Drake Maye returned to form and Nate McCollum returned to football.
That and a defense that gave Minnesota some of its own medicine led the Tar Heels, by far, to playing their best game of the season against a team that may have been their toughest opponent to date.
Another sold-out crowd and a beautiful September day combined to give Chapel Hill the kind of football atmosphere it always longs for, beating the gargantuan golden-helmeted Gophers of the Big Ten at their own game.
Minnesota — which had come in looking to crack the rankings against now-No. 17 Carolina — was bigger across both interior lines and hoped to win with a time-consuming ground-game and play-action passing by Athan Kaliakmannis, who hardly lived up to his nickname the “Greek Rifle.”
A daunting challenge for a 6-foot-4 redshirt sophomore who was close to Maye in age and size but hardly any other aspect of his game as he left during a key drive with leg cramps.
Calling it “the worst game I’ve ever played,” The Greek Rifle missed his target on 18 of 29 throws, his fourth being pressured by Carolina’s Dez Evans, battered into the air and intercepted by a diving Power Echols.
Sir Drake hit McCollum four times on the opening drive and made it seven in a row to the Atlanta native, who left his home-town school because the Jackets didn’t throw the dad-gum ball enough. He won’t have that complaint with his new QB1.
Maye threw for the second-most yardage of his career, 414 yards and two touchdowns, with chunk plays whisking the Tar Heels to the shadow of the goal line or into the end zone four times and once deep enough so Noah Burnette the place-kicker coming out of mothballs could go perfect on the day.
Although he wound up spreading the ball to eight different receivers, Maye threw his first eight passes to McCollum who by catching seven of them was on his way to near-record day of 15 catches, 165 yards and his first touchdown as a Tar Heel.
He was one short of the school record for a game of 16 receptions shared by Josh Downs, Charlie Carr in 1966 (against Air Force) and Ryan Switzer (against Pitt) 50 years later.
Recalling those wild west days in the transfer portal, McCollum and Tez Walker were supposed to be the stretch and slot junior receivers replacing Antoine Green and Downs. While Walker lives in limbo due to his NCAA-dictated ineligibility, McCollum burst onto the scene after missing the first two games with an injury and caused Mack Brown to say, “He became Josh Downs for us today.”
The Gophers didn’t know McCollum was coming and, when they found out, could not stop him from creating open space in the slot area or on the flanks. His 15 catches are one-fifth of the 75 he had in two full seasons at Georgia Tech, not exactly a pass-happy program. Now, what can he do for an encore?
UNC’s Nate McCollum wrestles in a pass for a touchdown against Minnesota on September 16, 2023. (Photo via AP Photo/Reinhold Matay.)
Minnesota arrived with the girth and gumption to win its 20th non-conference game against one loss under head coach P.J. Fleck, who wears a tie on the sidelines as an acolyte to his first coaching mentor, Ohio State’s Jim Tressel.
His team is not particularly athletic but plays a rugged brand of football popular with the thousands of maroon and gold Gopher fans who made the trip to Chapel Hill and packed the visitors section at the northeast corner of Kenan Stadium.
Fleck deferred with the opening kickoff, hoping his defense could make a statement to the UNC offense and All-American quarterback. But Maye promptly directed a nine-play, 75-yard drive that ruined Fleck’s game plan and introduced Tar Heel Nation to No. 6, the speedy 5-8 slotback.
Maye completed his first two passes to McCollum, who took the second across the field for 18 yards. After four rushing plays that barely netted another first down, Maye went back to McCollum on three straight throws.
The first was incomplete to the right, the second to the left that lost two yards. The third was a 46-yard post-pattern strike to McCollum who made a great diving catch across the goal line for his first touchdown as a Tar Heel.
Maye hit 18 of 23 in the first half, when he took two monstrous hits from the Gophers, one on the sideline that had him come up wobbling and could have led to poor throws in the second quarter that produced interceptions on two straight possessions, from which the visitors were held to only a field goal.
Carolina’s only bad defensive possession of the game came after Maye’s second touchdown pass, a 19-yard dime he dropped to Bryson Nesbitt in the right corner of the end zone, giving the Heels a 21-3 lead and short-term domination.
But they allowed the Gophers to drive 75 yards in less than two minutes to score and make it a 21-10 game at halftime. Fleck played “Belichick Ball” by taking the second half kickoff and making it a one-score game with another field goal.
Minnesota made the capacity crowd squirm by driving to the UNC 34 before back-up quarterback Cole Kramer lofted a ball toward the Carolina end zone where Virginia Tech grad transfer Armani Chatman made a back-pedaling pick to end the threat and essentially the 31-13 game.
The Tar Heels scored the last 10 points, three on a 42-yard field goal by Burnette, who lagged the ball through the uprights as the student section erupted for a 24-13 lead. It was very close to the spot from where grad transfer Ryan Coe duck-hooked a 39-yarder at the end of regulation against App State.
After that overtime win, Brown said “all positions are open except Drake.” Coe lost his with a lower leg injury. And while Burnette remains perfect, he’s likely to be the placekicker.
After rushing the ball so well in the first two games, Carolina finished with only 105 yards and 2.3 per carry, which was enough for Chip Lindsey not to call a single run in the entire third quarter. Still, the Heels improved their national statistical ranking of third-down conversions from 62 percent to 71 after making 12 of 17 and winning time of possession by 6-plus minutes.
Minnesota, which once paid UNC $800,000 to get out of a previously canceled series, will get another chance with the 2024 opener scheduled for Minneapolis on August 29.
For now, Carolina has contributed three victories to the ACC’s 26-13 record against non-conference opponents and two to the league’s 9-7 record against outside Power 5 schools.
Brown’s 15th Tar Heel team is 3-0 for the third time in four years. The last Carolina team that opened with four straight wins was in Brown’s 10th season in his first stint, starting 7-0 in 1997 before he departed for Texas.
The Heels will try to do it again at Pitt Saturday night in a stadium where Brown has never beaten the Panthers.
Photo via AP Photo/Reinhold Matay.
Chapelboro.com does not charge subscription fees, and you can directly support our efforts in local journalism here. Want more of what you see on Chapelboro? Let us bring free local news and community information to you by signing up for our biweekly newsletter.
UNC sho did play some “Big Boy” football (which makes me hungry for Shoney’s)! And it was a “beautiful” September day! But if the stadium had a “sold-out” crowd, a bunch of fans must have come disguised as empty seats! I was wearing my Hollywood producer disguise so nobody would recognize me as a Double Naught Spy! Elly May (my dumb old cousin) came with me, and she kept asking why boys were whistling at her. I told her, “You dumb Ol’ girl. Don’t you know anything? They’re whistling at me ‘cause they know a big Hollywood producer when they see one.” So now I have a new case to work on as a Double Naught: How many fans came dressed as empty seats and how many seats were just plain empty? Speaking of empty, my belly is empty so I’m going to get me some of Granny’s possum shanks and sow belly!