Mack Brown explains increased optimism around Drake Maye

North Carolina head coach Mack Brown knows he has himself one of the best quarterbacks in the country in Drake Maye. But even after a standout redshirt freshman campaign, Brown believes that Maye can go even higher than he did last year.

“Drake has had a great year last year,” Brown said at ACC Media Days this week. “Best freshman year of any freshman I’ve ever seen. He just got better and better and better, and people didn’t realize until ten days before the opening game, we didn’t announce Drake as a starter. So for him to take the role of leader and lead his football team like he did and be consistent each week, was pretty phenomenal.”

The shelf of Maye’s trophies from last year doesn’t have much open space on it. Maye won the following awards in 2022: ACC Player of the Year, ACC Offensive Player of the Year, ACC Rookie of the Year and ACC Offensive Rookie of the Year and Shaun Alexander Freshman of the Year.

He also earned All-ACC first-team honors on the year.

For the season, Maye was 342 of 517 for 4,321 passing yards and 38 touchdowns with only seven interceptions in 14 games. He was also great running the football for the Tar Heels, rushing the ball 184 times for 698 rushing yards and seven touchdowns.

Maye is projected to be the second quarterback selected in the NFL Draft next year after current Heisman winner and USC star Caleb Williams. On3 also ranks Maye as the second-best player in the country heading into the 2023 season after Williams.

“Then after the season Drake came in to me and said, help me with these things, these are things I need to improve,” Brown said. “That’s who he is. That’s why he is such a great player. He was raised in a family of champions. He was raised in a family of athletes. His dad was a great quarterback. So he is always looking at what I can do better instead of patting himself on the back. He is a little bit like me. We have to be careful with him because he is too hard on himself, and he is always ‘I didn’t do this right,’ well, let’s talk about what you did right too, so we can do that.”