By R.L. Bynum
CHARLOTTE — Quarterback Conner Harrell showed plenty of athleticism, speed and running skills in the challenging role of taking over for Drake Maye.
In his first college start, the redshirt freshman was impressive at times but also made a couple of ill-advised passes playing without the same talent around him. West Virginia ultimately made all the big plays in a 30–10 Duke’s Mayo Bowl victory in Bank of America Stadium on Wednesday night.
“There’s not one thing to blame, not one person to blame,” Harrell said. “We’ve just got to be better in every phase of the game.”
After sending the fans’ expectations sky-high with a 6–0 start, UNC (8–5) finished the season with five losses in the last seven games, leaving fans discouraged heading into the offseason.
“We’ve got to figure out why we’re not finishing well. We’re so close,” said UNC coach Mack Brown, who wants the program to get past eight or nine wins. “We’ve got to get over that hump to get to more, so my job the next six months will be to figure out why are we doing so well early and not doing well late.
“We’ve got to get it fixed,” he said. “There are a lot of opinions with people who don’t have any information. I’m the one who has to make decisions. Those opinions are easy. Those decisions are hard.”
It was a big indication of how the Tar Heels fans felt that West Virginia had a huge advantage in the number of fans at the stadium.
Three game-changing West Virginia plays — a 75-yard touchdown pass on the game’s first play, a 78-yard first-half punt return and a 47-yard fourth-quarter run — combined with UNC’s lingering special-teams issues to make an already challenging night tougher for the Tar Heels.
“We had our chance, and we didn’t finish it like we should,” Brown said.
This Carolina team was very different from the one that opened the season on Sept. 2 in Charlotte with a 31–17 win over South Carolina. Twelve Tar Heels who started that game didn’t play Wednesday, and six players who started the 39–20 regular-season-ending loss at N.C. State weren’t in uniform.
Maye’s absence was huge, but Carolina clearly also missed Corey Gaynor’s blocking on the offensive line and wide receiver Tez Walker’s big-play potential.
“The quarterback did a really good job of getting a couple big plays in the passing game,” Brown said. “I thought Conner competed. I didn’t think we helped him enough. We didn’t give him enough protection.”
Harrell, who tweaked his ankle in the first quarter, finished 18 of 27 for 199 yards, one touchdown, two interceptions and a 126 passer rating, connecting three times for 74 yards to wide receiver Gavin Blackwell and four times for 53 yards and one TD to wide receiver J.J. Jones. Harrell ran 16 times for 46 yards.
“I think I did make some throws. I scrambled some,” said Harrell, who offered no excuses for the two interceptions. “Having a little bit of experience, being out there under the lights is different. So that does give me more confidence, knowing that you’ve done that before.”
Carolina came up short despite getting more first downs, 20–16.
Running back Omarion Hampton ran 19 times for 65 yards.
Linebacker Power Echols (11 tackles), defensive back Stick Lane (seven tackles), senior Kaimon Rucker (five tackles) and freshman cornerback Kaleb Cost (five tackles) led the defense.
“It’s just one of those situations where you just need to move on,” Rucker said. “It hurts. It does. I could probably honestly say that the boys in the locker room are the people I’m going to miss the most. You cannot let a loss define you and control your attitude from here on out. I just have to put it behind me and get back to work.”
West Virginia (9–4) led 17–10 at halftime, largely from two plays. It took 11 seconds for West Virginia to take the lead when quarterback Garrett Greene found wide open wide receiver Traylon Ray for a 75-yard touchdown pass.
Blackwell made a nice catch down the right sideline on Harrell’s first deep pass for a 47-yard gain. Harrell overthrew a pass to Deems May in the end zone two plays later; it went right into WVU free safety Aubrey Burks’ hands for an interception.
“I thought the first one probably was a force,” Brown said of Harrell’s interceptions. “It was over the middle, and there were two safeties there, and he had a chance but threw it a little high. The second one was inches away. That young guy made a great play, and Deems is going to have a 20-to-30-yard run. But the guy jumped up and made a great catch and Conner didn’t get it quite high. So he’ll learn a lot from tonight’s game.”
