UNC vs Oregon: Holiday Bowl is today!

One of the upsides of doing a show at Capitol Broadcasting Studios here in Raleigh is they're extremely well equipped. We have high digital televisions bringing us not only our shows so I can see myself, but multiple TVs.

And as the joiner coming back, you can understand why gold would be mad and get distracted. One of the downsides of that good technology is there are games on, right? So when I play today's show, I put a bunch of stuff in there between 12 and 2 and then I was like, after 2 o'clock the dude game will be on and I'll just give play by play to that, right? Yeah, there you go. Because I just want to watch the game. I guess, yeah.

But yes, so it can be a little distracting. And you feel a little justified because you're like, well I'm doing a sports show. And I'm talking sports. I need to know if the sports are happening.

Right. You know, whether it's World Cup. Normally the sports are happening at night or on a weekend. But with World Cup, they were, you know, happening in real time. Same is true with the bowl games. If it happens in the dude game, I'll let you know because I will be watching. Yeah.

Right as it happens too. If something happens tonight during the Holiday Bowl, you'll find out about it from Ross Martin's Twitter feed. Follow him on Twitter at RossMartin underscore IC. What's going on Martin? How you doing? Hey, what's up man? It's been a while. Happy to hear your voice.

It's good to hear you as well. I got to start here, far be it from me to tell Inside Carolina how to run their business. But I don't see how San Diego and Ross Martin were not put together in late December.

That seems like a match made in heaven. You could've been walking around there with a short sleeve shirt buttoned, you know, just above your belly button. Cruising the beach. Like, how did you not end up in San Diego my man? Yeah, they offered to send me. I could be there.

I decline, you know. There's stuff going on here as well. It's a long trip.

It's a long, expensive trip. And, you know, we have Adam Smith out there. Adam Smith. And our photographer Jim Hawkins. Yes.

Yes. I'm sure a photographer will do a great job. And like Adam Smith is an extremely nice guy, a good friend, and a great writer. But he just doesn't have the aura that you would walking around San Diego.

There's just no way that Smith can deliver on that type of promise. I needed Ross Martin in the element of San Diego. So, anyway. Yeah, yeah. The weather there is nice. It's like 68, 69, 70 degrees out there.

And it's like, what, been 30s and cold here. I know. Would've been good.

Would've been nice for you. A lot of the discussion between the end of Carolina's last game and when they played tonight have involved the words transfer portal. Guys have left. Is this a problem for UNC? Or is this just, this is what happens in all big-time programs right now?

How do you see it? Yeah, I mean, UNC had a lot of people enter, but they're only really missing Storm Duck and Tony Grimes and Cam Kelly. That's three starters in the defensive secondary. Storm Duck's the biggest loss. He could've come back for an extra year.

He won't play in the bowl game. Other than that, it was people that didn't play. I think that's, you see that a lot with a lot of teams in college football. You're seeing guys who won another chance somewhere else.

So there are a lot of people in from North Carolina, you know, numbers are, I think, you know, double-digit numbers. But there's the really only impact is in the secondary with Storm Duck. You know, it'd be cool for him to play against Oregon with that last name. But they're going to miss three stars back there. But other than that, I mean, Josh Downs, who's opted to enter the NFL Draft and opt out of the bowl game. That's a big loss. I mean, he's been one of the best wide receivers in the country for the last two years. So they'll feel that especially next year to losing him because he's been a difference maker. That's on the ball, but we're really missing the secondary.

That's a young guys get a glimpse of next year's team with what the secondary look like tonight. What about and yes Downs obviously is different. That's not transfer portal. And I think people have come to understand guys who have, you know, they're making million dollar considerations as to where their draft will be in an injury can change those things.

And that's a little bit different. But in the transfer portal specific, I'm gonna talk to chip Patterson more generally about this a little bit later. Obviously, it works both ways guys come into the transfer portal. But is there any internal discussion for UNC about? Well, is there is there a reason guys left and is it something we're trying to is it something that's causing a change or an examination or is that or is it just looked at as this is kind of the new way of the world. You can have a crop of dudes leave and we're going to bring in a cop crop guys and we're not too stressed about it because that's just how it happens now. Yeah, this is the way the world Mac Brown said it said it best, you know, he says if you date we're going to date if you're going to if you're going to look around and leave and search for better options.

We're going to do the same thing. So, you know, UNC has been a little more hesitant and conservative and their pursuits of transfers over the last two or three years. But this year they already have I think six commitments, you know before January to come in. So they've gone out and got some some good players from the group of five. They got transferred from Georgia Tech and transfer from Virginia Tech, you know, some of the user get like guys who haven't played much or looking just for a change in the power five.

You're looking for like standouts in the group of fives. They got a Coastal Carolina Center. They got a really good wide receiver from Kent State got a big game against Georgia. So they've been a little more aggressive.

