Drake Maye will lead the unbeaten North Carolina Tar Heels into a Week 4 showdown with a Notre Dame team that is fresh off their first win of the season.
A win moves UNC to 4-0 and likely gets them ranked in the polls as Atlantic Coast Conference play begins a week later. It will also give them more confidence this season to hopefully contend for the Coastal Division.
And a big reason why UNC is in this position is the play of Maye.
The quarterback has been fantastic this season through the first three games, throwing for 930 yards, 11 touchdowns, and just 1 interception. For that hot start this year, Maye was named one of 10 breakout players early on in the season by 247Sports:
Here’s the list of true or redshirt freshmen quarterbacks who have thrown for at least 900 yards and 10 touchdowns while completing at least 70% of their passes through three games since 2000: Spencer Rattler and Drake Maye.
That’s it.
Maye took over as North Carolina’s starting QB this offseason and has arguably been better than his predecessor, Sam Howell. Maye currently leads the FBS in passing yards and touchdowns. Yet, the most impressive part of Maye’s season is his success as a deep ball passer. Maye is making some of the most difficult throws for a QB to consistently complete look easy. He is completing 70.4% of his passes on medium-range passes (10-19 yards) and has a 91.6 PFF grade on those passes of 20-plus yards.
Maye will look to keep rolling this year and if he can continue this hot play, it should mean good things for the Tar Heels.
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