CHARLOTTE – West Virginia made the most of their final opportunity of the 2023 campaign by beating North Carolina 30-10 in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl.

The Mountaineers capped off the season in style in front of a partisan crowd of nearly 43,000 in the stands inside Bank of America Stadium.

The game wasn’t played in West Virginia, but it felt like it as it seemed like a home game for the Big 12 Conference program given the turnout of gold and blue. .

“I’m glad that a national TV audience got to see how Mountaineer nation really supports our team and they love football here. It’s important to them,” head coach Neal Brown said.

The Mountaineers closed the season the way that those in the program wanted to and took advantage of the opportunity to enter the off-season with some wind at their backs. While the current bowl system has received plenty of criticism, the coaching staff made sure this game mattered.

West Virginia certainly reflected that on the field.

“This should be a catapult for us. I really feel like we should end the season in the top 25. We’ve earned that right. I’ve got a vote, I’ll vote us in,” Brown said. “And as we go into the 2024 season I think we’re a team that will be in the preseason top 25. We return a lot and I’m excited about that.”

Now, it wasn’t the same formula that the Mountaineers used down the stretch to win five of their last six games as the program wasn’t able to establish the run early, control time of possession and minimize what the Tar Heels could do with the football. But that alone is a sign of growth.

Related: I Got Five On It: North Carolina

This team was playing it’s best football down the stretch and punctuated that with a defensive performance that held North Carolina scoreless in the second half while recording a total of 7 sacks and 11 tackles for loss while recording two interceptions deep in their own end.

“I thought our guys played extremely physically,” Brown said.

The win gives the Mountaineers their ninth of the season, the first time that the program has done that since the 2016 campaign and just the second time overall since joining the Big 12 in 2012. And it could have been even better if West Virginia found a way to close out games late against both Houston and Oklahoma State in narrow defeats.

This season started with Brown vehemently defending his football team after being picked 14th overall in the Big 12. Even at the time, the fifth-year head coach refuted that idea given the talent he had returning across the roster especially on the lines and in the backfield.

The number 14 became a rallying cry for this team.

“Personally that's been my lock screen. Since you know those polls came out just because I knew what we had in this locker room with guys like these two right here and then their offensive line and running backs and wide outs, you know, I knew we had in that locker room and kind of, pardon my French here, but it kind of pissed everybody off. You know, we knew we were a better team than that. And then, you know, a nine win season shows that,” quarterback Garrett Greene said.

It was a roster that featured a good mix of youth and experience with plenty of potential.

Over the stretch run of the season, for the most part that potential was realized. And it ended with Brown being doused with a bucket of mayonnaise as his team finished strong.

“This was a significant step for us. But we’ve got to hold onto our roster but I think it speaks well to what we can be and potentially could be in 2024,” Brown said.

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