CHARLOTTE, N.C. — At the midway point of the regular season, North Carolina was unbeaten with victories over five Power 5 Conference foes in addition to a double overtime win over one the better Group of 5 programs in Appalachian State.
Then the Tar Heels lost two straight and four of six to finish 4-4 within the Atlantic Coast Conference as a once-promising season went south over the final six weeks.
Yet much of what the Tar Heels have displayed throughout the 2023 season is hardly relevant to West Virginia as it pertains to Wednesday’s 5:30 p.m. matchup in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl at Bank of America Stadium.
Four key UNC players, including quarterback Drake Maye, announced their intention to forgo the matchup against the Mountaineers to begin preparing for the NFL Draft. The other three are wide receiver Tez Walker, center Corey Gaynor and linebacker Cedric Gray, the team’s top tackler.
“I’m excited about watching our team play and it’ll be like a new team, because offensively, we have new receivers, walk-on tight ends, lost our center and lost a quarterback that was the best in the country,” UNC head coach Mack Brown said. “So it’ll be a real challenge for us against them, but it’s great going into spring practice to see this many young guys playing, because it’ll help us more for next year.”
A two-year starter at UNC with 59 touchdown passes over that time, Maye is widely considered a first-round selection and could come off the board within the first five picks.
In his absence, Conner Harrell becomes the starting quarterback.
A redshirt freshman with six passing attempts in his career, the 6-foot-5, 205-pound Harrell is considered a dual threat. He won’t have the luxury of throwing to Walker, who totaled 41 receptions for 699 yards and seven touchdowns despite not becoming eligible to play until the fifth game of the season, or tight end Bryson Nesbit, a first-team All-ACC selection sidelined due to injury.
Harrell will also work with a less experienced center after Gaynor, who played seven seasons of college football, opted out.
“Being in the position I’ve gotten to now, I’ve had to have a certain amount of preparation and a certain amount of consistency,” Harrell said. “I tried to do what I could do to get me here and keep that and elevate it when I know I’m the guy, but I stay pretty consistent and even-keeled.”
On the flip side is a West Virginia defense that figures to benefit from the absence of several proven players, but also has less tape available to study tendencies of opponents.
Thus begins at least somewhat of a guessing game for the Mountaineers in their quest to limit the Tar Heels that includes going as far back to Harrell’s days as a quarterback at Thompson High School in Alabama.
“We’re trying to make our best, educated guess as far as what they’re going to do offensively,” WVU head coach Neal Brown said. “We don’t expect them to look exactly the same of what they’ve put on film to this point. Conner Harrell is a different player. He’s really talented. I think they’ll have more quarterback-run game involved and take more play-action shots down the field with him. That’s what he did at Thompson and he was really good throwing post and go routes off play-action and doing some movement pass plays.”
WVU cornerback Beanie Bishop Jr. didn’t figure he’d be watching high school football tape having not played at that level since 2017. Yet the abundance of unknowns have led to just that as part of the guessing game in an effort to discover more about Harrell.
“He’s mobile and a fast, bigger guy with good arm strength. We had to go back to some of his high school film since he doesn’t have a lot of film in college,” Bishop said. “He throws the deep ball very well and some of the intermediate passes. He’s good using his legs, so I feel like we’ll get a lot of quarterback-run game.”
Although North Carolina has far more in the way of standout offensive players missing the game than those on defense, Gray’s opt out means the Tar Heels are minus another all-ACC first-team linebacker with 121 tackles, 11 tackles for loss, five sacks, one interception and a pair of fumbles forced and recovered, though it doesn’t change much in the way West Virginia’s offense goes about preparing for the Tar Heels.
“The scheme is the scheme,” Mountaineer quarterback Garrett Greene said. “Whatever they do on defense, that’s really not going to change all too much. But for the last couple of years, they’ve had a top recruiting class. They have really good players that are super athletic up and down the depth chart. No matter who they plug in, they’re going to be ready to go. As an offense, we have to stay true to who we are and when we get out there, we’ll figure out their players and all that.”