Offensively the Mountaineers were as agressive as the defense and opened th game with a 75 yard touchdown strike from Garrett Greene to true freshman wideout Traylon Gray for a 7-0 EERs lead 11 seconds into the game. After that quick score the game settled down a bit and with both teams trading punts and turnovers there was no more scoring in the 1st quarter. The Tarheels would get on the board with their 1st drive of the 2nd quarter going 47 yards on 14 plays before the drive stalled at the WVU 6 and the settled for a 28 yard Noah Burnette field goal with 2:46 gone in the 2nd quarter it was a 7-3 game. After a fumble and a missed field goal of 53 yards WVU would get back on the board with a special teams highlight when Beanie Bishop brought back the before mentioned punt for 78 yards and a Mountaineer touchdown with just 1:29 to go in the 1st half it was 14-3 WVU. The UNC Tarheels would use that time very effeciently driving 78 yards on 5 plays and cut the WVU lead to 14-10 with a 16 yard TD pass from Conner Harrel to West Virginia native J.J. Cole whose father played at West Virginia.

It would be UNCs only touchdown of the football game. With just 27 seconds to go before the break I thought the EERs might just sit on the ball and take the lead into halftime. Instead Garrett Greene connected with true freshman wideout Hudson Clement for 3 passes totaling 61 yards to the UNC 12 and with 4 seconds left in the first half Mike Hayes connected on a field goal from 30 yads out and we went to the break 17-10 EERs. The 3rd quarter started out slow and a bit sloppy but the Mountaineers did get back on the board again after an 8 play 54 yard drive stalled at the UNC 16 Michael Hayes hit his 2nd field goal of the game this time from 34 yrds out and with 2:40 to go in the 3rd quarter it was now a 2 score game at 20-10 Mountaineers. I felt at the time that with the 4th quarter appeaching that one more touchdown would put this game away, especially the way the WVU defense was playing. Well, after another UNC punt we saw just that as the WVU offense drove 78 yards on just 4 plays thanks in large part to the 48 yard run by Garrett Greene on first down. The EERs capped the drive with a beautiful 11 yard touchdown run by true freshman Jahiem White and with 12:48 to go in the game West Virginia now had a commanding lead of 27-10. The WVU offense would add another Mike Hayes field goal of 29 yards to close out the scoring at 30-10 Mountaineers.

I believe that the Mountaineers could have scored a least one more TD but were content to do what they do and run the ball and kill the clock. If I mwas going to be a bit critical of the Mountaineer performance it would be the penalties. 9 penalties for 71 yards and at least 4 of those really stalled offensive drives in the first half or this game could have been over a lot sooner than it was. To the coaches credit they cleaned up a lot of that in the second half as well as the UNC 3rd down conversions. At one point in the 1st half the Tarheels had converted on 5 of 7 3rd down attempts and 1 of 1 on 4th down. Well, as the game went on th Mountaineers really adjusted and by the end of the game UNC had converted 6 of 15 on 3rd down and 1 of 4 on 4th down meaning they were just 1 of 8 on 3d down and 0-3 on 4th down after about midway through the 2nd quarter.

In all it was a very solid performance across the board for Coach Neal Browns team. Here was a guy that was under the gun for under performing the past two seasons and his team was picked to finish last in the 14 team Big 12. Instead we see a 9 win season and a lot of progress. There are so many underclassmen in skill positions that emerged this season it sets this team up to certainly contend for the Big 12 next season and beyond. Garrett Greene was the games MVP throwing for 228 yards and a TD and running for 64 yards on 9 carries. The talented junior was in control the entire game and it bodes well for next season.

This gives coach Neal Brown a 2-1 record in bowl games as the WVU head coach having won the 2020 Liberty Bowl in Memphis over Army 24-21 and having lost the 2021 Guaranteed Rate Bowl in Phoenix to Minnesota 18-6, It should be a promising an exciting 2024 campaign and with Penn State coming to open the season we will know pretty soom what we have in the 2024 Mountaineer Football Team.