Three takeaways from Friday, including a new look on defense

In the nearly three years Dave Canales has been head coach of the Panthers, he’s always made an effort to find joy in the smallest moments. A hot day is a great day to grind and get better. A long road trip is a chance to connect with teammates.

It’s a mindset he developed over the years, and he attributes a lot of it to Kippy Brown.

Brown was a longtime coach in both the NFL and at the college level. Between stints in the league, he would return to the sidelines for the Tennessee Volunteers, where he had three different stints as the Vols’ wide receivers coach.

He spent time with several NFL clubs, most recently the Seattle Seahawks from 2010-2014. That meant he mentored and coached with Canales and several other current Panthers coaches, including Darrell Bevell, Pat McPherson, Carl “Tater” Smith, Will Harriger, and Todd Wash, among others.

Brown passed away at the end of August, and his memorial service was Friday in Tennessee. Canales, after starting his day on a memorial radio show and sharing old Kippy stories, made sure to start his Friday presser the same way he normally does, by saying what a beautiful day it had been. Then he honored the man who helped instill that philosophy in him.

“I wanted to just mention, really quick, Kippy Brown, he was a mentor of mine,” said Canales. “The whole Brown family- Jennifer, Jerome, Young, all of them- just coming together; they’re celebrating his life this weekend around the Tennessee football game. He coached there for several years. He was our wide receivers coach in Seattle, a huge mentor of mine, a great influence.

“And just wanted to mention that because today was a lot of fun, a lot of hard work; we try to find joy in what we do, and what I remember about Kippy is he had a way of just bringing joy to the job, and on the hardest days, he’d say something light to kind of loosen up the staff a little bit.

“But just wanted to mention that and give a little appreciation for anybody who knew Kippy and was connected to him.”