Holliday: Maye legacy at UNC continues to grow as Drake stars in debut

By Bob Holliday, WRAL Sports contributor

What a beginning for Drake Maye. The redshirt freshman passed for 294 yards and five touchdowns, missing on just 8 of his 37 attempts. He also ran for 55, jump starting his night with a 42 yard draw play in a driving rain which led directly to UNC’s first score. It was storybook stuff. But to fully grasp this latest version of “Maye magic” one must go back to the year where it all began: 1982.

Mark Maye’s decision to stay in state changed UNC offense

Although Dick Crum produced nationally ranked teams from 1980-1983 for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, top high school prospects were leaving the state in droves in that era. Lumberton running back Tim Worley turned his back on the Tar Heels and headed to Georgia. Todd Ellis and Brad Edwards, quarterbacks both, matriculated at South Carolina. Jeff Dunn, who succeeded Ellis at Greensboro Page, signed on at Alabama. Clemson won a national championship in 1981 with a roster featuring 13 players from the Old North State.

So the University of North Carolina desperately needed to sign Mark Maye, a high school All-American from Independence High School in Charlotte. Maye was recruited by all the schools above and many more. Alabama chased the Queen City kid hard. Tide Coach Ray Perkins was visiting Maye in Charlotte on the day that legendary coach Bear Bryant passed away. Maye thought long and hard about joining Perkins at Alabama.

But ultimately the three-sport athlete (Maye also starred in basketball and baseball at Independence) decided to play in his home state. Getting to meet Michael Jordan and the basketball team during a recruiting visit helped cement his decision, as did the chance to spend time with then-Athletic Director John Swofford, himself a former North Carolina high school quarterback. Academics played a part too. Maye was a top student who became a Morehead Scholar.

Still, there was the matter of Crum’s offense. The run-oriented attack produced 1,000-yard rushers Amos Lawrence, Kelvin Bryant and Ethan Horton, but no star quarterbacks. In recruiting Maye, whom UNC Assistant Coach Randy Walker described as “the best I ever saw,” Crum committed to change.

The UNC mentor actually spent time with Steve Spurrier during his USFL days, in an attempt to add some downfield routes to what was primarily a play-action, intermediate passing game at UNC. Maye recalls Crum incorporating some one-back and split-back sets, in addition to the program’s traditional I-formation scheme.

Maye played some as a redshirt freshman in 1984, completing 10 of 22 passes for 93 yards and a touchdown – enough to raise expectations for 1985. Crum in fact, confided to friends that he was ready to turn the football over to Maye and “let it rip.”

But then it happened. Maye suffered a severe shoulder injury in the spring of 1985. He went to see Dr. Frank Jobe, the specialist famous for rotator cuff surgery dating back to Tommy John. Jobe concluded that Maye had the shoulder of one of his 40-year-old pitchers; he had thrown too many curve balls back at Independence High. He missed the entire 1985 season, and there was a serious question about whether Maye would ever be able to play football again.

Mark Maye is among my all-time favorite interviews. Intelligent, humble, soft spoken – he might be the single nicest person ever to grace a locker room.

We in the media, of course, followed his surgery and rehab. I vividly remember talking with Mark on the first day of practice prior to the start of the 1986 season. “Mark, what are your fondest hopes for this season?” He thought for a moment. “That I can throw without pain,” he said, “and maybe that it could be a completion.”

Let that sink in. Here’s a guy who was one of the best high school quarterbacks in America a few years back, and now he’s just hoping to throw without pain and complete some passes.

Maye far exceeded those modest expectations in 1986, passing for 1400 yards and 10 touchdowns, leading the Tar Heels to a 7-3-1 record; the tie came against Bobby Bowden’s Florida State Seminoles. Carolina made its first bowl appearance in three years, narrowly losing to Arizona in the Aloha Bowl.

Maye passed for almost 2,000 yards in 1987, though the team struggled and finished 4-7. Despite playing just two full seasons, Maye graduated with a number of UNC passing records, including the three highest single game passing totals in school history.

Luke grows into UNC legend

Basketball was Mark Maye’s favorite game growing up. It certainly was the game for Luke Maye, who at 6’8" grew four inches taller than his father. Luke was no high school All-American like his football-playing dad, but he did average 19 points and 13 rebounds a game during his career at Hough High School outside Charlotte. Luke had scholarship offers, but he chose to attend UNC as a preferred walk-on.

In December 2015, Luke’s freshman year, Roy Williams’ Tar Heels played UCLA in the CBS Classic at the Barclay’s Center. I remember wandering around the concourse before the game and ran into Mark. I congratulated him on Luke’s making the squad as a walk-on.

Perhaps sensing that I had never seen Luke play, Mark told me that day in 2015 that his son was good enough to play at Carolina. “Luke can do it,” Mark said. “He just needs confidence.”

Luke Maye demonstrated serious skills while at Hough, but there were questions about his athleticism. So once at Carolina, he worked. Maye transformed his body, becoming quicker and stronger. By his second season, he earned playing time, becoming more confident along the way.

As his father had predicted “Luke can do it.” Maye’s dramatic buzzer beater against Kentucky helped propel the Tar Heels to the 2017 National Championship.

