Mack Brown left without answers after UNC football ends season with 30-10 loss to West Virginia

The day before UNC took the field to face West Virginia in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl, Mack Brown was unsure how his team would play.

“I don’t have any idea,” he said. “I really don’t. I wasn’t joking.”

Although Brown attributed his lack of knowledge to the new offense on display — one without star quarterback Drake Maye and wide receiver Tez Walker, who both declared for the NFL Draft and opted out of the game — the outcome could have been predicted simply based on last season. The 30-10 loss to the Mountaineers on Wednesday was far too familiar for UNC's veteran players. The last two seasons, North Carolina has routinely collapsed in the second half of its schedule. 

One year ago, senior jack Kaimon Rucker said he cried in the locker room after UNC lost in the last minute to Oregon. Following this year’s bowl game, he found himself in tears once again. While he told his teammates to “keep [their] head up” in the locker room scene, he was unable to hold his own tears back after another hopeful season turned into a three-game skid. 

“I don’t personally have an answer for it,” Rucker said. “I wish I did.”

The last time he let his tears fall freely in the locker room was eight weeks ago in October, when Rucker saw the telltale signs of an imploding season emerging after North Carolina lost to an unranked Georgia Tech team. 

After that game, Brown was also left answerless, simply stating that he would "watch the video."

But nothing seemed to change after that loss, and the season continued to slip away, culminating in a disappointing bowl game to cap off the year. 

The only response Brown could muster after the poor showing against the Mountaineers was one that was eerily similar to his remarks two months prior.  

“I’ll go watch the video tonight,” he said. “I’ll watch every play and grade it.”

It was an unsatisfying answer to an unsatisfying season that began with a 6-0 run and ended with a 5-1 total collapse.

After failing to come to concrete conclusions the entire season, he continued to repeat the same phrases – with “I don’t know” being the main one – accompanied by inconsistent claims. 

Even with all these unanswered questions, and the Tar Heels' inability to find success in the second half of the season, junior linebacker Power Echols wanted to lay it out on the line one last time in the bowl game to end the year on a positive note. 

“That’s what getting to win means to us,” he said. 

However, those goals were dashed. The Tar Heels exited the field with heads hung low as the Duke’s Mayo Bowl trophy was hoisted by the Mountaineers.

This final scene shouldn't come as a surprise for a team unable to find the answers to its woes.

Brown wasn't able to solve the puzzle, and with the season’s conclusion, he was finally able to admit that his year-long search for answers had led to nothing. 

“It’s something I am still trying to figure out or I damn sure would have fixed it.”

@_emmahmoon

@dthsports | sports@dailytarheel.com