UNC quarterback Drake Maye shuts down transfer, NIL talk: ‘Those rumors weren’t really reality’

Drake Maye is part of a University of North Carolina family and a pretty popular one at that.

That’s not changing anytime soon, the Tar Heels quarterback said. In fact, it was never really even close to changing.

Maye announced Dec. 7 on Twitter he was staying at Chapel Hill, saying he could “never leave this place.”

However, Pittsburgh coach Pat Narduzzi said Maye turned down two separate $5 million offers to transfer. Maye quickly shut that notion down.

“Those rumors weren’t really reality,” he told ESPN. “Pitt’s coach ended up putting that out there. I don’t know what that was about. You have to enter the transfer portal to talk to these schools and hear these offers.”

Maye said leaving UNC wasn’t an option, given his family’s history at the school.

His father, Mark, was a UNC quarterback. His older brother, Luke, sent the Tar Heels to the Final Four in 2017 with a last-second jumper, and they eventually won the national championship. His other brother Beau is a walk-on for the basketball team.

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“It wouldn’t sit right, especially with all my family …” he said. “Switching it up after everything the Mayes went through wouldn’t represent what the university means to me or how much it means for me to go there. It’d mess up the mojo and all we’ve built there. That Carolina blue is special. There’s no other color in the world that meaningful.”

However, he believes his situation may not be very popular, and money will soon run the transfer portal.

“For me, I think college football is going to turn into a mess. They’re going to have to do something,” he said.

“There was nothing to me or my family directly offered from any of these other schools. Nothing was said or offered to the Mayes.”

By the looks of it, Maye will be battling USC’s Caleb Williams, this season’s Heisman Trophy winner, as the first overall pick of the 2024 NFL Draft. May would become the school’s first-ever No. 1 pick.