Buck Stops Here: Milestone Moment for UNC

This Sunday, you, I, and a lot of other people will be watching Super Bowl LX. Some of us will be watching our 60th Super Bowl. Through all those years, we will see something we have never seen before: a former UNC quarterback starting in this game. 

Congrats, Drake Maye, and congrats, UNC. 

It is well worth our time to pause and consider what a huge milestone this is for North Carolina football. It has not been that long since the idea of a North Carolina quarterback starting in any NFL game, even in the preseason, was out of the question. 

I well remember going to a high school game in the Charlotte area, 25 years ago or so, to watch a game that featured a quarterback – a well-regarded one – that UNC was recruiting. I was there early and walked down to the field while the teams were warming up. Talking to several members of that player’s coaching staff, who had no idea who I was (no surprise there), and asked them what they knew of that player’s thinking about his next step. Several schools were mentioned, but not UNC. So I asked. One of the assistant coaches quickly dismissed that idea, and I will always remember what he said.

“That’s where quarterbacks go to die.” 

Even though I knew the threadbare history of UNC quarterbacks in the NFL well, that statement took me aback for a minute. 

At that time, probably Chris Keldorf was the most accomplished UNC quarterback in my lifetime. In 1996, Keldorf became the first UNC QB to make first team All-ACC in 22 years (Chris Kupec, 1974). Against Duke in the final regular-season game that year, he snapped his ankle. To me, he was never the same again, and he spent his final year of eligibility splitting time with Oscar Davenport, and subbed in for OD in the Gator Bowl and won MVP of that game. 

Neither Keldorf nor Kupec had an NFL career. Kupec was taken in the 15^th round of the 1975 draft but never played a snap in the NFL, and Keldorf was not drafted, nor was he ever invited to an NFL camp as an undrafted free agent. Casting no aspersions on anyone, and certainly, there were UNC quarterbacks who had their moments before Kupec and Keldorf. But 25 years ago, there was no point in arguing that the assistant high school coach’s statement.  

In those 25 years, UNC’s QB history has not been as bleak. Though limited by injury, UNC fans were ecstatic when the Tar Heels signed Ronald Curry. Darian Durant had his moments and owned the UNC record for most touchdowns before he went on to star in the CFL. Matt Baker started the year after Durant, had the reputation of being tough as nails, and after years in business got back into the game. Last year he helped coach quarterbacks coach for the Pittsburgh Steelers, and next season will be with the Cleveland Browns.

T.J. Yates broke Durant’s freshman records for yards and completions and went on to become the first viable NFL prospect since 1975, when Kupec was drafted. Yates was taken in the fifth round by the Houston Texans and played in 22 games. He was the first UNC quarterback to start an NFL game. Yates, in fact, led the Texans to their first-ever playoff win in 2011. He is now up-and-coming NFL assistant coach, the passing game coordinator for Atlanta in 2025, and has joined the Tampa Bay staff for 2026. 

Subsequent quarterbacks, Bryn Renner and Marquise Williams, were solid quarterbacks for UNC, but neither got much of a look from the NFL. Renner signed as an undrafted free agent with the Denver Broncos but was waived before the season. Similarly, Williams got a look from the Green Bay Packers but was released during the final team cuts.  Though he played CFL, AAF, and the XFL, that was the extent of his professional career. 

Then came Mitch Trubisky, the 2^nd overall pick of the Chicago Bears in 2017. Likely, anyone reading this is familiar with his career, which fell short of where his draft position forecasted. But he is still in the league, now 31 years of age, and has made a nice career as a backup, currently on the Buffalo Bills roster. 

Sam Howell was the next UNC quarterback to get attention from the NFL, taken in the fifth round of the 2022 NFL draft. He has started 18 NFL games, but has also settled into a reserve QB role, currently for the Philadelphia Eagles.

Bear in mind, it was just 15 years ago when North Carolina had its first quarterback, Yates, start a game in the NFL. This Sunday, Drake Maye will start for the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl. For the first time in its history, it has a former quarterback carrying its flag at the highest level of the game. 

We knew, all of us knew, from the moment Maye took over as a starter in his second season at UNC, he was special. Even though UNC had upped its quarterback game beginning with Yates, he was different. He could do things we had not seen before. With a great arm, tremendous mobility, the ability to improvise, and possessed with determination, he has it all. We are not surprised he has made it to this point, but to get there so quickly is unusual. 

It doesn’t hurt his standing with UNC fans that he comes from university royalty; his father, Mark, also quarterbacked UNC, which we could have fit into the narrative above, and his brother, Luke, is renowned for his basketball exploits, including a national title. It just makes UNC’s affiliation with Maye deeper. 

Regardless of how Sunday’s contest goes, and I confess to not being optimistic, Maye is just at the beginning of what could be a storybook career in the NFL. 

Speaking for quite probably every fan reading this, it’s a proud moment.