UNC’s Maye: Transfer talk, NIL deals all ‘rumors’
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Pete ThamelESPN
Six months ago, North Carolina redshirt freshman quarterback Drake Maye wasn’t sure if he’d win the starting job at the school. Since then, he has emerged as a projected top NFL draft pick for 2024 and the unwitting face of the free market that has emerged in college football.
In an interview with ESPN on Thursday, Maye reflected on the past few weeks, which included a social media post declaring he was staying at UNC as a way to combat rumors of him entering the transfer portal. Pittsburgh coach Pat Narduzzi stoked the flames by saying this week that two schools offered Maye $5 million to transfer.
“Those rumors weren’t really reality,” he told ESPN. He added: “Pitt’s coach ended up putting that out there. I don’t know what that was about. You have to enter the transfer portal to talk to these schools and hear these offers. For me, I think college football is going to turn into a mess. They’re going to have to do something. There was nothing to me or my family directly offered from any of these other schools. Nothing was said or offered to the Mayes.”
Maye threw for 4,115 yards and 35 touchdowns this year, leading UNC (9-4) to an ACC title game appearance and Holiday Bowl bid.
In the wake of that breakout season, both UNC coach Mack Brown (“a whole lot of money”) and Narduzzi indicated publicly that Maye had big-money offers from other schools. No one has named the schools, but Brown insinuated they were the school’s that typically appear in the recruiting rankings.
Maye agreed to an NIL deal with UNC’s Heels4Life program and denies that he and his family got any offers directly from other schools.
Maye added that he heard of outside interest only “through the grapevine.” He said: “Some people were texting my high school coach about it. That’s mainly what happened, people reached out to some of my representatives and NIL media people.”
Maye’s family has roots burrowed deep into the UNC campus. Both his parents graduated from there and his brother, Luke, hit one of the most famous shots in UNC basketball history in 2017. Drake Maye rooms with another brother, Beau, who is a UNC basketball walk-on.
Maye grew up adoring UNC and said that no other school could give him “that same heartbeat feeling” that UNC does.
“It wouldn’t sit right, especially with all my family…” he said. “Switching it up after everything the Mayes went through wouldn’t represent what the university means to me or how much it means for me to go there. It’d mess up the mojo and all we’ve built there. That Carolina blue is special. There’s no other color in the world that meaningful.”
Maye’s father, Mark Maye, is a former UNC quarterback and worked for UNC football under Mack Brown during his first tenure at the school. Mark Maye said the family never discussed Drake leaving UNC, despite there being “a lot of rumors” of his son entering the NCAA transfer portal.
“North Carolina was where he wanted to be,” Mark Maye told ESPN. “He never mentioned anything, ever, about wanting to see what’s out there or anything like that.”
Maye’s NIL deal with UNC’s Heels4Life program includes monetary incentives and is also expected to have a charitable component. Maye said he has done work locally with the Ronald McDonald House and Table NC, which delivers healthy food to local children. He has interest in doing charity work in his home area of Charlotte.
Graham Boone, the Heels4Life executive director, said that Maye stressed to him that deals be available for his teammates. He said the deal with the Maye was “not a negotiation” but more of an “offer of our committed support to him.”
“We stepped up to the plate to be sure UNC was the best place for him,” Boone said. “We wanted to make sure he had no interest in going anywhere else. Like Coach Brown said, he turned down a lot of money [elsewhere]. That doesn’t mean Heels4Life didn’t step up with a very, very fair amount.”
Maye said that his affinity for UNC won out.
“Sadly, I think money is becoming a reason why kids go places,” he said. “Where I’m playing at and with and for Coach Brown, just that Carolina blue outweighs the money part of it. I don’t think any amount of money from whatever school [would sway me]. Nowadays, people are signing for NIL. It puts a lot of pressure on those kids. If I were to transfer out and go somewhere, it wouldn’t be the same.”
Maye’s return for UNC will mean one of the most hyped seasons in years, as he has a chance to become the program’s first No. 1 overall NFL draft pick. It’s expected that there will be a season-long debate in 2023 between Maye and USC’s Caleb Williams, the returning Heisman Trophy winner, for the NFL draft’s top spot in 2024.
