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CHAPEL HILL – Getting Drake Maye to say much about himself is an arduous task, to which the local media can attest.
Maye has a bit of an aw-shucks way about him, and isn’t one to boast about accomplishments or numbers because he really doesn’t fixate on them. His focus is to get better every day, as trite as that might seem. But it is literally how he approaches football.
His confidence, however, is clearly evident. Maye knows he’s really good and is one of the top players in college football. So, it was and wasn’t a surprise how he responded to a question during media availability Tuesday evening asking how cool it would be if he was invited to the Heisman Trophy presentation in New York City in December.
“It would mean the world to me,” Maye replied, surprising some with an acknowldgement of the the honor in which he's in contention. “Especially going out there with three other tremendous players that have played really well. Just getting an invite, I think that would be really special.”
The latter part of his response is more like it. He didn’t deflect the question, and didn’t say he’s not deserving.
Maye knows he is worthy, as do his teammates and coaches. UNC Coach Mack Brown, a Hall of Famer who had a Heisman winner at Texas (Ricky Williams) and two runners-up (Vince Young and Colt McCoy), certainly knows a Heisman contender when he sees one.
“Drake’s had his Heisman moments, he’s done everything he’s supposed to do, he’s had an unbelievable year to this point,” Brown said during his weekly press conference Monday.
Maye doesn’t play for a college football blueblood, so he must raise his game to an even higher level now that the nation is suddenly paying attention. He wasn’t on many radars a month ago, but he most certainly is now.
The general book on the naysayers is he hasn’t played SEC/Big Ten or even Big XII caliber teams. The ACC doesn’t get much respect, understandably so, and that will hurt Maye. But, he’s on ESPN2 this Saturday at 5:30, on exclusive national TV on ABC next Friday versus NC State, and then ABC primetime for the ACC championship game against Clemson.
Anyone that hasn’t really watched Maye and the Tar Heels, who are 9-1 and ranked No. 13 in the CFP, can without any problem over the next three weeks. As for the Heels, they are considered an outside dark horse to make a push for the College Football Playoff if they can win out while chaos occurs in the spots above them.
So, both are playing for something enormous, and getting there means Maye and the team are on this ride hand-in-hand. Carolina must win out, and Maye must be sensational for either the Heisman or CFP to occur. Or both.
As for the most prestigious award in American sports, Carolina somewhat started its Heisman campaign for Maye last Sunday night by pushing a tweet focusing on what others are saying about the redshirt freshman quarterback and his candidacy.
The approach is somewhat subtle engineered by Jeremy Sharpe, UNC’s Assistant A.D./Football Communications and Branding. Sharpe has experience with Heisman campaigns, as he was with Brown at Texas and had a role in promoting campaigns for Vince Young (2005) and Colt McCoy (2008).
The drive for greater awareness of aye isn’t an elaborate presentation of his numbers and weekly Heisman-like plays. Instead, UNC is allowing Maye’s play to speak for itself, with an assist from Sharpe and his staff getting pertinent information into the right hands. Wow clips, which are in abundance, are intended for the right eyes.
“Your average Heisman voter can’t watch every game, so the likelihood of them seeing all of the candidates on a regular basis is probably pretty slim,” Sharpe said Thursday. “So, it’s really incumbent on the people in our position to get as many facts as possible in front of them to try and separate your candidate.”
And really, much of Sharpe’s work is done for him with the recent swell of national attention Maye is receiving. Most of the other candidates have been firmly on the radar for a while, but Maye is a newcomer, and he plays for a program that only occasionally flares up nationally.
On Twitter, however, you can’t scroll very long without seeing a discussion about Maye’s worthiness. And there are three camps: Enamored UNC diehards and college football fans without a dog in the fight who simply adore his game; fans of other contenders picking for negatives; and the anti-ACC football brigade who disregard Maye’s success because the league is fighting some performance image problems.
Naturally, so much of this is new to Maye and his family. Sharpe had a conversation with Maye a couple of times going back to the start of the season about how performances will relate to UNC promoting his success. Maye’s parents are kept abreast of noteworthy articles and bits about Drake, but there isn’t a coordinated effort to get out the word to the masses. They are, however, in agreement with UNC's approach.
That said, the masses have taken note.
Maye is getting help from the Carolina fan base that has infiltrated seemingly every social media post about the Heisman. Many national pundits and sports media regularly comment, sometimes even argue, for or against Maye's place in this process, and Tar Heel fans are there every time defending their QB.
This is a fairly recent phenomenon, however. Maye didn’t hear much about it until a couple of weeks ago, he says.
"I couldn’t exactly remember besides the students talking when walking to class and stuff,” he said, before recalling a specific incident. “Seriously, other than that, when running off the field in Virginia was the first time a lot of people started saying it."
Ironically, that was after Maye’s most pedestrian game of the season: 26-for-37, 293 yards, two touchdowns, 74 rushing yards, and a score.
The chatter really erupted last Saturday night when the Huntersville, NC, native put on a show in the Tar Heels’ 36-34 win at Wake Forest.
"Drake for Heisman (clap, clap, clap, clap, clap), Drake for Heisman...," Carolina's contingent sang.
He finished with 448 yards passing and three touchdowns, as well as 71 rushing yards and a score. That’s 519 total yards. Maye did an appearance on ESPN Radio not long after the game, and he was trending on Twitter.
Maye and the Heisman really aren’t trending in his family, for the most part.
“We really haven’t mentioned it much,” he said. “I had some cousins in from California in for the Wake game, so we kind of briefly talked about it when Jeremy had me on ESPN Radio after the game. So, they kind of heard some of the competition when they were talking about it.
“It’s kind of been the elephant in the room, but we just have been going on with the season trying to play it one play at a time and let things unfold.”
Three more weeks to go, and three crucial games to play along the way. Whether or not Maye wins the Heisman, that he’s in the conversation as Thanksgiving approaches means the Tar Heels are also winning games.
And if the Ws continue, there won’t be any trouble getting Maye to discuss that. Not at all.
