Sam Hartman will try to take the mantle away from Drake Maye.

The Tar Heels’ headliner at Wake Forest Saturday night in Winston-Salem has a lot of subplots, from team success to individual honors.

The Demon Deacons try to stop a late-season swoon that has become all too familiar to their fans in recent years. The Deacs, 6-3, have lost two straight games at Louisville and N.C. State, which ended any chance they had of repeating as the ACC Atlantic Division champions.

But ask any Wake fan how much a win would mean over the school that overshadows all the others in North Carolina, especially the small private university with an undergraduate enrollment of barely 5,000 students. With a chance to beat Carolina and Duke in two weeks, the Deacs could claim the mythical state championship.

The game within the 7:30 game, of course, is the quarterback duel between veteran Sam Hartman and freshman golden boy Drake Maye, who leads the ACC and the nation in multiple statistical categories. Until Hartman uncharacteristically threw three interceptions and lost three fumbles in the second half collapse at Louisville, an argument could be made over who is the best QB in the ACC.

With Maye the favorite for ACC Rookie of the Year, All-ACC Quarterback and even Player of the Year, along with some Heisman Trophy mentions, the only thing left for Hartman is to be the spoiler. And he certainly can do that, as the solid second in every ACC stat behind Maye.

Hartman has thrown 24 touchdown passes and 9 interceptions, for 2,423 yards, compared to Maye’s 31 and 3 for 2,946. His average yards passing is 303 and his QB efficiency is 157; Maye’s is 329 per game for a QBE of 182. In total offense, Hartman has run only 33 times but still has 307 total yards per game, second to Maye’s 513 rushes and 386 yards per game.

Clearly, the only way Wake Forest beats Carolina is if Hartman outplays Maye, which could certainly happen. In his last two starts against the Tar Heels, Hartman has thrown for more than 800 yards and nine touchdowns and always seems to have tall, talented, fast receivers.

Mack Brown calls him “one of the best quarterbacks to ever play college football.” The Tar Heels are on the road for the sixth time in the last 10 weeks against a team that is 19-3 at home since 2019. He knows this will be the toughest test his 8-1 and 5-0 Heels will face this season.

And it starts and ends with a quarterback battle that could be one for the books.

 

Featured image via Associated Press/Gerry Broome

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