For now, acknowledging there’s potential roster fluidity, UNC projects to return 17 of 22 starters. For Boone and Heels4Life, they see retaining Maye and delivering deals to his teammates as a way to capitalize on the momentum. He pointed out that UNC has “been on the precipice” of being a national program a number of times in history. “Drake represents a renewed interest from our fan base,” he said, “that we can take that last step.”
Maye told ESPN that Brown made him an active part of UNC’s search for a new offensive coordinator after Phil Longo left Chapel Hill for Wisconsin. UNC lured UCF offensive coordinator Chip Lindsey, and Maye said he got on Zooms or phone calls with multiple finalists for the job.
He said that Lindsey is likely to bring aspects of UCF’s run game, which should help bolster UNC’s red zone effectiveness. (UNC ranks No. 58 in the FBS in red zone touchdowns.) He’s excited that Lindsey has worked to develop NFL quarterbacks Jarrett Stidham and Nick Mullens at previous stops at Auburn and Southern Miss.
“It’s been a blast getting to know him,” Maye said. “He seems awesome.”
Maye put out an Instagram post in early December to announce he was returning, a way he said to counter “rumors and speculation” about him leaving. When summing up the past month, he chuckled.
“Really, not that much went down,” he said. “There was speculation and an Instagram post and a head coach said [I] turned down this amount of money that I’d never heard of. That’s basically the gist.”
Former LSU wide receiver Kyren Lacy, accused of causing a crash that killed a 78-year-old man on Dec. 17 and then fleeing the scene without rendering aid or calling authorities, turned himself in to authorities Sunday night, was jailed and then released on $151,000 bail, according to police records.
Lafourche (Louisiana) Parish Sheriff’s Office records indicate that Lacy was charged with negligent homicide, felony hit-and-run with death and reckless operation of a vehicle.
A warrant had been issued for Lacy’s arrest, and police on Friday said they had been in contact with Lacy and his attorney to turn himself in.
According to a news release from Louisiana State Police on Friday, Lacy was allegedly driving a 2023 Dodge Charger on Louisiana Highway 20 and “recklessly passed multiple vehicles at a high rate of speed by crossing the centerline and entering the northbound lane while in a designated no-passing zone.”
“As Lacy was illegally passing the other vehicles, the driver of a northbound pickup truck abruptly braked and swerved to the right to avoid a head-on collision with the approaching Dodge,” a Louisiana State Police news release said.
“Traveling behind the pickup was a 2017 Kia Cadenza whose driver swerved left to avoid the oncoming Dodge Charger. As the Kia Cadenza took evasive action to avoid impact with the Dodge, it crossed the centerline and collided head-on with a southbound 2017 Kia Sorento.”
Police alleged that Lacy, 24, drove around the crash scene and fled “without stopping to render aid, call emergency services, or report his involvement in the crash.”
Herman Hall, of Thibodaux, Louisiana, who was a passenger in the Kia Sorento, later died from injuries suffered in the crash, according to state police. Hall was 78.
The drivers of the Cadenza and Sorento also sustained moderate injuries, according to police.
Lacy’s agent, Rocky Arceneaux, said in a statement that his client is “fully cooperating with the authorities.”
Lacy played two seasons at Louisiana before transferring to LSU in 2022. This past season, he had 58 catches for 866 yards with nine touchdowns and declared for the NFL draft on Dec. 19, two days after the crash.
ESPN’s Mark Schlabach contributed to this report.
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Jake Trotter, ESPN Senior Writer
ARLINGTON, Texas — As the confetti fell around him, Jack Sawyer raised his arms, lifted his head and closed his eyes. As a boy growing up in a Columbus suburb playing catch with his dad in the backyard wearing a scarlet and gray jersey, Sawyer had often dreamed that one day he might become an Ohio State hero with an iconic moment that would go down in Buckeyes history.
On Friday night, playing against Texas in the College Football Playoff semifinal at the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic, that moment finally happened.
On fourth-and-goal with just over two minutes remaining, Texas needed one play to tie the score and potentially force overtime. Instead, Sawyer ended the Longhorns’ season and catapulted the Buckeyes to the CFP National Championship game, where they will face Notre Dame.
