Why did Drake Maye switch from Alabama and choose UNC? It’s about more than legacy
When Myers Park High quarterback Drake Maye committed to Alabama last summer, North Carolina football coach Mack Brown never stopped recruiting him.
Maye’s brother, Luke, was a basketball star at UNC and won a national championship. His father, Mark, played quarterback in Chapel Hill, once leading the ACC in completion percentage and twice leading the Tar Heels in total offense.
Brown kept telling Drake Maye that North Carolina was home.
That message eventually hit home.
“Coach Brown,” Drake Maye said, “he’s just honest with you and keeps everything real. And he’s a player’s coach and all the guys up there love him, all the fans.”
Seven months after he made his commitment to Nick Saban’s national power in Tuscaloosa, and just a few weeks after Saban stopped by to watch him play basketball at Myers Park, Drake Maye sent out a tweet.
In a few words, he de-committed from Alabama, committed to North Carolina and set the recruiting world on fire.
“The weekend before,” Maye said, “I talked to Coach Saban and just told him I was just kind of rethinking things. They were great. It was nothing Alabama did, but I just think North Carolina’s home and I didn’t want to de-commit and get all these colleges talking to me again. I kind of had my mind made up and wanted to be a Tar Heel.”
One year earlier, Brown had convinced Sun Valley QB Sam Howell to de-commit from Florida State and choose the Tar Heels, selling the same message about staying home. That worked out well.
After a brilliant freshman season where he led the ACC in regular-season passing yards, Howell will return for his sophomore season as a Heisman Trophy candidate this fall. Howell’s 3,347 yards and 35 touchdowns were better than Trevor Lawrence’s freshman year at Clemson (3,280, 30); Philip Rivers at N.C. State (3,054, 25); or Robert Griffin III at Baylor (2,091, 15 passing; 843, 13 rushing).
By flipping Maye the way he did Howell, and selling a similar vision, Brown has the UNC quarterback position in good shape for years to come.
Maye, 6-foot-5 and 210 pounds, is a four-star national recruit. 247Sports, a national recruiting website, ranks Maye as the No. 32 player in America, regardless of position in the class of 2021, as well as the third-best pro-style quarterback prospect. It also ranks Maye as the No. 1 player in the North Carolina.
He is the centerpiece of a 2021 UNC recruiting class that has 11 commits so far and ranks No. 4 nationally, behind Florida, Clemson and Ohio State. Nine of those 11 Tar Heels recruits are 4-star prospects.
“I think the success they’ve had in recruiting (at UNC) in this offseason definitely kind of changed his original feelings and I think opened his eyes because originally they weren’t even in the picture,” Myers Park coach Scott Chadwick said. “When we started this whole process, he was adamant he wanted to go to a football first school and he was actually adamant on telling people he wasn’t going to Carolina because he was afraid he wouldn’t get recruited by other schools because they would assume they weren’t in the picture. Obviously, things evolved.”
Last season as a junior, Maye threw for 3,512 yards and 50 touchdowns. He completed 72 percent of his passes and had just two interceptions. Myers Park finished 12-1, reaching the N.C. 4AA state quarterfinals, but in eight games, Maye didn’t play in the fourth quarter due to blowouts.
In other words, he put up those numbers while missing the equivalent of two full games.
Heading into his senior high school season, Maye has big goals. He wants to win a state championship at a school that doesn’t have one in football; he wants to go undefeated; and he doesn’t want to throw an interception.
And then he wants to go to Chapel Hill and build on his family’s legacy.
“I called Coach Brown before I let (my decision) out on Twitter,” Maye said. “I told Coach Brown that I sat down with my family and was thinking it a little bit and I decided to play for him and I wanted to be a Tar Heel. He was real excited. Coach Brown’s been awesome. I can’t wait to get up there.”
This story was originally published March 31, 2020 at 5:22 PM.
