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North Carolina quarterback Drake Maye putting up historic numbers through first two games

Wade-Peeryby:Wade Peery•09/04/22
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(Photo by Nicholas Faulkner/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

North Carolina quarterback Drake Maye has played nearly flawless football through his first two college football games. His incredible play on Saturday saved the Tar Heels from the brink of disaster against the Appalachian State Mountaineers in a 63-61 thriller in Boone, North Carolina. Through two games, he’s scored a whopping nine touchdowns, the highest number scored by any ACC player since 2000.

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Against the Mountaineers, Maye was unbelievable, completing 24 of his 35 passing attempts for 352 yards, while tossing four touchdowns. He also gashed them on the ground, rushing 12 times for 76 rushing yards and a touchdown on the ground. There’s no question that without his heroics, the Tar Heels would be licking their wounds after a loss on Saturday.

Maye had quite the debut last week against Florida A&M. He became just the second ACC quarterback in the past 15 seasons (Jameis Winston was the other) to throw for five touchdown passes and complete 75 percent of his passes in his first game. Maye looked like one of the front runners for the 2022 ACC Player of the Year award en route to leading his team to a 56-24 victory over the FAMU Rattlers in Week 0. Following the win, North Carolina head coach Mack Brown spoke with reporters about where his star signal-caller gets his competitiveness from–his family bloodlines.

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“I think when you’re raised in a family where your brother–one of them won a baseball national championship, one of them won a baseball national championship, brother won a basketball national championship. Dad was a quarterback here and very good, competitive. And he’s the younger brother. Those older ones beat him down and he had to compete to have a place in the room. And I think like Sam [Howell] he thinks this is what he’s supposed to be doing. He grew up thinking I’ll be the quarterback at Carolina. When he committed to Alabama, I said, ‘I’m hangin’ on, man. You don’t need to be anywhere but here. This is the place where you need to be in school.’ And I think he has a chance to be real good,” Brown said in the postgame press conference.

Not only did Maye’s five passing touchdowns set the school record for the most passing touchdowns by a player in their first start, but he also surpassed his father, Mark Maye’s career-high passing touchdown mark of four touchdowns that he threw in 1987 against Georgia Tech.

On3’s Chandler Vessels also contributed to this article.