CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – Flushed out of the pocket on a 2nd-and-goal play from the 8-yard line early in the third quarter, Drake Maye tucked the ball tight to his chest and made a beeline to the pylon.

Just as he lunged, a Florida A&M defender hit him low, sending the North Carolina freshman quarterback tumbling into an airborne flip right out of the movie Remember the Titans.

It was entertaining and even though he didn’t get into the end zone, both the crowd and Maye’s teammates enjoyed the move.

Coach Mack Brown wasn’t quite as amused.

“When he was about to go over the bar, I said ‘No man, come on!” Brown said. “But he’s a competitor.”

Brown felt a little better about his young star’s acrobatics once he got up from the ground uninjured.

While the circus flip and the resulting crash landing was a highlight-worthy moment for Maye, it was far from the most spectacular thing he did in leading UNC to a 56-24 win in his starting debut for the Tar Heels on Saturday night’s season-opener.

The highly-touted younger brother of former UNC basketball star Luke Maye and son of former Tar Heel quarterback Mark Maye became the first passer in school history to throw for 5 touchdowns in both a season-opener and his first career start.

He completed 29-of-37 passes for 294 yards while also running for 55 yards on 4 carries in a performance that went a long way toward answering the question “How will UNC replace Sam Howell?”

Granted, the defense he was lighting up was an FCS unit depleted by ineligibility. But the poise he displayed, the mobility in the pocket, the ability to find open receivers and deliver the ball to them on target … those are qualities that stand out regardless of the opponent.

Maye didn’t go all the way to the head of the class in an ACC loaded with talented, veteran quarterbacks. Not after only one game. His performance against the Rattlers did, however, serve notice that he has what it takes to move up the pecking order in a hurry.

Or as Brown put it: “He thinks this is what he’s supposed to be doing.”

There’s a lot of truth in that statement. Given his bloodlines, his 6-5, 220-pound size and the howitzer attached to his right shoulder, it wouldn’t be a stretch to say that Maye was bred to be an elite athlete.

That didn’t prevent him from feeling a case of the nerves as he took the field for his first significant action in more than two years.

“I was a little anxious,” said the redshirt freshman, who missed his senior season of high school because of COVID before serving as a backup last year. “I get nervous before every game. But it felt good being out there with the guys.”

The nerves showed early. UNC went 3-and-out on its opening possession and was stuck in a 2nd-and-10 situation from its own 39 when Maye took off on a called quarterback draw – or a “Sam Special” as the young quarterback called it in honor of his predecessor Howell. 

He got through the line untouched, put on a burst of speed and took off 42 yards down the far sideline. He looked much more comfortable from that point on and his offense began to light up the scoreboard.

Even more impressive than the way Maye ran an attack that piled up 608 total yards (319 on the ground, 294 through the air) is the number of Tar Heels who made significant contributions to it.

A quarterback, no matter how skilled, is only as good as weapons with which he has to work. Howell learned that lesson the hard way last season playing behind a porous offensive line while surrounded by only a handful of playmakers.

Not the case Saturday night.

Maye completed passes to 10 receivers. Four backs rushed for 50 or more yards – including freshman Omarion Hampton, who became the first UNC player to rush for at least 100 yards in his debut since some guy named Choo Choo Justice all the way back in 1946. And 6 players scored touchdowns.

“We’re special on that side of the ball,” Maye said. “We’ve got some players. I’ve just got to do my job and get them the ball.”

About the only disappointment on his big night, at least as far as he’s concerned, was that he was ruled out of bounds at the 1 on his not-so-graceful dive for the end zone.

“I figured I’m 6-5, just try to leap and see what I could do,” he said, adding that “I’m glad I didn’t land on my head.”

He failed to stick the landing and found himself laying upside down on the turf, a posture that is somehow appropriate. Because if he continues to put up numbers even close to the kind he did against FAMU on Saturday, the latest Maye to wear Carolina blue could potentially turn the ACC’s Coastal Division race completely upside down.