Mack Brown explains Drake Maye's Heisman campaign using Ricky Williams, Colt McCoy

North Carolina secured the ACC coastal division title this weekend and a trip to the ACC championship, largely because of the amazing play of freshman quarterback Drake Maye this season. May has earned himself a spot in the conversation for the Heisman Trophy next month, currently sitting at the third best odds to take home the award at +537.

Tar Heels head coach Mack Brown knows a thing or two about coaching Heisman Trophy finalists from his time coaching at Texas and spoke about his and Assistant A.D. Jeremy Sharpe’s experience in Austin surrounding the award as it relates to Maye.

“Jeremy had a lot of experience at Texas with Heisman’s, and we had it with Colt McCoy, we had it with Vince Young, and we had it with Ricky Williams,” Brown said. “And Ricky won the Heisman, the other two came in second or third, so what you do is it’s up to us to keep winning.”

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Brown elaborated on how winning is the most important factor in securing the Heisman, stressing how it is much more than an individual award through an anecdote from the Longhorns’ 1998 season.

“I learned that Ricky Williams won the Heisman when we won nine games, but it’s a team award. And I told the guys at Texas, you want your guy to win the Heisman you got to keep winning, that’s it. And then we put the Heisman on every ring of every player, had to get permission to do that after it’s over, because it’s not an individual award, everybody says it is but it’s not, you gotta have a good team,” Brown said.

The Tar Heels have been taking care of business so far this season as a team along with Maybe, only suffering one loss, ranking No. 15 in the College Football Playoff Poll, and fresh off of an impressive win over Wake Forest in a back-and-forth battle on the road.

“So I thought Drake took a huge step going on the road against a team that’s 19-3 at home, those guys have been really good in Winston-Salem, and as a full house and an exciting night and TV and he played lights out. So there’s no reason for me to think he’s going to do any different,” Brown said.

Brown also spoke on the importance of how Maye finishes the season with two weeks remaining on their regular season schedule, referencing back to his time at Texas again as an example.

“But I remember Colt McCoy had a tough night because we didn’t block Ndamukong Suh, and nobody else did either, he threw down everybody we had. And we won I think 13 to 12 against Nebraska and that was right before the votes came out so that killed him, because he didn’t have a great performance that night,” Brown said. “We won the game, we went to the National Championship, but that killed him.”

Brown used another example from one of the most memorable seasons and Heisman Trophy races in history in 2005, showing the importance of leaving a good final impression on voters.

“Vince Young didn’t have his best performance against A&M and Reggie Bush had his great game against Fresno State, and then the next week Reggie has a great game agaisint UCLA and they beat them 73-13 or something. We beat Colorado 70 to 3 but still people get in their minds,” Brown explained

There are surely a multitude of factors that play into the Heisman voting, but Maye’s numbers are definitely hard to deny, as he’s currently tied for the national lead in touchdown passes this season with 34 and ranks third in yardage 3,412 yards in the air this season.

“Drake’s had his Heisman moments, he’s done everything he’s supposed to do, he’s had an unbelievable year to this point, he’s just gotta keep playing,” Brown said.