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Friday saw No. 16 West Virginia end the 2018 season with a 34-18 loss to No. 20 Syracuse in the Camping World Bowl.

The Mountaineers led 18-17 in the second half but the Orange scored 17 unanswered points in the fourth quarter to earn their 10th win of the season.

With three of its top players deciding not to play in the game in quarterback Will Grier, wide receiver Gary Jennings and offensive tackle Yodny Cajuste, Holgorsen didn’t want to make any excuses for the loss and praised Syracuse’s efforts.

“I can make a bunch of excuses, we played a good team. Give (Syracuse) Coach (Dino) Babers credit. They’ve played well all year. They’ve got three losses, they're 10-3. They do a good job,” Holgorsen said. “We fought, we tried. That’s all I can ask for out of these guys...just came up a little bit short.”

The Mountaineers were also without junior wide receiver Marcus Simms who didn’t dress for the game.

“He hadn't done anything since Oklahoma,” Holgorsen said. “He's dealing with some things and he's got to get right.”

Friday also saw redshirt sophomore quarterback Jack Allison make his first collegiate start in place of Grier. He finished with 277 passing yards with one interception. Freshman Trey Lowe also took a few snaps at quarterback and was on the field during some plays when West Virginia ran the wildcat.

“I was proud of him,” Holgorsen said. “I thought his demeanor was good, his work ethic was good. When we put Trey in there, I thought he went in there and enjoyed playing the game.”

Numerous other underclassmen and those who will redshirt such as freshmen wide receivers Sam James, Bryce Wheaton and Kwincy Hall also saw more playing time against the Orange.

West Virginia’s offense, though, struggled for most of the game and were held to just one touchdown and settled for four field goals from kicker Evan Staley despite outgaining Syracuse, 423-418, in total yards and the defense coming up with five sacks and two turnovers.

Syracuse’s defense forced one West Virginia turnover which came on a deflected Allison pass that was picked off. The unit also came up with a goal line stand near the end of the game.

“We just didn’t finish drives very well, (that) was probably the biggest thing,” Holgorsen said. “They play good defense. They’ve done that all year. They were a top-10 team in the country in red zone defense. They got a style of play that they believe in.”

Despite a disappointing finish to a season in which West Virginia dropped three straight games to end the year, Holgorsen said there were positives to take away.

"It's always nice to be able to end the year with a win, but we know we had a good year," Holgorsen said. "People can be disappointed all they want to. We know we had a good year. We battled hard all year long and we came up a little bit short. Welcome to big-time football."

At one point, West Virginia held an 8-1 record before dropping its last two regular season games which cost the team a spot in the Big 12 Championship Game.

Now, the Mountaineers will begin preparing for next season and will be tasked with replacing numerous playmakers in wide receivers David Sills and Gary Jennings as well as Grier and safety Dravon Askew-Henry.

“A lot of our young guys got to practice for a couple of weeks and got to play ball,” Holgorsen said. “I think what happened throughout the course of this last month will help us become a better team moving forward.”

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