CHAPEL HILL – Two things stood out about Drake Maye’s postgame press conference following North Carolina’s 56-24 victory over Florida A&M on Saturday night:

Even though the media showered him with questions about how well he played, Maye was more interested in noting some things he didn’t do well, at least in his mind. And when pressed about his record-setting performance, Maye went the awe-shucks route.

Maye is exceptionally confident, but wasn’t all that comfortable talking about his exploits. His records? He became the first UNC quarterback to ever throw five touchdown passes in his first start, and the first Tar Heel to pass for five touchdowns in an opener. His reply when asked about those marks offered some insight into who he is as a person, player, and competitor.

“I think that’s kind of the way the game worked out, you know,” he replied. “(Offensive coordinator) Coach (Phil Longo) drew up some plays just to get our guys that ball, and just happen to have to be open.

“The rain out there was getting the balls a little wet. But some of them I could have gunned in a little more, but I got some things to work on and just trying to go off.”

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Nobody in the stands or press box or probably watching on TV could tell a wet ball was ever an issue for Maye. After all, he was 29-for-37 passing for 294 yards and those five scores. No interceptions, too, and just a couple of missed passes.

One of his incompletions came after being hit from behind while throwing the ball.

The truth about Maye’s performance was that he showed a little bit of everything, especially in the realm of servicing his primary role about as well as a player can in a starting debut. Maye distributed the ball over the middle, wide right, wide left, a bit downfield, and a couple of the deep balls he threw that fell to the ground were well-contested by Rattlers’ defenders.

“He is very accurate,” UNC Coach Mack Brown said. “He’s got great vision. He’s a great decision-maker. And he’s big. He’s 6-5, so he can see. He’s 220, so he looks thin, but he’s really not. He’s a big guy that can really run. I think the thing that surprised us the most is how fast he is, and we saw that some in his summer work because he won a lot of the races.

“I told the kids, the wide receivers and defensive backs, I said, ‘Drake’s beating you; the quarterback’s beating you.’ And they said, ‘His legs are longer.’ But they knew that they watched him this summer, they knew that he had some special skills.”

As for Maye’s legs, they helped him gain 42 yards on a designed run in the first quarter leading to UNC’s initial touchdown. And on the night, Maye accumulated 55 yards on four attempts, and he wasn’t sacked once.

Also, those legs did a nice job of moving away from defenders and around the backfield looking for opportunities to hit teammates with passes. One time, late in the second quarter, Maye rolled right, nearly in sync with junior receiver Josh Downs, pointed to him before tossing a short-distanced dart into Downs’ hand. The awareness and directness of Maye and the connectivity of the two Tar Heels was a snap shot of what might be coming down the road on a broader scale.

Downs was quite pleased with how his QB played, but sees much more from him as the season grows.

“Drake has that chip on his shoulder, I have one as well,” Downs said. “He sees the things he did well. I told him he played good but he was like, no. He thinks he can do better, so he is going to come back next game even harder.”

And Maye did all of this while going into the game a bundle of nerves.

“You know I was a little anxious,” he said, smiling. “I get nervous for every game regardless of who it is. So, it felt good out there being with the guys. I think ya’ll can see that we’ve got a lot of talent. We just got to put it together.”

Putting it together begins with Maye climbing toward his potential, something in which he took a big step doing in the opener.