The Hurricanes responded and won 36-14 to stay undefeated and keep their path toward spots in both the Atlantic Coast Conference Championship Game and 12-team College Football Playoff alive. “Just trying to get us to play our best brand of football,” Ward said this week about the speech. “We’ve yet to do that do that this year. That was really my message with the guys. We came out, making plays on both sides of the ball. I feel like I just helped push give a little more energy into the game, and we came up with a win.” So much talk about Ward has been on his otherworldly stats and his breakout year in his lone season with the Hurricanes that has him in the Heisman Trophy conversation.