What was it like for this coach, NOT coaching at Carter-Finley?

Saturday night at Carter-Finley Stadium. Felt like a football game, but a hockey game was being played on the, well, I guess there's grass underneath. And I believe Dave Doran is going to get a new field out of it all and that's probably pretty cool.

And the head coach at NC State joins us here on the Adam Gold Show. First of all, thank you very much for doing this. I appreciate it.

It's on short notice and I know this is a busy time. It's always a busy time, I guess. What did you think of outdoor hockey at Carter-Finley? Yeah, it was a pretty incredible environment.

You know, it was electric in there. It was fun to see all the fans and the energy. It's nice to be in there as a fan instead of a coach for once, too.

Look, there's fans on the field, the band, the dancers. It really was. It had a college football environment and I don't know if the NHL ever talked to you about it, but I know that was the goal for them is to create that environment and just have a hockey game being played. They pulled it off. Yeah, they did. I think this is the second time they've done that, but it was fun to watch the whole process. I could see them setting it up all week from my office and how many man hours went into that.

There was a lot of planning, I know, to pull something like that off. They're actually taking it apart now as we speak, but it's been incredible just seeing how the NHL operates and the number of people involved in this. Just sitting here on my patio watching it, seeing the flyover, the national anthem, the flag come out on the ice, the fans' participation. It was an incredible evening. What was interesting to me, and we could joke about everybody was there at the start of the second period and the start of the third period as well. Did I see that?

I wasn't sure because I had a monitor in front of me and I was busy. Did I see you chugging a beverage with Marty Smith of ESPN? Chugging, I think you'd be using that term loosely. We had a little toast there to the evening and that was about it.

I can't chug a glass of water, so maybe you and I are similar in that way. But it's been a good week for NC State, especially when they're matched up against North Carolina, if I'm not mistaken. The women on Thursday came back and beat UNC in basketball. I think we had state over UNC wrestling on Friday, then what happened Sunday at PNC Arena with the basketball game, and then last night club hockey. Do you want to play the Tar Heels tomorrow? It's been a great week for the Wolfpack for sure. It's about us more than anything. You get to play your rival across town and it means a lot to the fan bases. To see so many sports succeed since when all this head-to-head started in the last seven days, it's been a great week for all the different sports teams involved. Do you see how many people were there for the club game yesterday? Yeah, two of my sons were there watching and they were sending me videos of it. So have you become kind of a little bit of a hockey fan with the relationship between the Hurricanes and NC State?

Well, it's cultivated it further. I was a hockey fan when I was at Wisconsin. I was one of the first kind of team on the scene in my life. So five years there watching our men's and women's, we had teams there that were national champions multiple times. I got, you know, kind of became a huge fan of the sport there and then didn't have really a chance to be around it for a couple years. And then coming in here, my sons really enjoy watching it and just seeing how the community has embraced the team. It's a lot of fun. It's a great sport. There's some similarities. It's a very physical game, much as your game.

I know it was very cool to watch all of that. I know Rod Brind'Amour, we just talked to him. He wants to see Division 1 hockey here. Do you think we could support Division 1 hockey here? Yeah, I mean, I would love to see it, too.

That's not my decision. Obviously, that's something that goes way up the food chain. But like I said, at Wisconsin, we had it and it was great to be able to watch that. But, you know, I think the Midwest, you see that a little bit more probably in the Big Ten schools than you do anywhere, maybe in the Northeast. But, yeah, it was nice having it there. I don't know how that plays out here. Arizona State and I believe the University of Alabama at Huntsville have Division 1 hockey programs. Think about that. Alabama Huntsville has Division 1 hockey.

There's a lot of Canadians that live in that area because of aerospace stuff. Dave Doran is joining us here on the Adam Gold Show. Can I ask you about your new offensive coordinator and your new quarterback, Robert and I, who worked with Brennan Armstrong at the University of Virginia. Give me your impressions of both of these gentlemen.

Yeah, well, they weren't a package deal. I can start with that. You know, we hired Robert. I faced him four times when he was coordinating at other schools and just a tremendous coach.

