{"id":719084,"date":"2026-01-31T12:59:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-31T12:59:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/719084\/"},"modified":"2026-01-31T12:59:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-31T12:59:12","slug":"mack-brown-why-i-think-drake-maye-can-become-one-of-the-best-ever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/719084\/","title":{"rendered":"Mack Brown: Why I think Drake Maye can become one of the best ever"},"content":{"rendered":"

This story is part of Peak,\u00a0The Athletic\u2019s desk covering the mental side of sports. Sign up for Peak\u2019s newsletter\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mack Brown coached Patriots quarterback Drake Maye for three years at North Carolina. Brown won a national championship at Texas, ranks seventh in career wins and is in the College Football Hall of Fame.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve never seen a more competitive person than Drake Maye.<\/p>\n

One day, I walked into the players\u2019 lounge at North Carolina and saw a broken ping-pong paddle on the floor. All the guys were sitting around, laughing. I said, \u201cWhat\u2019s the deal? Who broke the paddle?\u201d<\/p>\n

Well, they all pointed to Drake. Drake looked at me.<\/p>\n

\u201cCoach, the tight end beat me,\u201d he said. \u201cCan you believe the tight end beat me? Of course, I had to break the paddle.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s another great example: I would come back in the summer to watch the players work out. Drake would win every race. Against defensive backs, against everybody, it didn\u2019t matter. I\u2019d say to the defensive backs: \u201cYou\u2019re letting a quarterback beat you in a sprint?\u201d But he just took such pride in winning every race. He was a guy who chased perfection, knowing that we can never be perfect. But he still wanted to gain on it every day.<\/p>\n

His family is the first family of North Carolina athletics. They\u2019re like the Mannings. His dad was a good college quarterback at North Carolina. His mom was a star basketball player in high school. His oldest brother, Luke, won a basketball championship at North Carolina. The next in line, Cole, also won a national championship, in baseball at Florida. The third brother, Beau, played basketball at North Carolina.<\/p>\n

All of them were very competitive with Drake growing up. To this day, they compete in pickleball like it\u2019s the national championship. The fact that two of his brothers already had national championship rings was something that drove Drake.<\/p>\n

We\u2019d win a big game, and his brothers would just show their national championship rings to him. All right, big boy. You\u2019ve got to get one of these.<\/p>\n

In 2021, Drake was a redshirt freshman. None of us knew how good Drake was at that point.<\/p>\n

He competed with Jacolby Criswell for the job in the spring. They were pretty much even after spring practice. In fact, Jacolby might have even played better in the spring game. But when I got back in the summer, I pulled the older guys into my office one at a time.<\/p>\n

\u201cWho do you think is going to be the quarterback?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cCoach, it\u2019s Drake. He\u2019s so competitive.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s how he won the locker room. He was just so tough and competitive. He played hurt. We couldn\u2019t take him out. We couldn\u2019t keep him from practicing, even if he had a sore ankle.<\/p>\n

I remember after his first year, he was named the National Freshman of the Year and the ACC Player of the Year. I said to him, \u201cThey\u2019re going to put your name in the stadium.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said, \u201cCoach, let\u2019s not do that while I\u2019m here. That\u2019s not fair to the other guys. That\u2019s great, and I appreciate it, but I don\u2019t want it up there while I\u2019m playing.\u201d<\/p>\n

After the 2022 season, our offensive coordinator left, and I was hiring a new one. At that time, Drake was offered a lot of money to go to other schools. He walked into my office and said, \u201cCoach, I know there are rumors out there. I\u2019m not going anywhere. You signed me. I came here. I\u2019m your quarterback. So don\u2019t you worry about that. It\u2019s not even an issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

I said, \u201cI got it. I\u2019ll try to get you some NIL money.\u201d<\/p>\n

And he said, \u201cCoach, that\u2019s fine, but I don\u2019t care. I want us to win.\u201d<\/p>\n

So I said, \u201cWhat are you looking for from me and an offensive coordinator?\u201d<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a guy who had just made national freshman of the year. And he said: \u201cI want somebody to work with me on my feet. Sometimes I drift into the pressure. I need to do a better job in the pocket. And I\u2019d like to work on my throwing motion.\u201d<\/p>\n

So I said to him: \u201cWell, I\u2019ll tell you what. Why don\u2019t I interview a couple of guys, and I\u2019m going to bring at least two to you. I\u2019m going to let you interview them by yourself after I do. Then we\u2019ll come together to see what\u2019s the best fit for you and our team.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what we did.<\/p>\n

One year, we had to come back and beat Appalachian State in overtime at home. He walked right by me with a little smile on his face and said, \u201cWe\u2019re good. You weren\u2019t worried, were you?\u201d<\/p>\n

I told him, \u201cYeah, no, I felt great the entire time.\u201d<\/p>\n

He always carried himself with confidence.<\/p>\n

Former Texas coach Darrell Royal used to say to me, \u201cWhen you have it, you\u2019re special.\u201d<\/p>\n

I\u2019d ask him, \u201cCoach, what does that mean?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, you know what it means. When a guy walks in a room and everybody stops and turns and looks and wants to go over and speak to him and meet him, he\u2019s got it. When he walks on the field, and there\u2019s a minute left in the game, and you\u2019re down by six and you know he\u2019s going to score, he\u2019s got it.\u201d<\/p>\n

That was the presence Drake carried. He wanted to be in that position. He wanted to be that guy. Drake had a very strong confidence, but he was also very humble. But he was also very competitive. That\u2019s what made him so special. It\u2019s rare to have all three of those traits.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s going to be more driven every step of the way in the NFL. Nothing he did was ever good enough, which is why he\u2019s great. It\u2019s also why I think he will end up winning a Super Bowl \u2014 and why I think he\u2019ll end up being one of the best to ever play.<\/p>\n

\u2014 As told to Jayson Jenks<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This story is part of Peak,\u00a0The Athletic\u2019s desk covering the mental side of sports. Sign up for Peak\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":719085,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[331,339,7,49,48,249,6,4717,4864],"class_list":{"0":"post-719084","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-college-football","9":"tag-college-sports","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-ncaa","12":"tag-ncaa-football","13":"tag-new-england-patriots","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-north-carolina-tar-heels","16":"tag-peak"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115989837512436290","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/719084","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=719084"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/719084\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/719085"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=719084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=719084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=719084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}