UNC Football versus West Virginia: Location, Time, Prediction, and More
By Jordan Falls
Following an 8-4 regular season, the UNC Football program was selected to compete in the 2023 Duke's Mayo Bowl and will end the season where they started it, in Charlotte, North Carolina. The Tar Heels will be making their fifth consecutive bowl appearance, meeting the six-win requirement each year since Mack Brown returned to the program in 2019.
This will be the sixth all-time appearance in the Charlotte Bowl game that has had various names (Meineke Car Care Bowl, Belk Bowl, currently Duke’s Mayo Bowl) during its history for the UNC Football program. The Tar Heels have a record of 1-4 in this bowl game, with the most recent appearance coming in 2021 when they faced South Carolina and lost 38-21. The lone win came in 2013 against Cincinnati by a score of 39-17.
The opponent is the West Virginia Mountaineers who enter this game after an 8-4 regular season and finishing 4th in the Big 12 in 2023. It will be the third all-time matchup between the Mountaineers and Tar Heels, as the two programs are 1-1 against each other. North Carolina won the first matchup 20-13 on New Year’s Day in 1997 in the Gator Bowl. West Virginia got revenge in the Meineke Car Care Bowl in 2008 with a 31-30 victory.
The Mountaineers and Tar Heels share one common opponent from the 2023 regular season: The Pittsburgh Panthers. West Virginia beat the Panthers 17-6 in Morgantown one week prior to the Tar Heels beating Pittsburgh 42-24 in Pittsburgh.
There is plenty of unknown for both teams in this game as each program has had multiple players opt out due to entering the transfer portal or the NFL Draft. The most notable opt-out for either team is UNC Football star-quarterback Drake Maye choosing not to play in the game. It is likely neither fan base knows what to expect from either team, as both will look much different in this game than they did throughout the entirety of the regular season.