Jack position player Amari Gainer forced a fumble, which cornerback Armani Chatman recovered, to end the next Mountaineers drive. Noah Burnette booted a 28-yard field goal after the drive stalled at the WVU 10 with 8:34 left in the first half.
Carolina gift-wrapped excellent field position at the UNC 26 when a punt went off Christian Hamilton’s leg and WVU’s Marcis Floyd recovered it. The Tar Heels survived that thanks to big defensive plays, including a big hit from Cost, as Michael Hayes’ 52-yard field-goal attempt was short.
After a UNC three-and-out, though, WVU’s Beanie Bishop Jr. returned a punt 78 yards for a touchdown with 1:29 left in the first half.
Carolina quickly drove for a 24-yard touchdown play as Jones made a spectacular catch on a lofted Harrell pass while backpedaling in the left edge of the end zone with 27 seconds left. But WVU drove for a 30-yard Hayes field goal as time expired to take a seven-point halftime lead.
Harrell underthrew a pass intended for May to end a promising first drive after halftime, and Tyrin Bradley intercepted it. WVU drove on the ensuing drive for a 34-yard Hayes field goal to push its lead to 20–10 with 2:40 left in the third quarter.
Running back Jahiem White’s 11-yard touchdown run with 12:48 left came two plays after Greene shot up the middle and ran for 47 yards. A 29-yard Hayes field goal with 7:58 left put the Mountaineers up by 20 points.
Game MVP Greene was 12 of 2 for 220 yards, one touchdown, and had nine carries for 75 yards.
NOTES — The bowl sold no tickets in the upper part of the stadium on the UNC side, but fans were in several upper-stadium sections on the West Virginia side, with the attendance announced at 42,925. For last season’s Maryland 16–12 victory over N.C. State, the entire upper stadium was empty and the crowd was announced as 37,228. … Carolina’s Bryson Nesbit had a brace on his left leg and fellow tight end John Copenhaver got around with his right leg on a scooter. … Hampton passed Elijah Hood and finished the season with the second-most rushing yards in a single season in UNC history with 1,504 yards. Only Don McCauley had more yards in a single season, with 1,720 yards in 1970. … It was the Tar Heels’ fifth consecutive season making a bowl game, but they haven’t won since beating Temple 55-13 in the 2019 Military Bowl in Brown’s first season back in Chapel Hill. … Carolina is 1–5 in the Charlotte bowl that has various names with a 38–21 loss in 2021 to South Carolina, a 39–17 win over Cincinnati in 2013, a 19–17 loss to Pittsburgh in 2009, a 31–30 loss to West Virginia in 2008 and a 37–34 loss to Boston College in 2004. … The Mountaineers lead the series with UNC 2–1. UNC beat West Virginia 20–13 in the Gator Bowl after the 1996 season, and WVU won in Charlotte in 2008.
West Virginia 30, UNC 10
UNC schedule
| Month/ date | Opponent/event | 2023 record | UNC record in series |
|---|---|---|---|
| April | |||
| 20 | Spring game, 3 p.m. | — | — |
| August | |||
| 29 (Thurs.) | at Minnesota | 6–7 | 1–0 |
| September | |||
| 7 | Charlotte | 3–9 | 0–0 |
| 14 | N.C. Central | 9–3 | 0–0 |
| 21 | James Madison | 11–2 | 3–0 |
| 28 | at Duke | 8–5 | 65–40–4 |
| October | |||
| 5 | Pittsburgh | 3–9 | 12–5 |
| 12 | Georgia Tech | 7–6 | 22–33–3 |
| 26 | at Virginia | 3–9 | 66–58–4 |
| November | |||
| 2 | at Florida State | 13–1 | 3–17–1 |
| 16 | Wake Forest | 4–8 | 72–36–2 |
| 23 | at Boston College | 7–6 | 6–2 |
| 30 | N.C. State | 9–4 | 68–39–6 |
Photo by Smith Hardy
tarheeltribune.com 
