Luke DeCock, News & Observer, discusses the tough Carolina Hurricanes loss

And it is time to bring in Luke Tkach from The News and Observer, columnist extraordinaire, and he joins us on The Adam Gold Show. All right, sir, let's talk, let's start first with Drake May and North Carolina and their, oh, well, they have the same goal. One of them could end up with an individual honor in the Heisman Trophy. First of all, how much has to happen for North Carolina to be in the college football playoff?

A lot. In fact, it's a lot more complicated than what has happened for Drake May to have a realistic shot at winning the Heisman. Oh, far more complicated than that, yes. Yeah, no, Georgia needs to win out. Ohio State and Michigan need to be unbeaten other than when they play each other. Yeah. Yeah, TCU needs to lose. The Pac-12 needs to have two loss. Yes.

The other SEC teams need to lose. It's very complicated. There is.

There is a path. Sure. But it requires almost every game to go the Tar Heels way. And it requires some teams like Tennessee to lose games. They're probably not going to lose. Like if Vanderbilt beats Tennessee, that's the kind of thing that has to happen for UNC to get into the top four.

But there's no reason and this is fine. There is no reason that North Carolina can't win the ACC and play in a New Year 6 Bowl and be reasonably happy with that. If North Carolina wanted to play for a national championship, they should have beat Notre Dame at home.

So getting into the top six or seven and getting a chance to play on New Year's Eve for New Year's or whatever they're calling it this week would be something. But they got to beat State and they got to beat Clemson. Obviously, they have to beat Georgia Tech.

But Carolina needs those quality wins and they need a lot of help elsewhere. I don't think they need Tennessee to lose. Tennessee is going to get in at 11-1 if there's an available spot.

I don't think Carolina needs Tennessee to lose. They need TCU to lose to a three loss team in the Big 12 title game. They need Southern Cal to lose to UCLA this week. So the Pac-12 champ has at least two losses.

They need those to happen. Maybe they need Michigan to lose another game, but Michigan's schedule ain't all that. There's no reason why North Carolina wouldn't go over Michigan as a champion if we're going to pretend that champions of conferences matter. The one difference there, and you know how this committee operates sometimes, the one difference there is that Michigan may not have played anybody but they've been beating the crap out of the people they have played.

It does matter when you're in a group that, quite frankly, uses the eye test pretty heavily. What if the eye test looks poorly when Michigan loses by 30 to Ohio State? Yeah, that could happen too. Talking about what has to happen for Carolina, I think the Pac-12 and TCU are the big things. The SEC is going to sort itself out. The Big 10 is going to sort itself out. I think the most realistic nightmare scenario for UNC is Georgia, Tennessee, Ohio State, and Michigan making the playoffs, and then UNC fans pointing a very angry finger at the court. Yeah, and wanting to join the Big 10. Luke Tkach is joining us here on the Adam Gold Show as he does every Friday. Now, for the Heisman Trophy, I have to assume, and I'm not allowed to tell people that he will be on my ballot.

I'm not allowed to tell them that, so I won't. May is the best quarterback in the country, so if they go 12 and 1, at the very least, people will get a chance to see him against Clemson doing that. Of course, going 12 and 1 is a long shot anyway. I don't know what the odds are of Carolina even beating Clemson, let alone also beating State, also beating Georgia Tech because there's a probability factor there, but let's just say it's a one in four chance or less because it's probably not one in two to beat Clemson. You think a North Carolina quarterback can win the Heisman Trophy?

Yeah, sure, absolutely. I mean, it's a quarterback award. I think it would help if Ohio State and CJ Stroud stumble a little bit, but these things happen gradually and then quickly. I mean, it takes a while for a guy who wasn't in the frame at the start of the season to build up that kind of attention and resume, but it's happening now, right?

The boulders rolling down the hill. There isn't a Devante Smith type wide receiver out there, although you could argue it's Josh Downs. There isn't a 2,500 yard running back out there. There isn't a dominant defensive player out there, although I think there's a couple who are worthy of consideration, but if it's going to be a quarterback year and you have the best numbers and your team beats Clemson on prime time in a championship game, I think you have a good shot to win the Heisman because people are looking around. They're not happy with Bryce Young. They're not overwhelmed by CJ Stroud and then Hooker kind of came and went, but you know, the Caleb, what's his name at USC kind of came and went a little bit. So there's a chance for Drake May to establish himself as the most popular guy at that position this year and there is a lot of competition from other positions. So it's a good year to be a quarterback in the Heisman trophy race.