Luke Maye became an All ACC performer during his junior and senior campaigns. For his career, Maye averaged almost 19 points and 13 rebounds per game at UNC, matching his numbers at Hough High School.

He influenced the game in so many ways. Maye could help defend the post. He could score on the low block. And he could certainly shoot the three, hitting 43% from beyond the arc in 2018 and 36% for his career. Arguably the first stretch four at UNC, Luke’s long range swishes always elicited a big response from the Carolina crowd “Luuuuuuukke!” Finally, inch for inch, Luke Maye might have been the greatest defensive rebounder ever at UNC.

These days Luke is playing professional basketball in Spain. And that’s where he watched Drake’s debut, at three o’clock in the morning.

Younger brother chooses Chapel Hill

Drake, of course, spent four years watching Luke’s games at UNC. So it came as something of a surprise when he committed to Alabama in the summer of 2019, before his junior year at Myers Park High School. But then again, UNC was going 5-14 under Larry Fedora during the pivotal part of Drake’s days at Myers Park. He wanted to play for a national championship and also seriously considered Clemson.

Mack Brown took over at UNC for the 2019 season and Maye paid close attention to the development of the program with Sam Howell, another great Charlotte area quarterback, running the offense. Brown and his staff continued to recruit Maye despite his commitment to Nick Saban. When the Tar Heels won their last three games, including a 55-13 shellacking of Temple in the Military Bowl, Maye began to see possibilities for himself as Howell’s successor.

Family members reminded Drake of their history at UNC. And Brown told him, “This is where you belong.” By the end of the basketball season in 2020, the youngest of the Maye clan was ready to make a change. He called Saban and told him he would be playing in Chapel Hill.

Drake’s debut pays off

For Drake Maye, so much was riding on his first game, under the lights against Florida A&M. Threatening skies added to pre-game tension. And UNC’s first eight plays produced just one first down. The Tar Heels faced third and nine at their own 39, staring at the possibility of a second punt into some serious rain. Offensive coordinator Phil Longo called a quarterback draw. And Drake Maye scampered 42 yards-on the play made famous by his predecessor Sam Howell. On the very next snap, Maye found tight end Komari Morales in the end zone, the first of an astounding five touchdown passes for this first time starter. Maye was unstoppable thereafter, but the onslaught of passing began with that big run.

Maye, of course, targeted star receiver Josh Downs more often than anyone. Downs caught 9 passes for 78 yards and two touchdowns. But the quarterback spread the ball around-to 10 different receivers. Maye looked for his tight ends, Morales, Bryson Nesbit, and John Copenhaver a collective 10 times, completing 8-all part of UNC’s effort to take some of the load off Downs and the Tar Heels’ injury riddled wide receivers.

The quarterback’s second touchdown toss went to Nesbit. Not until the third scoring strike did Maye target a wide receiver. He found Gavin Newsome on fourth and goal at the four, and that was one of the freshman’s biggest moments. Failure there would have changed the game because FAMU’s offense had begun to click and the Rattlers trailed just 14-7. But Maye showed mobility in the pocket and made a quick read, spotting Newsome in the end zone.

Not everything was picture perfect. The Tar Heels botched a two minute drill leading just 21-14, ultimately forced to punt after a holding call. Storm Duck’s interception, however, gave the Tar Heels another chance. Carolina quickly moved to the five. But Maye missed a touchdown when he hurried his second down pass to Downs and threw low. Drake redeemed himself on the next play, hitting Downs in the end zone for his fourth touchdown pass.

UNC relied heavily on its ground attack in the second half, wearing down the outmanned visitors from Florida who traveled without some 20 players that failed to gain NCAA eligibility for this game. True freshman Omarion Hampton of Cleveland High School carved out 101 yards himself, the first back to crack the century mark in his first performance since the legendary Charlie “Choo Choo” Justice in 1946. Freshman George Pettaway of Suffolk, Virginia, evoked memories of the great Amos Lawrence from Norfolk, making precise cuts on the artificial turf and juking his way to a 29 yard touchdown run. And Maye himself memorably joined the ground assault, attempting to leap like a high jumper, backward over a would be tackler at the two yard line. He was ruled down at the one. Most importantly, Maye did not hurt himself, though a coaching staff wary of too many hits on UNC quarterbacks will no doubt counsel him not to try that again.

Maye did have two big moments passing in the second half. After failing to convert a fourth down midway through the third quarter, UNC faced a third and ten on the final play of that quarter in what had become an 11 point game. Maye hit Nesbit – tight ends again – for 15 yards. That led to Pettaway’s breakaway. And, following one more FAMU turnover, Maye hit Downs on a 27 yard scoring strike to put the game out of reach.

So what a birthday present for Mack Brown. The quarterback he talked out of going to Alabama compiled a whole new chapter of the Maye family legacy in his very first game with five touchdown passes. I mean, c’mon! Father Mark threw just 20 in his entire UNC career!

But Week Zero is now in the past. Saturday Maye will see a much better defense in a hostile environment. At Appalachian. Playing against the Mountaineers will give us a much better reading on how good Drake Maye can be.