The Tar Heels are heading back to Charlotte, but it isn’t quite as early in December as they were hoping for.
The Tar Heels will face the West Virginia Mountaineers in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl on December 27th at 5:30 PM. This will be the sixth time that the team will play a bowl game in Charlotte, with the team going 1-4 in the first five bowl game trips to Charlotte.Â
This will be the third time that they will face West Virginia in a bowl game. The Tar Heels are 1-1 in those games, having won the 1996 Gator Bowl and lost the 2008 Meineke Car Care Bowl, a game that was played in Charlotte. The two meetings are the only meetings between the two sides all-time.
This game will present a tough challenge for the Tar Heels with the Mountaineers feeling much better about where they are than they are. This game will present Drake Maye with the opportunity to play his final game in his hometown if he chooses to, the same situation that Sam Howell was presented in his final season. The hope is that, regardless of if he plays, this is a Tar Heel team that will come out motivated to stop the bleeding and get things going back in the right direction.