Numbers and Notes: West Virginia football vs. North Carolina
West Virginia capped off the 2023 season with a convincing 30-10 win over North Carolina to finish the season 9-4. WVSports.com takes a look at some of the advanced statistics to get a snapshot of the game as well as the season moving forward.
Rivals.com has partnered with PPF and we look at some of their data to review the game and different position groups.
PASSING:
--West Virginia redshirt junior quarterback Garrett Greene completed 2-5 passes over 20+ yards down the field for 107 yards.
--Greene was under pressure on 32 percent of his 28 dropbacks and completed just 2-7 passes for 30 yards. That total was just 2-8 when blitzed on 9 dropbacks for 29 yards.
--That flipped when not blitzed as Greene completed 10-17 passes for 199 yards and a touchdown.
--Greene had an average depth of target of 11.5 yards.
--Greene had 2.94 seconds to throw on average.
--Only one pass was dropped.
--West Virginia dialed up play action on 9 of Greene's dropbacks where he completed 4-8 passes for 121 yards and a touchdown. Greene completed 2-3 screens for 13 yards.
RUSHING:
--The Mountaineers extended their streak of rushing for over 140+ yards to 16 games.
--West Virginia only forced three missed tackles in the run game.
--The Mountaineers only had 5 runs over 10+ yards.
--A total of 120 of the 154 total rushing yards came after contact or an average of 4.80.
--A total of 52 of Garrett Greene's 75 rushing yards came on designed runs.
RECEIVING:
--West Virginia targeted the tight end 5 times which resulted in 2 catches for 33 yards. The position has been targeted 58 times which resulted in 35 catches for 451 yards and 4 touchdowns and well surpassed the 15 catches for 153 yards last season on 24 targets as the spot has been a much bigger part of the offense.
--The 75-yard touchdown catch by freshman Traylon Ray on the first play of the game tied the longest of the season for the Mountaineers.
--Redshirt freshman Hudson Clement hauled in all five of his targets for 89 yards and 4 of those traveled for a first down.
--A total of 114 of the 228 yards came after the catch.
--Kole Taylor is credited with the only forced missed tackle by pass catchers.
--The Mountaineers did not catch any of their two contested catch situations.
--Only 7 of the 12 catches traveled for first downs.
BLOCKING:
--West Virginia quarterbacks were kept clean on 19-28 drop-back attempts. The Mountaineers allowed only one sack in the contest.
--The Mountaineers permitted five pressures, 4 hurries and 1 hit in the game.
--West Virginia averaged over 5 yards per carry in only two gaps with the one between center and left guard seeing one carry for 15 yards and the right tackle going 4 for 65 but that was aided by a 48-yard run by Greene.
DEFENSE:
--On 39 passing dropbacks West Virginia blitzed 17 times allowing 9-14 passes to be completed for 58 yards with a touchdown and an interception.
--The Mountaineers defense recorded 7 sacks, the most since the 2017 season.
--West Virginia recorded two interceptions and both came in play-action situations. Overall, North Carolina was just 2-5 for 15 yards in those scenarios.
--The defense missed a total of 14 tackles.
--Beanie Bishop allowed all 6 of the passes thrown in his direction to be completed for 122 yards and a touchdown. Harrell threw for only a total of 199 yards. Malachi Ruffin was targeted 4 times in coverage and permitted just one catch for 2 yards,
--Linebacker Caden Biser was targeting 5 times in coverage for 4 catches for 8 yards.
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