Dave Canales expresses 'great admiration' for Dabo Swinney

Carolina Panthers head coach Dave Canales enjoyed meeting with Clemson Tigers head coach Dabo Swinney for the first time last week. While speaking to reporters after Panthers Fan Fest at Clemson’s Memorial Stadium, Canales opened up about what he likes about Swinney.

“I just have such great admiration for him. I’ve just followed his career from afar,” Canales said. “It was great to meet him for the first time really today. They were gracious enough to open their facility to us. Beautiful indoor practice facility. They let us use their locker room and just really made us feel at home and really just kind of see the culture of the different people and coaches that are involved in Clemson football, and to see the love and respect that just kind of emanates from this staff.

“You know that it starts at the top and certainly that’s what I hope we can build here is to have that kind of culture where people come in and they feel seen and they feel respected. It was great to just spend those couple of moments with him.”

Panthers Fan Fest took place on Aug. 1, and the team had a live practice at Clemson’s stadium. The reason the Panthers, who are based in Charlotte, traveled to Clemson, South Carolina for the event is Memorial Stadium is the original home of the Panthers in 1995.

“That’s part of the fans being here and creating that extra energy,” Canales said. “A little bit of that, you know, that game day excitement that might have gotten to some guys, so we needed that for sure, just to get a litmus test of where we’re at because we’ll be playing another game in about a week here.”

Can Dave Canales have the same success as Dabo Swinney?

Panthers fans are hoping Canales can have the same success Swinney has had at Clemson. Swinney has been the head coach of the Tigers since 2009 (interim head coach during 2008 season) and has compiled a record of 179-43. The former Alabama Crimson Tide wide receiver has led Clemson to 12 bowl wins, eight ACC titles and two national championships.

Canales is entering his first year as the Panthers head coach. The Los Angeles native was the Tampa Bay Buccaneers offensive coordinator last season and helped the team reach the divisional round of the playoffs. Before joining the Bucs, Canales was a longtime assistant coach for the Seatttle Seahawks and was on the staff when the team won the Super Bowl during the 2013 season.