Last season's UNC football team started 9-1 before losing its last four games. This year, the Tar Heels (8-5) jumped out to a 6-0 record, peaking at No. 10 in the AP Top 25 Poll, and then lost five of their last seven outings, including Wednesday night's 30-10 defeat at the hands of West Virginia (9-4) at the Duke's Mayo Bowl in Charlotte.
It marked UNC's fourth straight bowl loss.
Sure, the Tar Heels were without several starters and key reserves who either entered the transfer portal in recent weeks or were sitting out to prepare for the NFL Draft. But the same goes for the noticeably more inspired Mountaineers, whose fans accounted for an overwhelming majority of those in attendance.
Understandably, UNC football head coach Mack Brown sounded somewhat deflated and considerably frustrated in his opening statement to the media afterward. However, the 72-year-old, in his fifth year at the helm since returning to Chapel Hill, noted that he felt the battle was closer fought than the final score implied.
Here's what Brown said before taking questions:
"Congratulations to West Virginia. It was a hard-fought game.
"We knew to win the game we had to win the turnover ratio; we lost it, 3-1. We knew to win the game we had to win the kicking game; and they had a punt return for a touchdown, and we just had one kickoff that was decent, and we actually had a punt bounce into one of our players, which was one of the turnovers.
"Defense played the run pretty well. Their quarterback did a really good job of getting a couple of big plays in the passing game.
"I thought [fill-in UNC starting quarterback Conner Harrell] competed. I didn't think we helped him enough. We didn't give him enough protection.
"So, I felt like, again, the game should have been closer. You look at the stats, and the game should have been closer than it was. But credit to [West Virginia] it wasn't."
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