I have great respect for his body of work and competing against him was always a challenge. And seeing what he's done in our league, you know, with Brennan at Virginia and with Schrader last year at Syracuse, you know, it felt like it was a great opportunity for us with Coach Beck getting a head job at Coastal Carolina to evolve a little bit offensively. And the timing was good. And Robert has a son that's a coach at Campbell, which is 30 minutes from our campus. So he was able to move closer to his family and granddaughters that he has. So it was a great family move for him.

Came down. We also hired a new line coach from UVA. They had worked together prior at BYU and at Virginia, Garrett, 2J. And after a couple weeks of watching our bowl practices, we started talking personnel and he just said, hey, look, I'd love to get another guy in this mix. We only had at the time two healthy quarterbacks returning.

And from there we started looking at the names in the portal and Brennan was one of the many kids that we tried to get, you know, and started the process there. And it just ended up where that was the right fit for him. It's going to be great, you know, having these guys together. Brennan's done a great job getting in the room with our current quarterbacks with MJ and Ben and Lex and helping teach the offense since he knows it.

You know, he's a good teammate. These guys are starting to build good relationships. And so I look forward to watching them all compete with each other moving forward. So it really takes away my next question, but I'd like you to expand on it. You're going to change what you guys do offensively from what you've done in the past? Yeah, we will change. We're evolving as we speak. And, you know, every offense has some similarities.

So you will see some of those. But Robert's going to do what Robert does offensively. And I think the cool thing about him is everywhere he's been, he's evolved to the personnel. You know, he's not going to make these guys just do what they did at the last two schools. He's going to make this school his school and make these guys perform, you know, in the best ways that they can. And he's got a lot of experience growing up under some different offensive systems, you know, whether it was Rich Rodriguez or Mike Leach. He's learned from some really good coaches, you know, has done some really unique things. So I look forward to seeing how it evolves, how it looks this spring probably will just be the beginning.

It'll evolve from spring into fall camp and as we go. Dave Dorn, before I let you go, Brendan Armstrong, who was two years ago, was one of the best quarterbacks in the league, one of the best quarterbacks in the country because two years ago, this league was just, I mean, loaded with great quarterback play. And I know MJ, for his time before he got hurt, really flashed a high end. Is it your, I guess, anticipation that it will be Brennan for a year and then hand it over to MJ?

Well, I don't know that yet. You know, I think it's not fair to throw in anybody at a position. You know, I think one of the things I love about our program, it's earned, not given. And, you know, Brennan knows he needs to earn that job. And I've told Brennan that MJ and Ben are both competing, you know, and I want to see these guys push each other.

You know, as well as I do that this year, we played with four quarterbacks. So to say it's one guy's job when he hasn't been out there with our guys and our jerseys yet, it's not fair to them. I think, you know, he wants to come in and win the job the right way. These guys want to beat him out. And I think that's awesome to have competition in every position group and won't be any different in that one. Final thing, this is a more procedural thing about the sport.

Dave Doran is joining us and we'll let you go on this. They're talking about, I guess, shortening the game a little bit in college football and maybe removing a few plays. I mean, they're talking about like letting the clock run and incomplete passes.

Why not just time it exactly the way the NFL times a game? Did we lose you? Are you back?

I'm back. Sorry about that. Because they're talking about like maybe letting the clock run during after an incomplete pass. But why not just go to the exact way the NFL times a game in college?

Yeah, I would be in favor of that as well. You know, I think some of these things, they're not willing to take commercials out, but they want to change how we play the game. And it's kind of hard, you know, as coaches to see that because as we all know, every play matters in a game. Start eliminating opportunities to score, defend, you're changing the way the game's outcomes are. We know a model that works. We see it week in and week out in the NFL. There's rules that go with it. It would be great if we're going to modify what we do to match somebody that already has a system that works.

It does seem to work. Dave Doran, I know you had a good time. I hope you get a great field out of it.

I assume you will. By the way, you're pro natural grass or some artificial surface? No, I love the turf here. I mean, NC State's turf management program is elite. We have one of the best surfaces in the world.

So we'd be crazy not to play on that. And it's great for our guys. Excellent. Thank you so much, sir. I appreciate it. We'll talk to you soon. All right. Thanks a lot. Go pack. You got it.