There’s a scene in the classic 1987 film “The Princess Bride” in which the dashing Westley and the swashbuckling Inigo Montoya have a swordfight atop a cliff. It appears to be an even matchup, until Inigo flips his sword from one hand to the other and says, “I am not left-handed!”
So it was on Saturday night in Pittsburgh, when UNC quarterback Drake Maye rolled out to his left on a designed run. The Panthers immediately swarmed Maye and had him wrapped up for a loss. With his right arm pinned against his body, Maye switched the football to his left, spotted a wide open Kobe Paysour in the end zone, and did the inconceivable: he threw the ball with his off hand.
The ball was a duck, but with nobody around him, Paysour was able to make the easy catch for the touchdown. The play extended Carolina’s lead over the Panthers to 28-17 and was part of a 31-3 run to blow the game open. Like Inigo, the Tar Heels had turned the tables.
Head coach Mack Brown, always eager to heap praise on his quarterback, wasted no time in his postgame press conference.
“The play that Drake made with his left hand is maybe the best play I’ve ever seen in college football,” Brown said. “It was unbelievable. I sat there and looked at it, and I wanted to run it back, and then I looked up at the jumbotron. I told him at that time, ‘Win the game, and it’ll be number one on SportsCenter. I think it would’ve been number one either way. I was shocked. I’ve never even seen him do that. And he just acts like he does it all the time. He is really a good player.”
Receiver J.J. Jones had a career night against the Panthers with six catches for 117 yards, including a 52-yard catch that was Carolina’s longest play from scrimmage. But even he agreed Maye’s play was the highlight of the night.
“I was on the other side of the field, and I looked up and I saw him throw it, but I saw his left hand in the air,” Jones said. “So something seemed odd. But then I watched the replay and I stood there like, ‘That’s gonna be SportsCenter Top 10.’ Drake makes plays like that all the time in practice. For some people it looks crazy, but for us, that’s just who he is.”
Carolina has had several gifted quarterbacks come through Kenan Stadium in the last few years, including two now in the NFL. But not even Sam Howell or Mitch Trubisky can claim to have done what Maye did on Saturday. It’s why some view Maye as already the best quarterback in the history of the program. High praise for someone who’s only started for a season and change.
If you present this opinion to Brown, he won’t necessarily tell you no.
“We’re just so blessed. We’re watching one of the best to ever do it,” said Brown. “We saw Sam Howell, who’s playing on Sundays and winning, and now we’re seeing Drake. We’re so blessed at North Carolina to have two of the best to ever do it here in our five years.”
In Inigo and Westley’s fight, Inigo’s revelation is soon followed by Westley revealing that he, too, is not left-handed, and eventually winning the duel. Pitt did no such thing on Saturday, with the Panthers looking completely flummoxed after the first quarter save for a kickoff return touchdown. Maye’s heroics showcased a dizzying football intellect, and it was all part of granting every UNC fan’s wish: the team’s first 4-0 start since 1997.
For fans who remember the grim final years of the Larry Fedora era, such a start only a few years later would seem – all together now –
“Inconceivable!”
Featured image via UNC Athletic Communications/Heath Kleindienst
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.
So Drake Maye can throw with either hand? I can too. I can throw a baseball through a knothole at a 100 paces! And I can shoot bumper pool and play ping-pong with either hand. But I sure didn’t know that Drake was amphibious too! Fantastic!
I gotta go! It’s Groundhog Day! Granny stewed me a great big groundhog with gopher gravy!
Not crazy about the shot you took at Fedora. His teams had injuries like I’ve never seen before, and he didn’t have Drake or Sam. Larry didn’t get a fair shake at Carolina.