I think I don't know if that's you know, UNC being a little more lenient or who they let in that was in trouble before you're trying to figure out who they could get in with with hours. What can be transferable but they got to be aggressive. It's the way the world you have to build your roster. You have to build depth because if you lose players got to replace the best way to do it. Ross Martin joining us from inside Carolina is there a I think the return of the Mac era has been successful. There have been letdowns obviously along the way. There's times where there was a chance to get a big win that would take your program to a next level. But overall, if you step back and you're like returning to bowl games, you know, getting a 10 win season, get national buzz, big, big time game talk. Obviously, the Mac era has been successful.

That's also getting older. Does he ever talk about what the end plan is? I mean, nobody thinks the max rushing out the door, but also nobody thinks Mack Brown's going to coach for another 10 years. What is there ever any discussion about how the Mac era ends in the next, I don't know, three to five years.

I'm not I'm not I'm not trying to bring it to an end. I'm just curious sort of how they it's been a good relationship for both sides, right? Mack Brown returned to college football has been good to people and it's brought energy and wins back to North Carolina.

Where does it go and what's the best way to put a bow on the Mac Brown era, even if it is five years from now? Yeah, there's not been much discussion, you know, kind of asked sometimes off the record. I mean, there's no plan to retire. It's kind of similar to Roy Williams. Like you knew it was coming at some point because that can't cost forever.

But there was never, you know, because it affects recruiting. If you say you're going to retire in a year or say you're in a car two years. So Mac has a he has a kind of a rolling one year extension every year. So you have like a five year contract.

That's what they do to kind of keep security and safe face there. But look, you could retire, you know, it could be after this season could be in one year, could be two years. We don't know the energy, you know, is still there. He's still sharp. It's definitely you definitely have more of a CEO role like it was when he got here. I mean, he's not super, super involved in terms of game planning.

The action knows and known exactly what the office defense does. But to see your first first point, it hasn't successful. It's raised the floor of UNC football. They won five games the last two years of Larry Fedora. And they've been to a bowl game now four straight seasons.

The recruiting and talent level has been better. I think fans are disappointed in the defensive play and they haven't really won the signature win. They've lost three games in their name. They lost to Clemson now twice. You know, this game against Oregon, I think, would be kind of a signature win. They've yet to have that big victory. That's what fans are kind of pining for.

So he's raised the floor. But he hasn't taken the next step in getting to the point where you're in the top 25 every week and you're beating ranked teams. And honestly, in the coastal of the ACC, you don't play many ranked teams, right? You don't have that many teams.

But every time, they haven't won. UNC and Oregon have never met before. Obviously, when you get down to these historical things, they don't really matter because these players wouldn't have known if they met in like 1975 one time or whatever anyway.

But I found it a little odd. I know UNC is without guys, including Josh Downs, obviously just a huge weapon. And I know the team doesn't talk about point spread. I was a little surprised when I looked and saw this as like a two-touchdown game.

Is there anything that would lead you to understand where that came from other than just people seeing headlines of guys who aren't playing the game and reacting? And just saying, oh, if whoever is better at strength, we're going to give the nod to them? That seemed like a big margin for me. Yeah, so I think this stat is critical. Oregon has given up four sacks the whole year, which is number one in the country. So they have an awesome offensive line. They can run the ball. They have a really good quarterback in Bo Nix.

They have a really good offense, just like UNC. But they're not giving up the sacks at all. And UNC cannot rush the passer.

Neither can Oregon. Both have only gotten 16 sacks, which is like 128th in the nation. So it's kind of good offense versus good offense.

And then, you know, bad offense versus kind of bad offense. Oregon has, sorry, bad defense versus kind of bad defense with Oregon being like 75th in the nation total defense. So I think Notre Dame's offense is going to be dominant against a really bad UNC defense.

That's going to be the difference there. I think it will be a high-scoring game. I think Drake will be able to move the ball. I think Kobe Passour will step in for Josh Downs. They'll be able to run the ball a little bit and throw the ball, like usual, like they have all year.

But I don't think UNC can be able to stop Oregon in terms of their rushing attack, their passing attack. I'm going to give it four sacks. That just stands out to me. So that's where you get the big number from.

I think it did down to 13 today. I don't know why that happened. But it is a big number. That's a lot of points there, hey. Because everybody looked and was like, whoa, 14's way too many. So some people actually took the points.

So it started moving back down. But that does seem. Jokes aside, just a behind the curtain type thing. Outlets, many outlets that used to never talk about gambling do talk about it now. I mean, ESPN has the point spread, you know, in the scroll where they're telling you the games. Do you guys, have you guys started incorporating more gambling discussion? Is that something that you talk about in articles and on podcasts at Inside Carolina? I think we'll have, you know, spread and over and under in articles here and there. We don't like have like a gambling show or a gambling article. I don't think we ever shied away from mentioning the spread either.