Not that it ever isn't, but this feels like a particularly good one. That said, I do think, and some people think I'm crazy and some people agree with me, I think there's a conversation about whether Drake May is even the best player on his own team. Nothing against Drake May. I just think Josh Downs is that good. I don't disagree with that sentiment, but I also think you are correct when you said it's a quarterback award, right or wrong.

And I would say wrong that it's a quarterback award, but that's what it's become. Here's what I fear though, is that the same arguments that everybody makes about North Carolina's strength of schedule being so light is the same reason that people not here in North Carolina, in the East, who have seen Drake May play on a regular basis, won't vote for him. And CJ Stroud would get the benefit of the doubt if Ohio State is 13-0 and headed for the college football playoff. That they will just knee-jerk give those votes to CJ Stroud because the numbers for Stroud are very good.

They're not nearly as good as May's, but they are very good. Right now, 34 touchdowns, 4 interceptions. He's been sacked 7 times on the year. He hasn't thrown for as many yards, but I think they gain yards in other ways. Yeah, and that's why beating Clemson is so critical or throwing for 500 yards and a loss to Clemson either. That's going to be the game everybody watches and says, hey, I've heard a lot about this Drake May guy.

I know Clemson's good, even if they're not as good this year as they usually are. So let's see how he does against them. That's going to be the brand name marquee primetime showcase for Drake May and unfortunate or not. He probably shouldn't be. You should be judged on your 12 or 13 games, but he's going to be judged in large part by how he performs in that game.

He performs well. I think he's got a shot. If he's average or Clemson plays really well, or it rains and they can't throw the ball at all, unlike Brian Kelly's Notre Dame in the hurricane, then he probably won't have a shot, but that's just kind of the way this works.

It's not ideal. And to be honest with you, I'm with you. I don't think the Heisman should be a quarterback award. I think we should pay more attention to wide receivers and running backs. I thought Kyle Pitt was a great candidate for the Heisman trophy. He was arguably the best player in college football that year, but you know, that's just not kind of the way it works. The Heisman voting pool is very large.

There are a lot of people who watch four games a year. If that, who get to vote for the Heisman and it doesn't always make sense. I voted for Will Anderson first, last year, Alabama's outside linebacker, edge rusher. I thought he was the best team to scream from the mountain tops about Devante Smith in the end.

I didn't have to, but no, look, it unfortunately had, it didn't used to be that way. We used to be able to have other positions. And I guess at times like Georgia doesn't have an offensive player. That's going to be in the high running for the Heisman.

So it kind of has opened the door for other players, but it didn't open the door for other defensive players because of just the way this whole award now works. One more, one more football thing. When 10 years from now, when, when your grandkids, Luke are asking you grandpa, what happened to NC States football season in 2022?

What are you going to tell them? Oh, you know, it's a great life lesson in that, you know, the things don't always go as planned. It's unforeseen events can have huge consequences.

And most of all, you don't really know when your moment has arrived until after it's gone. As it turns out, NC States moment was last year with that defense, even with all the injuries they had, they beat Clemson, they opened the door to everything and they couldn't get it done against Miami. They couldn't get it done against Wake Forest. They missed their shot.

They came back this year. The receivers weren't ready. You know, Devin Leary obviously struggled to start the year I don't know how much of that was him and how much of that was the play calling, how much of that was the receivers. But you can see now, as we near the end of the season, the way these receivers are playing for MCA Morris, if they played like that at the start of the year, state would have been fine. And the play calling presumably would have been different.

But that's not how these things work. And I think more than anything, that's the lesson is, you know, take advantage of the moment because if you think things are going to get better, sometimes they're better now than you thought they were. And I think that's pretty much the case. The last two years of NC State, everyone was building toward this season. It turns out last season was the time to get it done.

Well, certainly in retrospect, it would appear that way. I still go back to the first drive, the response drive at Clemson after the Tigers kicked the field goal. And we can say all we want about what the Tigers are or can be, they were there to be had that afternoon. And State had a great drive down the field with Devin Leary completing third down passes. And they got inside the 10 and accepted a field goal. And I'm not saying they should have gone for it. But the play calling on first and second downs made it almost impossible on third down to do anything other than, well, let's just not screw this up and kick a field goal. They were never going to win that game with field goals ever. I think there's a mindset that has to change with how this team approaches offense.

Wow. I mean, that's a bigger picture issue. But when you look at sort of what went wrong in this season, the failure of the staff really to plan ahead for the departure of Emeka, Meezy and others is really, I think, what killed them as much as anything. Devin Carter should have been better this year, no? Yeah, 100%. 100%. But he wasn't. Right.

Now you're seeing other younger guys kind of emerge and take those spots. And that's kind of the way it works sometimes. All right.

