QB Drake Maye shines in debut as UNC football opens season with 56-24 win over FAMU
The sight of quarterback Drake Maye going airborne toward the goal line in North Carolina’s 56-24 win over Florida A&M on Saturday at Kenan Stadium prompted very different split-second reactions from other Tar Heels.
Maye tried running in a scramble from the FAMU 8 by leaping in the air from the 4-yard line. He was hit in the air by linebacker Nadarius Fagan and the collision flipped his feet over his head, leading him to land awkwardly on his back.
“I was just hoping I didn’t land on my head, but I had a similar play like that in high school and that one I scored on,” Maye said. “I figured, run out of bounds, but you know, I’m 6-5 so I just tried to leap and see what I can do.”
It was a leap UNC coach Mack Brown would rather not have seen from his redshirt freshman quarterback. But it showed a glimpse of why Maye won the Heels’ quarterback battle.
“When he was about to go over the bar, I said, ‘Aw man, come on,’” Brown said. “But he is a competitor.”
Maye didn’t get the touchdown — he was marked down at the 1 — and his play contradicted what offensive coordinator Phil Longo said earlier in the week. Longo didn’t want Maye to run as much as quarterback Sam Howell did last year when he was among the top 10 rushers in the ACC. And Longo added he definitely didn’t want his quarterback to take hits like Howell absorbed last year.
“They should have gave him the touch(down), just because he had a great effort,” receiver Josh Downs said. “But I mean, it was very athletic of him.”
Maye took the hit, which was one of the only glaring miscalculations he made against the Rattlers. He completed 29 of his 37 passes for 294 yards. His five touchdown passes were the most in a season-opener in program history, and the most for a quarterback making his first start.
Just as impressive is the fact that Maye didn’t have any turnovers, and he didn’t take any sacks. The Heels played only three games without a turnover last season, and they allowed at least one sack in every game, leading them to dubiously top the ACC with 49 sacks allowed.
“Some of the no-sacks were coach (Jack) Bicknell and that offensive line doing a great job,” Brown said. “Some of it was Drake getting the ball out of his hands so fast because we’ve changed some things offensively and move the quarterback some. And some of it’s his ability to move around in the pocket and keep his eyes downfield and make throws.”
As expected, Maye leaned on Downs, who set program records for receptions and yards last season. Downs finished with nine catches for 78 yards and two touchdowns. What was a bit surprising was just how much Maye spread the ball around.
Maye completed passes to 10 different players, including four on the receiving end of his touchdown passes.
“I thought the fact that the ball was distributed to so many different people is another credit to Drake,” Brown said. “He went to the open guy.”
That open guy was the tight end more than any game last season, with the exception of their loss at Georgia Tech. Carolina’s three tight ends — Kamari Morales, Bryson Nesbit and John Copenhaver — were targeted on 10 passes and finished with eight catches before Maye was pulled midway through the fourth quarter.
Morales and Nesbit caught Maye’s first two touchdown passes. Copenhaver would have made it a third, but his would-be score was broken up in the back of the end zone in the second quarter.
For all of Maye’s passing, it was his 42-yard run on a designed draw that he said helped him lose the first-game jitters in the first quarter. Maye called it the “Sam Special” for how Howell ran the play last season.
“Sam was the best at it,” Maye said. “I’m trying to be half as good as Sam’s draws because last year he was an animal.”
The comparisons to Howell, who started as a freshman in 2019 and etched his name atop most of Carolina’s passing records as a three-year starter, prompted Brown to recall one similarity. Both Howell and Maye grew up near Charlotte dreaming of playing quarterback at UNC.
“Like Sam, he thinks this is what he’s supposed to be doing,” Brown said. “He grew up thinking, ‘I’ll be the quarterback of Carolina,’ and when he committed to Alabama, I said, ‘I’m hanging on man. You don’t need to be anywhere but here. This is the place where you need to be in school,’ and I think he has a chance to be real good.”
Maye wasn’t the only newcomer to have a promising showing. Carolina was unsure what its running backs would do when British Brooks, who was slated to be the starter, suffered a knee injury in camp that ended his season.
Freshmen Omarion Hampton and George Pettaway combined to score three rushing touchdowns. Hampton rushed for 101 yards on 14 carries, including a 25-yard score, becoming the first UNC player to rush for 100 yards in his first performance since Charlie “Choo Choo” Justice in 1946. Pettaway had a 29-yard score and 51 rushing yards on just four carries.
When FAMU revealed on Friday that it had about 20 players ruled ineligible for the game and its offensive line was depleted, it seemed like Carolina’s defense would dominate. It didn’t play out that way for three quarters.
The Rattlers, who finished with 335 yards in total offense, kept the Heels off balance for much of the game with quick-hit pass plays. The Heels did force two turnovers and shut FAMU out in the fourth quarter.
This story was originally published August 27, 2022 at 11:50 PM with the headline "QB Drake Maye shines in debut as UNC football opens season with 56-24 win over FAMU."