No one expected North Carolina’s HC Bill Belichick to start the season 2-3. They’re coming off a dreadful 38-10 loss to Syracuse, a team that had just one win coming into the game. Now, UNC has a week off before they head to California to take on the 4-2 Golden Bears. Amid everything going on, New England Patriots QB Drake Maye had an electric performance as he handed the Buffalo Bills their first loss on Sunday Night Football.
Bill Belichick Continues the War Between North Carolina and the New England Patriots
Ross Martin of 247Sports/CBS Sports took to social media to reveal what is going on behind the scenes with UNC and the Patriots. Belichick, who has an obvious history with the NFL team, wants no part of Maye leading the Patriots to their shocking 23-20 win over the Bills on primetime. In fact, he’s put a rule in place, according to Martin’s sources.
“According to sources inside the UNC football program, it is a directive from the staff (Bill Belichick) to not tweet/retweet anything Patriots-related,” Martin said. “That’s clearly why UNC football has not posted anything from Drake Maye’s electric primetime win over the Buffalo Bills.”
Maye, in his second year in the NFL, spent three years playing college football at North Carolina. He sat on the sidelines in 2021 before taking over as their starter in 2022 and 2023. In 2022, he put up electrifying numbers. The 23-year-old was 342/517 for 4,321 yards with 38 touchdowns to just seven interceptions. In his senior season, he was 269/425 for 3,608 yards with 24 touchdowns and nine interceptions.
In total, he had 79 combined touchdowns as a Tarheel. Maye added 16 on the ground, seven in ’22 and nine in ’23. He had 1,209 rushing yards thanks to monstrous numbers in his 2022 season where he finished with 5,019 combined yards. While those numbers didn’t immediately translate to the NFL, he’s beginning to get on track.
Maye was 22/30 for 273 yards against the Bills. He was sacked four times, but didn’t let that faze him. Despite everything he did for UNC, the team failed to acknowledge him after such a huge win. If Belichick wasn’t the head coach, there’s no doubt they would have posted something. Instead, Tarheel fans are left with nothing.
Through his first five starts this season, Maye is 7th with a B grade in PFSN’s QB Impact metric. He’s far surpassed all expectations, though Tarheel fans knew exactly what the Patriots were getting when they selected him No. 3 overall.