Mountaineers Defeat Tar Heels in Duke's Mayo Bowl Rout

Wednesday, December 27

Charlotte, NC

5:30 p.m.

West Virginia University

9-4 , 6-3

North Carolina

8-5 , 4-4

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

North Carolina

West Virginia

Photo by: All Pro Photography/Dale Sparks

December 27, 2023 09:02 PM | Football

Box Score 2023 Duke's Mayo Bowl Neal Brown Press Conference 2023 Duke's Mayo Bowl Player's Press Conference (Beanie Bishop Jr., Garrett Greene, Lee Kpogba)2023 DMB Postgame quotes West Virginia 2023 DMB Postgame quotes North Carolina 2023 Duke's Mayo Bowl Final Stat Book Photo Gallery

By: John Antonik

CHARLOTTE – West Virginia scored on the game's opening play and never looked back in a 30-10 victory over North Carolina in tonight's Duke's Mayo Bowl at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina.

The Mountaineers began the first possession with game MVP Garrett Greene's 75-yard touchdown pass to Traylon Ray and then limited a backup-heavy Tar Heel offense to just one touchdown and no points in the second half.

West Virginia also was playing without some key performers, including All-America center Zach Frazier and leading rusher C.J. Donaldson Jr., but it had Greene, its starting quarterback, while North Carolina was without its first-round starting quarterback Drake Maye and several others.

Greene completed 12 of his 23 pass attempts for 228 yards and added 64 yards on the ground to help the Mountaineers to 392 yards of total offense.

But the story tonight was a WVU defense that sacked North Carolina quarterback Conner Harrell seven times and pitched a shutout in the second half.

UNC's leading rusher, Omarion Hampton, was limited to a net of 62 yards, and the Tar Heels managed just 140 yards on the ground for the night when counting sacks.

Harrell completed 18 of his 27 attempts for 199 yards but was picked off twice and was under constant pressure all night long.

"This is a special group," West Virginia coach Neal Brown said afterward. "I've really enjoyed coaching them, and we answered the bell tonight."

This evening's victory was doubly special for Brown, whose team was picked to finish last in the Big 12 but ended up with nine victories for the first time since the Mountaineers finished the 2016 campaign with 10 wins.

"How about our defense and our special teams?" Brown said. "I thought our defensive line was outstanding, and Mountaineer Nation really showed up and did an incredible job."

It did, with almost all the announced crowd of 42,925 tonight wearing Old Gold and Blue.

In between Ray's touchdown and Michael Hayes' short field goal to end the first half, three holding penalties, an illegal man downfield penalty and D.J. Oliver's fumble thwarted promising Mountaineer drives.

The Oliver fumble came on a first-down gaining carry at midfield and resulted in Michael Burnette's 28-yard second-quarter field goal for the Tar Heels. The illegal man downfield penalty erased Hudson Clement's 37-yard reception to the UNC 23, while a second holding penalty called on tackle Doug Nester forced Hayes to try an unsuccessful 52-yard field-goal attempt.

Prior to Hayes' miss, West Virginia was set up with great field position when Oliver Straw's punt bounced off the leg of North Carolina blocker Christian Hamilton and Marcis Floyd recovered the ball at the UNC 26.

Beanie Bishop Jr. gave the Mountaineers a brief 11-point lead when he took Tom Maginness's low punt 78 yards for a touchdown with just 1:29 left in the second quarter. It was WVU's first punt return for a score since Marvin Gross Jr. recovered a blocked punt in the end zone against Oklahoma State in 2017 and the first-ever Mountaineer punt return for a score in a bowl.

North Carolina's lone touchdown drive of the first half covered 76 yards in just five plays and was helped by Malachi Ruffin's pass interference penalty on Jon Jones Jr. down the far sideline.

Two plays later, instant replay gave Jones a 16-yard touchdown catch down the far sideline after it was ruled incomplete on the field, but it also looked like he pushed off the West Virginia defender before making the catch.

However, WVU needed just 27 seconds to travel 63 yards to get Hayes in position to end the half with his field goal. The big play was Greene's pass to Clement for 32 yards to the UNC 43.

Another potential UNC score was thwarted in the first quarter when Harrell overshot his tight end and Aubrey Burks picked off the pass in the end zone, but WVU was unable to do anything with the turnover.

Harrell's second interception on the opening drive of the third quarter, a great one-handed grab by defensive end Tyrin Bradley, also hurt the Tar Heels.

On WVU's ensuing drive, UNC's Kaimon Rucker tackled Jahiem White for a 4-yard loss on a second-down run, and Greene's pass under pressure out in the flat to Kole Taylor on third down was dropped.

West Virginia used a couple of North Carolina penalties to tack on to its lead with 2:40 left in the third quarter. A kick-catch interference penalty on Chris Culliver gave WVU the ball at its 30 and then an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty called on Antavious Lane during Greene's first-down run moved the ball 15 more yards to the UNC 41.

The WVU drive stalled at the Tar Heel 24 yard-line where Hayes kicked a 34-yard field goal to make it 20-10 in favor of the Mountaineers.

After forcing a North Carolina punt, it took West Virginia just three plays to reach pay dirt. Greene began the drive with a 48-yard run to the Tar Heel 30. Then, he flipped a 24-yard pass to Taylor, who jumped over Amare Campbell to the WVU 6. An illegal motion penalty moved it back to the 11, where White took a Greene handoff and ran it into the end zone.

Hayes' conversion kick made it 27-10 Mountaineers.

North Carolina's unsuccessful fourth-and-5 pass at its own 26 led to three more points from Hayes, although it came from a lot closer than originally planned. The Tar Heels stopped WVU at the 21, but holder Leighton Bechdel took Austin Brinkman's snap on a fake and ran the ball to the UNC 4. West Virginia went backwards from there, leading to Hayes' 29-yarder to conclude the scoring.

Tonight's victory was the Mountaineers' 17^th in 40 all-time bowl appearances and their second in this bowl game against North Carolina. Neal Brown is 2-1 in his three bowl-game appearances coaching West Virginia.

This is WVU's second bowl win over the Tar Heels in Charlotte. In 2008, WVU rallied to beat the Tar Heels 31-30 in the Meineke Car Care Bowl.

The win gives WVU a 9-4 record to conclude the regular season and gives the Mountaineers a lot of momentum heading into the offseason with several key offensive players returning in 2024.

Afterward, the partisan West Virginia crowd remained in the stadium to watch Neal Brown have a bucket of mayonnaise dumped on his head, a bowl tradition here.

Keep the momentum rolling in 2024! New season ticket deposits are available for just $99 at WVUGAME.com. Deposits are for new season ticket orders only as renewing season ticket holders will receive renewal information in the coming months.