Tuesday Offense Report: Downs & Maye

CHAPEL HILL – Every Tuesday, several North Carolina football players are made available to the media to discuss their recent performance, the coming game, and their individual play.

The two offensive Tar Heels that met with the media this week were receiver Josh Downs and quarterback Drake Maye at the Kenan Football Center.

UNC (5-1, 2-0 ACC) is coming off a 27-24 win at Miami last weekend and travels to Duke (4-2, 1-1) on Saturday for an 8 PM kickoff (ACC Network).

Below are videos of their Q&A sessions as well as a few notes and pulled quotes from what they had to say:

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Downs was asked a few questions about Drake Maye, how teams are adjusting to him, his eye-popping stats, and on how he dealt with some in-game adversity against the Hurricanes. He was also asked about how the defense has changed the last two weeks, being 3-0 on the road this season, traveling to Duke and how loud the Victory Bell actually is, and more.

*Opponents now have six games of film on Maye, so how has Downs see teams adjust to him in recent weeks now that they have studied different games?

“They’re not doing too much different stuff from last year, because Sam was a great player, too,” Downs said. “More teams are dropping more people into coverage, and they’re more aware that he can pass, but also run, too…

“They have to play us pretty balanced. We’ve got a lot of weapons, so it’s not like they can just try to take one singular person away all game.”

*Downs’ touchdown at Miami was a wild play in which Maye let go of the ball after he was hit in the leg and was clearly falling down. And the pass was more a flick/shovel than anything else. Downs caught it, adjusted, made a couple of Hurricanes miss and somehow got into the end zone.

It was a highlight-reel special for sure, and went viral on social media.

“He made eye contact with me before he threw that ball,” Downs explained. “He didn’t just throw it up, I knew it was coming to me. He made a good play, he didn’t get sacked, he threw it up there (and) allowed me to make a play, and I got blessed I got in the end zone.”

*Downs and the Tar Heels aren’t taking Duke lightly this weekend. They have seen the tape and know the Blue Devils aren’t just improved, but are a physical team. Downs is ready for a battle.

“We know they’re much better,” he said. “They’ve got a great DC, a great coach (Mike) Elko. We know that they’re not the same Duke team as the past (few) years, but we didn’t take those Duke teams lightly, either…

“It’s a rivalry game at the end of the day, so we’ve got to come out there and take them like any other team.”

*As for the Victory Bell, which goes to the winning team, Downs says former Tar Heel (and NFL player) and current Director of the Koman Game Plan for Success, Kevin Donnally, constantly rings the bell during Duke week. But Monday night, Downs was with freshman running back George Pettaway and got a chance to ring it, and he was a bit surprised by how loud it is.

“I didn’t realize it was that loud,” Downs said, smiling. “It hurt my ears. I’m staying away from it now.”

Maye was asked if opponents are playing him differently now that they’ve had a lot of film of him to study, what the film session with Phil Longo was like Sunday, if his crazy touchdown pass really was like Pat Mahomes, on the surprising grade he gives himself through the first half of the season, and about Duke, the rivalry, and his memories of UNC-Duke stuff in the past.

*Maye was intercepted twice in the Miami game, actually on consecutive pass attempts, and how has three on the season with 21 touchdown passes. So, what was the film session like with Longo on Sunday when they went over the picks?

On the first one at the end of the first half: “With 28 seconds left, gotta be strong with the football. I kind of forced it in there. I like that throw a lot. Me and Bryson (Nesbit) work on that a lot, we (do) it in two-minute practice. I feel like that’s one of my better throws but stuck it too far inside.”

On the second one, which was his first attempt of the second half: “Kind of threw a dip into it, had a chance for J.J. (Jones) if I put it over the shoulder. But just kind of underthrew it.”

*Maye has acknowledged he fixates on mistakes and can be hard on himself, but as he continues the process of learning to go over film each week, has he changed that at all? Does he move on quicker, still fixate the same?

“I’m kind of hard on myself, (but) in the game, just get rid of it – trying tog et rid of it faster and go on to the next play,” he said. “In a half, you’re gonna have 30 or 40 plays or more, so just get rid of that, (though) it’s a bad feeling.”

*Maye obviously has a lot of UNC-Duke experience as a fan growing up and watching his brother play the Blue Devils in basketball. There isn’t any shortage of things that stand out to the redshirt freshman and son of a former Carolina QB.

“I was a ball boy a couple of times when Luke was getting recruited,” Maye said. “(Former UNC basketball) Coach (Roy) Williams let me be ball boy for one of the home Carolina (versus Duke) games over at the good old Dean Dome.

“And then also, I think Luke’s first start was at Duke, that’s one of my main memories.”

That was Luke Maye’s sophomore season in 2017.

*Saturday’s game is in prime time and Wallace Wade Stadium is close to being sold out for it.

“They’ve got a squad this year, and they’re going to come ready,” Maye said. “And I think in a packed-out stadium, so it should be a fun night.”