Drake Maye explains his 'Air Drake' moment

North Carolina will return to action today at 4 p.m. ET against Miami, perhaps a bit lucky to be able to do so with quarterback Drake Maye still available after a hard hit he suffered diving for the goal line in a win over Virginia Tech a week ago.

Maye leaped for the end zone from outside the 5-yard line. He skied over one defender but was caught near the top of his arc by a second defender and pushed out of bounds, where he landed hard on his forearm with the football.

“I may have cleared the first one, but I think the second one got me,” Maye said this week. “Sometimes being 6-5, you get tired of people going low on you. It hurts the shins and stuff, you get ankles rolled up. That close to the goal line, I didn’t think I could actually make it. Just got to be smarter.”

Maye was shaken up and took a few minutes before gathering himself and eventually returning.

The moment, though, was scary enough that head coach Mack Brown publicly pleaded with his freshman quarterback to slide in the future. The Tar Heels have one of the nation’s most explosive offenses, and Maye has been fantastic so far this season.

Losing him would be quite a blow.

“I got the wind knocked out of me,” Maye explained. “I hope I didn’t look like I was overreacting, it’s hard when you can’t breathe. A lot of people think I was probably milking it, but that feeling you can’t breathe is pretty bad.”

Drake Maye ready to roll vs. Miami

Maye will look to continue his hot start to the season, which has seen the freshmen put together an early 19-1 touchdown to interception ratio through the first five games of the season.

Maye is 115-of-165 (69.7%) passing for 1,594 yards with those 19 touchdowns and just one interception.

He’ll suit up again today when North Carolina travels to Miami for a mid-afternoon kickoff on ESPN2. Grateful to still be playing after taking the hard hit last weekend and determined to be a bit smarter this time around.

“Glad to be able to get back out there,” Maye said.