Sawyer screamed past right tackle Cameron Williams and sailed toward Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers, his freshman-year roommate at Ohio State. As he crashed into Ewers’ back, the ball popped loose. Off one bounce, Sawyer scooped it up and raced 83 yards for a touchdown that won’t be forgotten in Columbus.
“I almost blacked out when I saw nothing but green grass ahead of me,” he said.
With that play, the Buckeyes defeated Texas 28-14. And Sawyer cemented an Ohio State legacy.
“To make a play like that in that moment. … You want to leave a legacy behind? You become a legend. He just became a legend at Ohio State,” Buckeyes coach Ryan Day told ESPN on the field after the game.
The longing for just that moment is why Sawyer put off the NFL to come back for his senior season. After three losses to Michigan with no Big Ten championships or national titles, Sawyer and several other Ohio State seniors who could have been Day 1 or 2 NFL draft picks opted to return for “one last ride,” as he put it.
Their disappointing 2023 season ended with a deflating loss to Missouri in the same Cotton Bowl stadium. Sawyer said he just couldn’t stomach ending his Ohio State career that way.
“I wanted to go to the NFL and chase my dream more than the next guy,” Sawyer told ESPN over the summer. “But I haven’t won a championship. And you walk around the Woody [Hayes Athletic Center] and all you see is championships and championship posters and banners. Having not helped our team win any of those, it’s something that wears on me and it’s something that motivates me every day.”
Sawyer nearly had that moment six weeks ago. Yet, in a turn, what followed was a career low point for him and the Buckeyes.
He intercepted Michigan quarterback Davis Warren at the goal line midway through the fourth quarter. But with the score tied, the Buckeyes couldn’t capitalize on the turnover. On their ensuing possession, the Wolverines nailed a game-winning field goal for a stunning 13-10 victory, handing the Buckeyes — and Sawyer — their fourth straight loss in the series.
As Michigan’s players planted their flag at midfield of The Horseshoe, Sawyer charged in along with his teammates and ripped it away, leading to a melee that lasted five minutes and was finally broken up by police with pepper spray.
But with the expanded 12-team playoff, Ohio State’s seniors got one final chance to end their careers with hardware. With his scoop-and-score, Sawyer brought the Buckeyes within a game of winning their first national championship since 2014.
“The resiliency of this team from a month ago has been incredible,” said Sawyer, who became the first FBS player in a decade to produce multiple pass breakups and a sack in three straight games, according to ESPN Research, all coming during Ohio State’s playoff run. “We sat up here last year with a sore taste in our mouth and heard a lot of things. We come back and heard the same things a month ago. But we kept swinging.”
The underdog Longhorns kept swinging too.
After the Buckeyes took a 21-14 lead, Ewers led Texas all the way to the Ohio State 1-yard line. But on second-and-goal, safety Lathan Ransom dropped Texas running back Quintrevion Wisner for a 7-yard loss on a risky sweep.
“We had a plan to try to get the ball on the edge,” Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said. “It’s one of those plays if you block it all right, you get in the end zone — and we didn’t.”
After an incompletion, Texas faced fourth-and-goal from the 8. Ewers, who began his career at Ohio State before transferring to Texas after one season, said he thought he had time to get off the pass. But his onetime roommate got to him before he could.
“Obviously, it’s not like I tried to give him the game,” Ewers said. “He is a great player, great individual, great person. … It sucks, but Jack’s a good player and he made a great play.”
Sawyer’s fumble recovery was the longest in CFP and Cotton Bowl history. As Ohio State quarterback Will Howard took a knee, Day jumped into Sawyer’s arms.
“I don’t know if there’s a guy … who loves being a Buckeye more,” Day said. “This is somebody … who has always wanted to be a Buckeye, who has always wanted for a moment like this. So to see him get the moment that he had today — I mean, he’s become like family to me.”
Day and Sawyer both cautioned that their last ride together isn’t over quite yet. They have one game left and a national title still to win. But they also both acknowledged the magnitude of the moment. And Sawyer’s looming place in Ohio State history.
“I love Columbus, I love the state of Ohio, I love Ohio State football,” Sawyer said. “And I’m so fortunate to be playing in the national championship my last year here.”
ESPN’s Dave Wilson contributed to this report.
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