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Not valid for all card or combo orders. Price and participation in Mayberry and Alaska and Hawaii. The hurricanes still have, is there a moment still ahead of them? Oh yeah, I think that's a little different. I do think last year was a missed opportunity. There's no, you and I agree on that.

There's no question about that. That was, you know, they should have been in a position to put it all on the line against Tampa again and said, really gotten their own way and didn't, didn't get that chance. But they're still in that window. They're going to be in that window for another year.

The question is, can they take advantage of it? And I'm not too worried about what's going on right now. Last night, you hold Colorado to 14 shots. You should win the, you had one, one brain fart by Marty nature's gives up a breakaway.

You played really well. Otherwise, uh, the overtime play and some of the decisions in overtime, like putting Jordan stall out with two defenseman three on three did not give them a chance to win, but they played well enough overall. It's a power play generates anything. They win that game and that's become a persistent issue for this team.

Marty nature said it last night. We were really good on special teams last year. We've been really bad this year.

That's something that has to get fixed, but I think overall in the big picture, um, you know, last night it was a little Helter Skelter at times, but I think that's fine. And they really didn't give up much. Um, you know, one goal was an overtime three on three goal. And the other goal was a, a breakaway on a defensive, you know, switch off and otherwise they had plenty of chances to score on the power play and didn't hit the post. That's just, you gotta, you gotta, you gotta convert on special teams in the NHL. It's really tough to beat good teams with no power play goals. And Hey, we saw that in the playoffs last year.

Yeah. See, I think max already comes back, maybe, but this group and the players they have should be better on the power play. They should be better on the power play. Uh, there's, they're right now very top heavy in the power play.

The second unit is, uh, almost looks very fourth line-ish to me. Uh, and I do think that there are issues on the roster that they either need to address, uh, in one way or another. Some of it is just shuffling players around. The other might be shuffling a player, maybe two out, uh, of the lineup, but that's another story, uh, altogether. And we do have three offensive players out. Andre Kasha hasn't played since the opener. Tevo Terravon has been out for now about a week.

Uh, who knows when he's coming back and patchy ready, we all know is January or February. Um, but the power play is very similar to what it was in the playoffs, which was terrible. And their, their issues are the same, I think, as they were for the second, clearly the last third of last year and that they're generating plenty of great scoring chances and not finishing them there. They're, they're tops in the league at generating grade a scoring chances and near the bottom at converting those into goals. And that's kind of what it was the last third of last season.

Sure. And that's, you know, what max patch already was brought into address. So Brent burns has brought into address. Um, I think burns is going to be fine.

I think you've got better. I think burns is fine. I'm not, I'm not worried about burns at all.

No, no, I, I, yeah, no, that's, that's all fine. We're just going to see what happens when patch already gets back. But again, this is a group, the way Marty Natus is playing this year, um, had very little complaints about him, uh, such the college should have lots of confidence. I think if anything, the way the power plays gone the last couple of games shows you just how important Cara Bynum is, even when he is not scoring because the way he distributes the pocket, the way he moves on the power play. I mean, one of the things about the power play last night, especially the one at the end of regulation is just how stagnant, just five guys standing around in position. It looked like they were playing the Princeton office.

It was terrible. You you've got to figure out ways and there's more motion in the Princeton offense. Roddy pointed, Roddy pointed out afterward that, you know, they ran a couple of set plays and didn't score, but that's no excuse for standing around the game and the balance, passing the puck back and forth. You know, it was, it was, uh, it was, it was, it was just, you know, stultifying and, and, you know, is paybo the key to that? I don't know, but that's a point where I certainly would have, you know, tried to put Mason or somebody out there and put them on the doorstep and started shooting some pucks because it wasn't working, passing it around the perimeter. And that's the biggest problem. I think this power play has is when it starts to get tight and it starts to get nervous. It's the fault. Yeah. Passing the puck around the perimeter, looking for a seam path instead of either, you know, reversing it or pounding it and then hoping for a rebound.

It just, everything has to be pretty and it can't all be pretty. I know you're a pen guy, but you can't, you can't disparage Pete Carrillo's offense by calling it stagnant. The Princeton offense is built on motion, man.

If you like having centers, hold the ball. I don't say I like it. It's just built on motion. Yeah. You're a, you're a, you've, you've bought into the hype. All right.

Luke to cock. You're the man. I appreciate your time. All right. I'll talk to you later. To cock of the news and observers. With the new Chevy Silverado, you might be driving in this, but with the Silverado's redesigned interior and large infotainment screens, it'll feel more like this introducing the new 2022 Chevy Silverado find new upgrades, find new roads, Chevrolet.