Drake Maye looking to avoid falling into 'trap game' against Georgia State

After a less-than-blowout win over shorthanded Florida A&M and escaping with a 63-61 win against Appalachian State, North Carolina is 2-0 and quarterback Drake Maye are eyeing a road game at Georgia State before an idle week. After the idle week looms a big showdown with Notre Dame in Chapel Hill.

But Maye isn’t looking past the Panthers. In Week 1, GSU played at South Carolina and trailed 20-14 in the third quarter — and the Gamecocks had scored two special teams touchdowns. Maye told reporters that the Tar Heels can’t afford to overlook this trap game.

“I think just trying to focus on next week,” Maye said. “Getting this — going into Atlanta, coach Brown was saying it’s a trap game so we’ve got to stay focused and just kind of handle one week at a time before you know, rest up — we get a bye week, get some guys back, and get ready for Notre Dame. I think we have to focus in on practice this week, because like I said, Georgia State, I think — two punt returns touchdowns for South Carolina and it was a 20-14 ball game. So they’ve got some players and they’ve got a lot of guys back from last year. So, we’ve got to just focus in and do our best.”

Despite North Carolina not dominating either of its first two matchups, Maye has been excellent to start the season. He beat out Jacolby Criswell for a the starting job in camp and has vindicated the decision of head coach Mack Brown to make the redshirt freshman the starter.

Through two games, Maye has nine passing touchdowns and one more on the ground. He hasn’t turned it over despite throwing the ball 73 times so far while tossing it for 646 yards and adding 131 on the ground.

The strong performances from Maye have been needed, as North Carolina’s defense has struggled. That was never more evident than when Appalachian State ran up 40 points in the fourth quarter on Saturday.