🎙️ Voice is AI-generated. Inconsistencies may occur.
Quarterback Drake Maye led North Carolina to a 40-7 win over Syracuse last Saturday, then spent the evening watching the Tar Heels' Week 7 opponent, Miami, play Georgia Tech. Maye assumed Miami had the game in hand during the final minutes of the fourth quarter and opted to turn his attention elsewhere.
Big mistake.
All Miami needed to do for a win was take a knee on its final drive and let the clock run out. But it didn't. The Hurricanes ran the ball, fumbled, then gave up a last-second touchdown in a 23-20 loss. Maye only found out the tables had turned when his phone started blowing up with messages.
"The last time that Miami got the ball and they were running it out I turned it off," Maye told reporters this week, via The Daily Tar Heel. "Next thing you know, you see it popping up on social media. Some of the guys texted. Just a heartbreaking way to lose."
No. 12 North Carolina will attempt to provide No. 25 Miami with some more heartbreak during a 7:30 p.m. ET matchup on Saturday. The Tar Heels are 5-0 for the first time since 1997 entering this nationally televised game on ABC. And Maye is a significant reason. The redshirt sophomore is coming off a 442-yard, three-touchdown performance that illustrated why he is such a highly touted NFL prospect.
Ahead of Saturday's North Carolina-Miami game, here are five things to know about Maye.
He Once Committed to Alabama
Maye was a four-star quarterback prospect, listed as the nation's No. 57 overall player in his recruiting class by 247Sports, coming out of Myers Park High School in Charlotte, North Carolina. Clemson, Georgia and Michigan were among the schools to offer Maye a scholarship.
North Carolina was obviously interested in the in-state recruit, too. But Maye originally intended on playing for head coach Nick Saban at Alabama. Maye was committed to play for the Crimson Tide for nearly a year before flipping to the Tar Heels on March 6, 2020, according to 247 Sports. He later credited North Carolina coach Mack Brown for continuing to make him a priority in the recruiting process, even after Maye had committed elsewhere.
Meeting North Carolina alum Michael Jordan didn't hurt, either.
"Yeah I met Mike, MJ, the goat," Maye recalled last year. "... I forget what [basketball] game it was, but Coach Brown brought us down and that was pretty cool. Yeah, that's pretty surreal just to see the Carolina family in a perspective. I didn't really know what to say, but it was pretty cool."
North Carolina is Maye Family Affair
North Carolina sports fans were already familiar with the Maye family before Drake ever put on a helmet for the Tar Heels.
Drake's brother, Luke, is a North Carolina basketball legend. Luke was a two-time All-ACC selection for the Tar Heel men's basketball team from 2015-19. UNC fans likely still remember his game-winning shot against Kentucky in the 2016-17 Elite Eight. The 6-foot-8 forward eventually won a ring on that national championship team. But Carolina blue was crucial to the Maye family even before then.
Maye's father, Mark, played football at UNC from 1983-88. His mother, Aimee, is also a North Carolina alum. And Beau Maye, one of Drake's other brothers, plays hoops for UNC.
Was Also Standout Hoops Player
Maye could have followed Luke's lead by being a productive player on the hardwood instead of the gridiron. The 6-foot-4, 230-pounder averaged 16.1 points and 11.3 rebounds per game as a junior in high school, earning all-conference and all-district honors.
"I love playing basketball. Basketball was my favorite sport until football got started in high school," Maye said in 2019, via the The Charlotte Observer. "Big schools gave me the opportunity to play [football] there. I feel like basketball could've gotten there, but it would've taken longer. The opportunities are too good in football. I started falling in love with playing quarterback, and I want to take it as far as I can."
Maye Had Breakout 2022 Season
The first season of Maye's North Carolina career was largely spent on the sideline.
Maye redshirted in 2021 while backing up starter Sam Howell. But once Howell declared for the 2022 NFL Draft, where he was selected in the fifth round, the Tar Heels became Maye's team to lead. Maye tied Howell's single-season program record with 38 passing touchdowns last year. The signal-caller also topped the UNC leaderboard with 4,321 passing yards while leading the Tar Heels to a 9-5 record.
Maye earned ACC Player of the Year, ACC Offensive Player of the Year, and Freshman All-American honors for his performance in 2022. He was also a Manning Award finalist and a semifinalist for the Davey O'Brien and Maxwell awards after his redshirt freshman season.
Lots of NFL Draft Hype
The redshirt sophomore ranks fourth in the nation in passing yards per game (325.8) and has one of the nation's best completion percentages (72.1) in North Carolina's 5-0 start. Tar Heel fans should savor Maye while they can. This could very well be the 21-year-old's final season playing in his home state.
Maye is widely considered to be one of the top prospects in the 2024 NFL Draft and is likely to be a high first-round pick if he declares. ESPN draft guru Mel Kiper Jr. ranked Maye as the class' No. 2 quarterback prospect, behind USC's Caleb Williams, and one of the top five overall players in his recent big board.
NFL Network draft analyst and former scout Daniel Jeremiah compared Maye to former pro QB Carson Palmer.
"Both guys have all the desired traits: size, arm strength, mobility and accuracy," Jeremiah wrote. "Palmer arrived in the NFL in 2003 with cleaner/crisper footwork, while Maye is a better overall athlete....Palmer took a big leap in his final year at USC, winning the Heisman Trophy and leading the Trojans to an Orange Bowl victory. I'm excited to see if Maye can make a similar leap this fall."
About the writer
Robert Read is a Life & Trends Reporter at Newsweek based in Florida. His background is primarily in sports journalism ... Read more