behind getting the sports sanctioned, something that's been in the works for a really long time. And I know something near and dear to Nicole Tepper's heart and Christy and all the whole crew just pitching in to help any way they can. It was great to have them out to practice and greet them and be a part of the celebrating this. And for me, I have three daughters and I got a junior in high school, who knows, you might want to try her hand at some football. She's been around it long enough and then I got younger girls, 10 and 8 years old. So this is something that could be a part of their future, a really exciting time.
Canales: I won't talk about the contract, that'll be more of a Dan Brent conversation. But with Turk, just what I see right now, he looks explosive. He looks amazing. He's fit. He's ready to go. Of course, it's just about structural integrity and making sure he's ready to rock when that time is and we'll ramp him the right way and we have a whole team of doctors that are all over this and they'll be able to give us the nod when he's ready to go.
Canales: No limitations, just ready to see him play and try to utilize his talents the best way possible with some different things but also just running the football. Very excited to see Chuba get back to his work and this is a tandem that we've been thinking about for a really long time and I'm excited to see those guys get out there and help their team.
Canales: I mean when one of your best players is also one of the hardest workers, the type of effort that he practices with, that he plays with, you know, when we show the style of football that we're looking for, Derek Brown jumps off the tape. No better room than for Lee Hunter, Aaron Hall to be in there, Teira to be in there to see what an example looks like of a guy who is conscientious about what he does and then just plays with everything he has so I love that they get to see that first hand and I'm excited to see those guys play their first regular season football.
Canales: Yeah, he's been a guy that we've had ready to go for a long time but he had some success in college as well. He hasn't had as much opportunity here, you know, we've really counted on him on the offensive side but we're trying to make yards in any way possible and he's big and fast, he's courageous and willing to help the team any way he can so I'm excited for Xavier to be able to help us that way.
Canales: Absolutely, it's just like with any position, if there's a way to get the guys out there on the field, to just feel the pace of the game, get their body right, you know, for example I love being on kickoff when I played in college, it was one of my favorite things and because it was always like oftentimes you start the game that way, you know, depending on how the coin toss goes and who selects what but you run down there like crazy, it's just kind of like the epitome of the sport, you know, it's you against the opponent full speed in space trying to make plays and it just woke me up and I was a receiver so it just kind of got me ready in my mind, right, so I think that does help just kind of prime you for whatever, however way you can contribute.
Canales: He's ready to go and I'll leave it at that.
Canales: We'll use a bunch of the guys in different series with different packages, we're going to be really counting on all of them, will he start, will it be Travis on the other side of JP, it'll be a mix of those guys, Thomas Nkum is going to have to help us as well and he's had a phenomenal camp, a guy that continues to get better in the techniques playing on the edge, so those are the guys that, you know, we're going to count on.
Canales: Absolutely, and not so much the special teams part of it, but just to add another body in that room to be able to get out there and take some significant, maybe not very significant snaps, but they're all important to me, but to have a guy that's been with us for a while was with us a little bit last year at Moon, and then coming back in camp and being able to show us what he can do, I'm glad he was available and we can get him back.
Canales: Absolutely, that's the growth that we were asking for, is to make sure that you can give quality snaps on whatever down it is. While Princely does have a featured role as a rusher, he's certainly grown a lot. A.C. Carter's been working with him just on his hand placement, taking on blocks, setting edges, doing different things like that, and so that's another element that they really took steps in, and we want to see it come alive this season.
Canales: Well, it's our job as coaches to put him in different positions to make sure he continues to have an impact on what we're doing offensively. Fortunately for us, TMac has done a great job of handling whatever we've thrown at him since he was a rookie. That also plays into his role last year, and being able to be recognized as offensive rookie of the year was because he was able to retain those things, and we can move him around, and Brad did a great job of balancing that part out last year, and it's going to continue to be a part of what we do.
Canales: He's fired up. Currently, right now, they're trying to have a baby, so our prayers have been with them all day, and I haven't got any updates yet since we went out to practice, but thinking about him and Emily, but with all that being said, it was this week having the extra time to prepare to get the game plans ready. I got to call the plays today. I mean, Brad, I'm sorry, man. I don't know if I'm going to be, I feel like Gollum a little bit, like my precious in my hands, but I think I did well. I think it was okay, but Bryce kind of looked back and heard a familiar voice, but I'm just glad that we're all working together, and for Brad, he'll be ready to go.
Canales: Correct.
Canales: I don't know. I don't have any of the updates, and I know for Lizzie and I, there was a sweet window even when we had our babies when we didn't right away start sending pictures and texting, and it was just the three of us, and it's a special moment, and you kind of want to drag that out as long as possible before you invite everybody else into that moment. So I'm respecting that.
Canales: Yeah, it's a football season, man. We're fired up. It was amazing. It was awesome to just, you know, watch the Seahawks Patriots the other night for a little bit, and then to see the Rams Niners go head-to-head all the way in Australia. But it's just a good reminder of why we do this and how fortunate we are. So I come into it with a lot of gratitude, a lot of excitement, and I try to hand that over to our guys. It's like, yes, guys, these are high-stakes moments. These are the greatest days of our lives as we're here, you know, to compete, to play with each other, and to see what this season can be. And that's the excitement going into it, and how quickly can we become the best version of the 2026 Panthers.
Canales: Well, to start off, you know, we've really just been together. We really built this offense off of the things we learned from different guys in Seattle that we were with and in Tampa, you know, looking around the league. So we really did build this run game, pass game, all together with Goody. And so a lot of it, he knows the heart of what we're looking for, and he understands that the run game is what ties in our entire philosophy of our football team, the toughness aspect that we talk about. It starts with the run game. You know, that's my reminder to him, but at the same time, that doesn't mean we've got to be stubbornly about one thing or the other. Take what they give you and be aggressive. And I've seen him do that. I've seen him take his shots. I've seen him, you know, highlight and triple circle his favorite plays on there. It's like, look, when you get to be a play caller, man, don't take that call sheet into the locker room without calling your favorites, without calling your babies. And that also goes with the conversation with Bryce, you know, and he's been a part of those conversations. So I expect that carry over. That being said, there's going to be some lessons to be learned. And that's the way it is. And my first time calling it, you're as ready as you're going to be, and then you start stacking lessons. You start learning different situations and start interfacing with different people, with looking at it from a different lens. And did you ever think about doing this in that situation? And I try to take all that information, and I'm going to ask Brad to do the same thing.
Canales: I really got into it in the third quarter and watched a little bit of the fourth before I got to work tomorrow. But the environment looked cool. I mean, it definitely looked different. It said 65 degrees, and I was like, what's that? It was just kind of a different feel that way. But it's just football. And the field was the same size, and the goalposts were the same width. And at the end of the day, who can travel the best and who can be organized that way to get out there and have a competitive game is what these international games comes down to in the organization of it. But it was really cool to see that a game could be played, and it was just football when I was watching it. So I enjoyed it.
Canales: Yeah, I think it's like anything in life. That delayed gratification when you've worked so hard for something, and you've had to overcome hardships, and people experience this in family and in business. And football happens to be our business, and JB just wants to get back to work. And the joy that he's brought to our group in the process also is special to me because of what a teammate he was during the time as he's rehabbing. Again, and he just stayed around the guys, and he stayed engaged in what we were doing. He's walking out to practice and high-fiving guys in the stretch lines. He doesn't get to practice that day for a while. But to see that consistency of his character, to see the guys embracing as their teammate, even though we haven't played that many games together, he has very much been with us this whole time. So it'll be special.
Canales: All right, thank you very much, Coach.
Canales: All right, thank you.
