WATCH: Drake Maye leads UNC to impressive first drive touchdown against Appalachian State
Drake Maye has picked up where he left off after his record-setting first career start last week. On his first drive, the North Carolina quarterback went a perfect 4-4 for 67 yards and a touchdown against Appalachian State Saturday afternoon.
Facing pressure, Maye had to let it fly and found sophomore JJ Jones near the end zone for the Carolina score. The touchdown is the first of Jones’ collegiate career and he finished the drive with two receptions for 54 yards.
While the offense seems to be clicking, the defense has given up two long-yardage scores to App. State and the Tar Heels trail 14-7 midway through the first quarter. Catch the rest of the first half live on ESPNU right now.
Mack Brown reveals where Drake Maye gets his elite competitiveness, composure
North Carolina redshirt freshman signal-caller Drake Maye had quite the debut last night against Florida A&M. He became just the second ACC quarterback in the past 15 seasons (Jameis Winston was the other) to throw for five touchdown passes and complete 75 percent of his passes in his first game. Maye looked like one of the front runners for the 2022 ACC Player of the Year award en route to leading his team to a 56-24 victory over the FAMU Rattlers in Week 0.
Following the win, North Carolina head coach Mack Brown spoke with reporters about where his star signal-caller gets his competitiveness from–his family bloodlines.
“I think when you’re raised in a family where your brother–one of them won a baseball national championship, one of them won a baseball national championship, brother won a basketball national championship. Dad was a quarterback here and very good, competitive. And he’s the younger brother. Those older ones beat him down and he had to compete to have a place in the room. And I think like Sam [Howell] he thinks this is what he’s supposed to be doing.
“He grew up thinking I’ll be the quarterback at Carolina. When he committed to Alabama, I said, ‘I’m hangin’ 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,” Brown said in the postgame press conference.
Not only did Maye’s five passing touchdowns set the school record for the most passing touchdowns by a player in their first start, but he also surpassed his father, Mark Maye’scareer-high passing touchdown mark of four touchdowns that he threw in 1987 against Georgia Tech.