A former five-star quarterback prospect in the 2021 recruiting class, Drake Maye originally committed to Nick Saban and Alabama in July 2019 before ultimately flipping his commitment to Mack Brown and the North Carolina Tar Heels in March 2020.

A Charlotte native and Myers Park High School product, Maye went on to become a star in Chapel Hill, finishing his career there fifth in passing yards (8,018) and fourth in passing touchdowns (63) in UNC history. He was a second-team All-ACC performer in 2023 after throwing for 3,608 yards and 24 touchdowns, while adding 449 rushing yards and nine more scores. In 2022, he was named Shaun Alexander Freshman of the Year and ACC Player of the Year after setting the school single-season record for passing yards (4,321) and tying the UNC single-season record for touchdown passes (38), while rushing for 698 yards and seven TDs.

On the Ovies & Giglio podcast, Clayton High School head coach and former Myers Park coach Scott Chadwick, who coached Maye, shared insight into Maye’s recruitment and how he ultimately landed at North Carolina.

According to Chadwick, Clemson was one of the finalists for Maye, along with Alabama and Ohio State, but Clemson already had a commitment from five-star quarterback DJ Uiagalelei at the time.

Here’s an excerpt from Chadwick’s story about Maye’s recruiting process and how he was pretty adamant that he wasn’t going to North Carolina, until some things changed:

“The two biggest reasons for that were, one, they [North Carolina] weren’t very good in football. And I also think at the time, he wanted to go to a place that in October, sitting at the football games, they weren’t talking about basketball practice starting.

“His three finalists were Alabama, Ohio State and Clemson. And the reason he ended up [committing to] Alabama was Ohio State took an early commitment from a kid in his class, Kyle McCord. Clemson had just taken a commitment from DJ [Uiagalelei]. Alabama, at the time, did not have a quarterback in the 2020 class, and they told him they would not sign a kid in the 2020 class. So basically he just had to wait for Mac Jones.

“In the meantime, Mac Brown comes to North Carolina, kinda gets the program going back in the right direction. Football coaches spent an awful lot of time at home basketball games that year, because Drake was free game to him at that point. So, I’ll give him credit for that. But the other thing was, after Drake committed to Alabama, they flipped Bryce Young.

“And I’ll never forget the day he kind of walked into my office, and he just kinda looked at me, and I’m like, ‘Drake, it’s your life. I don’t really care what you do.’ I said, ‘It does kind of make me look bad, because I’ve told all these coaches for two years you weren’t gonna go there.’ And I said, ‘But look man, I ain’t calling Coach Saban. Like, you’re gonna have to make that call. That’s on you.’”

After three seasons at UNC, Maye was selected by the New England Patriots in the first round of the 2024 NFL Draft with the third overall pick. Now in his second NFL season, he is a two-time Pro Bowler and was named a second-team All-Pro in 2025 after passing for 4,394 yards with 31 touchdowns and eight interceptions. He led the NFL in completion percentage (72.0) and passer rating (113.5).

Maye and the Patriots are set to face the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl LX on Feb. 8 (6:30 p.m., NBC).