Mack Brown reveals what Drake Maye can take away from ACC title game loss

Clemson shut down Drake Maye and North Carolina‘s passing game Saturday in the ACC Championship. For just the second time all season, Maye, the 2022 ACC Player of the Year, didn’t throw a touchdown pass en route to losing by over four touchdowns to the Tigers.

North Carolina’s three-game losing streak following its 9-1 start did no favors for Maye’s confidence heading into his redshirt sophomore season. Still, head coach Mack Brown believes the loss to Clemson will turn out to be a valuable learning experience for the young Tar Heel quarterback.

“Drake is the reason we’re in the game. He played the best defense (Clemson) we’ve played all year by far,” Brown said following Saturday’s ACC title game loss. “It’s one of the best defenses in the country, and we’ll all grow from playing a great team. When you play a team that’s been in the playoffs every year for about six out of the last eight, I think, it shows you what you’ve got to do to get where we want to go, and we’re not there yet.

“We’re better than everybody else because we got here, but we weren’t better than they were. This was kind of like the Notre Dame game. They were physically better than we were and they whipped us.”

Maye finished the game with 268 passing yards and two interceptions. His lone touchdown came on a short rush in the first quarter before Clemson went on a tear, outscoring the Tar Heels 39-3 for the remainder of the night.

The string of losses might’ve derailed UNC’s season, but that doesn’t take away from the major success Maye had during his first season under center in Chapel Hill.

Maye has thrown for 4,115 yards and 35 touchdowns with 653 yards rushing and seven more scores. On top of being named conference player of the year, he was named ACC Player of the Week a conference-high six times along with being named the ACC Rookie of the Week five times.

Regardless of the Heels’ late season woes, Maye was the driving force behind getting into the conference title game in the first place – a fact not lost on his head coach.