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Predictions are suffocating the college football preseason.
It is the scourge of summer as every team sheds blood, sweat and tears getting ready to kick it off. From national and conference polls to national and conference honors for individual players and coach of the year.
Drake Maye and Cedric Gray, the high-profile captains of the offense and defense for the 2023 Tar Heels, have been as dominant in these headlines as they were on the field last season.
In the ACC, quarterback Maye was the Player of the Year. He also was overall Rookie of the Year and offensive Rookie of the Year (which he can’t win again, phew!). He was first-team All-ACC and national Freshman of the Year by three different organizations. The third-team All-American last season has picked up five nominations as best player and QB1 in the nation this year.
Gray is a former 4-strar recruit who has become one of the best linebackers in the country, since the slightly undersized 6-foot-2 and 235-pounder grew into first-team All-ACC and second-team All-American and was the team’s William Fuller Defensive MVP in 2022. He has four award nominations for this fall.
Other Tar Heels have received some preseason notice, but Maye and Gray are the headliners of what UNC fans hope will be Mack Brown’s best entry since returning to Chapel Hill almost five years ago. Clearly, if the Heels are to exceed 3rd-place predictions in the ACC, the Maye-Gray duo must lead them.
But it is the ultimate team game that requires far more than two players to carry the biggest load, which is not the case in other team sports like basketball. And there’s always prospects of a bad game here or an unfortunate injury.
Carolina also has a Hall of Fame head coach who is a spokesman for everything he wants to talk about, such as NCAA rules screwing a promising wide receiver, and NIL and the transfer portal which have turned a supposedly amateur sport into one now dominated by pay-to-play and free agency.
Brown is under contract through 2027 when he will be 76. One of the lightning rods in the game has sparked speculation since he returned – from “what is the succession plan?” to how long will he coach?
One national writer, Dennis Dodd, predicts this will be Brown’s last season, with America’s best player, and a gaping need to be filled in the sport.
“Drake Maye not only wins the Heisman and throws for 5,000 yards, but reminds us again if you’ve got a quarterback, you’ve got a chance as he guides North Carolina to a New Year’s Six bowl,” Dodd wrote. “That makes it a grand stage for the great Mack Brown to retire (from coaching) and become the new executive director of the College Football Playoff.”
Featured image via UNC Athletic Communications/Jeffrey A. Camarati
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