Ranking the top 15 college football starting quarterbacks for 2023

2. Drake Maye, North Carolina

This seems like a no-brainer as Drake Maye was spectacular for North Carolina in his first season as a starter.

After throwing limited passes as a freshman, Maye showed why he was the guy early for the Tar Heels and wound up throwing for 4,321 yards.

The sophomore didn’t have a single game with fewer than 206 yards passing. He also had seven games with 300 yards or more and 10 games with at least 280 passing yards.

Not only that, Maye can run too. By the time the bowl game was finished last year, Maye accounted for 5,019 yards, as well as 45 total touchdowns.

The North Carolina quarterback will have a new offensive coordinator after Phil Longo left for the Wisconsin Badgers, but it’s not hard to figure out what to do with Drake Maye. There are some concerns about the receivers and Josh Downs is now in the NFL.

But great quarterbacks are able to make the players around them better and that’s what Maye will be expected to do for North Carolina this season.

The 6-foot-5, 220-pounder finished 10th in the Heisman last year. Part of that had to do with the way North Carolina stumbled down the stretch. The talent is there for Maye to be special and if he can lead the Tar Heels to an ACC title, he’ll be remembered as a Tar Heel legend forever.

And heck, he might even win the Heisman Trophy.