Drake Maye speaks fluent competition.
It’s a language he fully understood growing up while battling his older brothers, Luke, Cole and Beau, over everything from 2-on-2 basketball, to ping-pong, to who could bring home the best grades on their report cards.
It’s also why, after being locked in a battle with Jacolby Criswell to become North Carolina’s next starting quarterback after three years of Sam Howell, his reaction to getting the start Saturday in the season opener against Florida A&M was so muted.
“It’s been there my whole life, growing up kind of the ritual you get a runner-up trophy or participation trophy, it really doesn’t mean anything,” Maye said. “In our household, second (place) was first loser. So it’s just kind of engraved in me. I feel like just try to do that in every part of my life.”
UNC offensive coordinator Phil Longo described the way both Maye and his father, Mark, took the news as “professionally.” The elder Maye played quarterback at UNC from 1984-87, but reserved celebrating his son continuing the legacy until later.
“My dad, he obviously congratulated me,” said Drake Maye, who played at Myers Park High School in Charlotte. “But he’s still saying, ‘You got a lot of work to do.’ This is just another step. You got to go out there and play, that’s the main deal, go out there, play, perform and do what matters when it counts.”
Competitive genes
The Maye household is hard to impress.
His dad was the first UNC quarterback to pass for more than 400 yards in a game. When Mark Maye completed his career, he was the leader in career completion percentage and second in program history in career passing yards. He still ranks 10th and 12th, respectively.
Luke secured a spot in Carolina basketball lore with his game-winning shot against Kentucky in the 2017 NCAA tournament Elite Eight en route to winning the national championship. That same year, Cole was a pitcher on Florida’s national championship baseball team. Beau could have played basketball in college, but the 6-foot-8 forward had knee problems that led him to enroll as a student at UNC.
“Sports has been a big part of our family,” Drake Maye said. “But it all comes back to, at the end of the day, just competing.”
It’s one of the characteristics that jumped out about the redshirt freshman since he enrolled early at UNC in January 2021. Maye competes at everything, with everybody.
Linebacker Cedric Gray said Maye would line up with him and linebacker Power Echols during summer conditioning sprints and want to race them. Gray said Maye didn’t win most of those sprints, but he never shied away from trying.
“That’s something that really stuck out to me,” Gray said. “A quarterback in conditioning drills competing with us like, ‘Hey, I’m coming after you; I’m gonna beat you on this sprint,’ and I really liked that about him. I admire that.”
Longo, who also serves as the quarterbacks coach, described how Maye abandoned his role as a host during a recruiting event at coach Mack Brown’s house because he was so locked into winning at ping-pong.
“He was there to host and to help us, but he could not get away from the ping-pong table,” Longo said. “He was competing and his sweat’s dripping all over coach’s floor and he’s working on serves and like, he just lost it. He could not get away and go back to recruiting at that point.”
‘Great confidence’
All that focus on winning has led to some great moments during camp. Maye ultimately edged out Criswell for the position because he was a bit more consistent.
Running back D.J. Jones and receiver Josh Downs both said there were times where they kind of knew Maye was going to be the starter. Jones said it hit him last week in practice.
“I saw him step up in the pocket, throw across his body to the other side over a defender to Gavin (Blackwell) and that was probably the moment for me for Drake,” Jones said. “That throw right there. And he’s just confident. He’s had some great confidence these past couple of weeks. I think that’s helped him out.”
His dad continues to help out, too. Mark Maye taught Drake how to throw and coached him until middle school. Drake said his dad still chimes in when he feels there’s something to add on mechanics. But he’s already helped instill arguably the hardest skill to teach. His dad helped foster a competitive streak that helped Drake Maye earn the job in the first place.
“He’s just ultra competitive and that’s the way he plays the game of football and that’s what you want in your quarterback,” Longo said. “Jacolby’s that way. Sam was that way. So I have and we have been really blessed here to have some great quarterbacks that have some of those qualities. I don’t know that you can be elite at this position without it.”
