A wise man once said, “The harder you get coached, the more we have to then . . . coach.”
Well, a couple of Carolina Panthers coaches are hoping to do just that over the coming days.
Senior assistant Jim Caldwell and special teams assistant Daren Bates will be participating in a pair of college all-star games. Caldwell will serve as the head coach of Team Mauka in the 2025 Polynesian Bowl while Bates will serve as the special teams coordinator (East) for the 2025 East-West Shrine Bowl.
Bates talked about his coaching plan with Kassidy Hill of Panthers.com:
“It’s more so just like your OTAs, your rookie mini camp, that type of diagram type of schemes,” Bates explained of how he plans to coach the East roster. “Give them techniques, give them the tools that they will encounter when they do get to a team, to an organization where they know crossface, a back door. They know the bullet technique…So getting a jump on and knowing what they can work on as they go train. We’ll have some competitive drills that get the guys going in front of the scouts, and that’s when, you know, the technique work that we’ll be presenting to them will come about.”
The Polynesian Bowl kicks off tonight at 9 p.m. ET from Kūnuiākea Stadium in Honolulu, Hawaii while the East-West Shrine Bowl will take place on Thursday, Jan. 30 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.