I think that was mostly like, you know, ABC related family programs. But it's certainly part of the discussion now. So yeah, I mean, and I think everybody's aware of the points over there or the spread. I think, you know, I'm not sure if players and coaches are, but everybody else is very aware of that. I'm sure, I'm sure Mac Brown is playing off this underdog thing. I'm sure that that's the talking point in the locker room all week. I'll be the talking point, the pregame speech. I mean, no one expects you to win.

No one expects you to be here all this stuff and try to find some motivation because they need that after last year's. Disaster against South Carolina, the Mayville Bowl. They need to come out and look a little better against Oregon. Yeah, Ross Martin joining us from inside Carolina. I know we got ACC basketball actually creeping up at the end of the week.

But I'm just keeping football since we've been trying to be true to these bowl games. My final question, how does, was there anything North Carolina did in the offseason between, say I'll get the years wrong. But the year that they came in preseason number 10 and then obviously didn't quite meet those expectations. This will be another year where I don't know exactly where they'll be rated preseason. But because college football seems to be so quarterback driven and they will have one of the most tight quarterbacks. They will be kind of a hype team.

Do you think Mac or anybody in the program, including marketing or whoever, will do anything different with, you know, the Drake May hype than they did with the Sam Howell hype in order to, in the offseason? Yeah, Heisen campaigns are interesting. You know, UNC kicked off the Drake May Heisen campaign about mid-season. I think it was right after the like the weight game or right after the Virginia game, like right when, you know, things are rolling and then they end up losing three straight to Georgia Tech State and Clemson. I don't think he won after they ran that, ran that graphic video for Heisen campaign.

So I think you're, you have to be pretty hesitant about Heisen campaigns and stuff. I mean, certainly Drake May is going to be the poster boy for college football. He should be preseason ACC player of the year next year after winning it this year.

So he'll be, you know, the marketing guy all offseason. But I doubt they'll push Heisen until, you know, UNC is five and one or six and one or something like that next year. They have a tough schedule next year and it's so, so hard for a team like Carolina with the Heisman. But I think with Sam Howell, they started preseason with it. I mean, it started like in the offseason by the Heisen campaign. So I imagine it'll be a little bit more, I mean, state, state started kind of, kind of last year, right? For Leary, I believe as well.

So it's an interesting thing. But yeah, I mean, you see where UNC is next year. They return a lot on offense. I think the offense can be just as good next year. The defense though is always a question. I think you were starting to realize, like, they don't play good defense at UNC. That's holding them back the last four years. So unless something changes there, like, I don't know how you can put this team in the top ten even with Drake May. Especially like whipping into the offseason, whipping into 2 by the 23.

Yep, that's pretty smart. Yeah, you're right. That's probably the best thing they can do to keep their next year expectations down is to lose their final three games. Throw a bowl game loss in there and that'll do it just fine. But I regret for you and for all of us that you aren't out in San Diego to give us live updates in person. But we can still follow you on Twitter for insights to the game, at RossMartin underscore IC. And check out all the writing that they're doing over there about the game, about football. And of course, moving into basketball season. Ross, we appreciate the time.

I wish you'd come on yesterday. We were going through the top 30. I was only looking for top ten. Most purchased ABC store items in North Carolina for the year 2022. Do you want to take a crack at what number one was?

Most purchased ABC item in 2021, 2022? Yeah. I got big fireballs done.

Is it? That's tough. I'll go fireball.

Fireball was like number seven. I thought you might get it because like you're in the age where it's like the one that everybody drinks. Everybody's.

If I told you the vodka, what would you guess? Oh, is it high noon? No. I didn't see high noon on there. I thought they were clarifying that one a little bit different.

But this was all basically stuff that comes in bottles. Okay. What is it? Tito's. Come on, man. I thought you were cool. That's the rival of my sponsorship of Blue Shark Vodka. Well, I'm sorry.

I didn't know that. I didn't know you had a Blue Shark sponsorship vodka. My bad. Enjoy the game and enjoy the rest of 2022. Have a happy new year, my man. Hey, man.

See you next year. Follow him on Twitter. Ask Ross.

He's got me all tripped up now. Ross Martin underscore IC. I forgot. I forgot. Like, you know, you know, it's coming on like the 30th and 31st.

I forgot. We are now in. See you next year. Watch. What do you mean?

What do you mean? I'll see you on Monday. That's next year. That's technically next year.

Oh, yeah. I've been here in this stuff for a couple of weeks because as you've noticed, there's not a lot of people in the building. So last week people were, yeah. See you next year. Why am I going to see you for a year? No, I'll see you in a week. But it'll be next year. Yeah. The barn's good, dude.