The story leading up to Saturday’s matchup between the FAMU Rattlers and the UNC Tar Heels was that the Rattlers’ football team almost didn’t make the trip to Chapel Hill after finding out 25 players were ineligible and just seven offensive linemen would take the field. Despite that, the game went on with FAMU showing a lot of fight and heart – keeping it competitive throughout the third quarter. But the story after the Tar Heels’ 56-24 win was the debut of quarterback Drake Maye.
Just six days prior head coach Mack Brown announced Maye, a redshirt freshman, would start the season opener after battling for the job during camp with red shirt sophomore Jacolby Criswell.
Drake exited the game with 8:14 remaining in the 4th – finishing with a career-high 29 passes on 37 attempts, throwing for a career-high 294 yards and five touchdowns. He added a career-high 55 rushing yards on four carries. Maye’s five passing touchdowns are the most by a Tar Heel in a game since Howell threw for five against Virginia in 2021. He became the seventh quarterback in Carolina history to throw for five touchdowns in a single game, the first Tar Heel to throw five touchdown passes in his starting debut and the first to throw five in a season opener.
“Very proud of Drake,” Mack Brown said after the win. “One of the best first games I’ve ever seen. He was poised. He was accurate. His running ability was good.”
“It was fun out there”, a smiling Maye said during his postgame press conference. “There was a pretty good turnout. It felt good playing with the guys out there. It took us a little to get going after that first drive, but I thought we did a nice job. Glad we got the win on coach’s birthday.”
Next up, the Tar Heels travel to Boone to take on Appalachian State.
Game Notes:
- North Carolina and Florida A&M met on the football field for the first time as the Tar Heels opened the season 1-0.
- Carolina improved to 6-4 all-time in games played in August.
- UNC is 85-43-4 all-time in season-opening games, including a 38-32 mark since the ACC began play in 1953.
- Mack Brown is 266-139-1 overall, including a 91-63-1 record in 14 seasons as head coach of the Tar Heels.
- Brown is 27-7 all-time in season openers, including 10-3 as UNC’s head coach.
- First season opener since Sept. 1, 2018, in which Sam Howell was not UNC’s starting quarterback.
- The 56 points equal the fourth most in a season opener by the Tar Heels and are the most since a 56-29 win over Liberty in 2014.
- True freshman Omarion Hampton rushed for 101 yards on 14 carries and two touchdowns.
- Hampton’s 101 yards mark the first time a true freshman rushed for over 100 yards in his first game since Charlie Justice ran for 102 yards against Virginia Tech on Sept. 28, 1946.
- DJ Jones made his first start at running back.
- Sophomore linebacker Power Echols equaled his career-high with 10 tackles and career-high two tackles for a loss in his first career start.
- Redshirt freshman WR Gavin Blackwell made his first start and made his first touchdown catch. He had four catches for 36 yards and one touchdown.
- True freshman George Pettaway rushed for 51 yards on four carries and a touchdown.
- Sophomore TE Bryson Nesbit recorded a career-high in both receptions and yards, with four receptions for 53 yards and a touchdown.
- DL Kamion Rucker forced his second career fumble, leading to a touchdown pass from Maye to Josh Downs on the next play.
- Sophomore DB Deandre Boykins made a career-high four tackles. Boykins also had his first career fumble recovery.