Mack Brown shares why Drake Maye’s ego will never become an issue

The hype continues to build around North Carolina quarterback Drake Maye, and the attention is nothing new to him. After all, he was a highly touted recruit and even committed to Alabama at one point.

But as Maye’s star continues to rise at North Carolina, Mack Brown said you wouldn’t know it by talking to him. There are a few reasons why, though.

“His mom and his dad will be all over him because his dad was a national player. His brothers will be all over him because they’ve already won national championships,” Brown joked. “So he’s not going to be impressive to them.”

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In all seriousness, Brown said Maye hasn’t changed despite the success he’s having this season. He’s thrown for 1,594 yards and 19 touchdown this year, and appeared on On3’s Mike Huguenin’s Heisman Hot Board earlier this week.

Brown said the attention Maye got on the recruiting trail could be a reason why his mentality isn’t changing despite the new-found hype.

“Drake is very, very level-headed,” Brown said. “He has gotten publicity his whole life. He was a five-star, he was very, very highly recruited, he went through the celebration of Alabama commitment. So I really don’t think any of this even affects him. I never see anything different with his personality. I don’t see him any different right now than I did this time last year.

“He is so even-keeled with what he does, even on the field. He’ll get mad at himself. You saw him, he overthrew a deep ball Saturday and he’s beating his chest. I wanted to say, ‘Everybody saw it. Everybody knows it’s your fault, so you don’t have to tell them.’ But that’s who he is. He’s going to put more pressure on himself and he’s never going to be satisfied. So I don’t see national recognition bothering him at all.”

As a recruit out of high school, Maye was a four-star prospect and the No. 45 player in the country from the class of 2021, according to the On3 Consensus, a complete and equally weighted industry-generated average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies. Now in the midst of his impressive redshirt freshman season, Maye has also seen his On3 NIL Valuation skyrocket. He went from $77K on Aug. 30 to $890K on Oct. 4.

The On3 NIL Valuation is the industry’s leading index that sets the standard market NIL value for high school and college athletes. The On3 NIL Valuation calculates the optimized NIL opportunity for athletes relative to the overall NIL market and projects out to as long as 12 months into the future.