Why is everyone discounting Drake Maye and UNC as possible Playoff crashers?

Yes, there is a chance where Drake Maye and the rest of the UNC football team can make the College Football Playoff this season.

It might be as a huge long shot, but UNC has a chance at making the College Football Playoff with Heisman Trophy contender Drake Maye at quarterback.

The North Carolina Tar Heels are the Rodney Dangerfield of the Power Five. They get no respect. And why should they? North Carolina probably would not have it any other way, to be honest. Historically, UNC is a basketball school with an occasionally interesting football team. Well, Mack Brown has arguably his best team to date in Chapel Hill and yes, this team can make the playoff.

At 9-1 (6-0), North Carolina absolutely has the pathway where it can make the four-team field.

UNC gets no respect: Drake Maye has Tar Heels in College Football Playoff mix

As with any true underdog story, there is so much playing into the narrative UNC cannot keep up on the gridiron with the big boys. History is not on their side, despite being one of college football’s true sleeping giants. While Brown is a hall of fame head coach and Maye is a former top-end prospect from a famous family, last year’s struggles with Sam Howell have undeniable hurt them.

Two years ago, UNC was the third best team in the ACC after Clemson and Notre Dame. While the Tar Heels were able to reach a New Year’s Six bowl, they could not hang with Texas A&M in the Orange Bowl, an SEC team that has gotten progressively worse every season since. Howell was also an elite high school prospect, but a bad final year at UNC totally crated his NFL Draft stock.

Simply put, UNC had our attention a year ago after a strong COVID season and completely blew it. With Maye being a first-year starter at quarterback, how could we have possibly known he would be this good this soon? But after a several close calls vs. Appalachian State, Georgia State, Duke, Virginia and Wake Forest, the Tar Heels are alive and heading to Charlotte out of the ACC Coastal.

All that stands between them and a potential crashing of the College Football Playoff party are home games vs. a bad Georgia Tech team and an NC State team that cannot quite go from good to great in the Wolfpack that is the ACC Atlantic. And that right there is why nobody respects UNC: The ACC Coastal is an absolute abomination of a college football division in this particular season.

When Duke being led by a first-year head coach in Mike Elko is likely to finish in second place in what could be an eight or even nine-win season for the Blue Devils, that is all you need to know about the health of the ACC Coastal. As expected, Pitt has regressed. The Virginia schools are horrendous under new regimes. Georgia Tech fired its head coach and Miami is so not The U yet…

See, its ACC Championship counterpart in Clemson routinely gets the benefit of the doubt for a myriad of reasons. The Tigers play in the tougher ACC division and beat everybody out of the Atlantic, many of whom were ranked teams at the time of their meetings. Plus, Dabo Swinney has his Clemson program operating at as close to its zenith more often than not. They have earned it.

Overall, all North Carolina needs to do is beat Georgia Tech at home, NC State at home and Clemson in Charlotte to make the College Football Playoff as one-loss ACC Champions. Believe it or not, the Tar Heels would get in because their loss to Notre Dame is now one of quality, and they did not lose a game in league play. Upsetting Clemson in Charlotte could get them the No. 4 seed.

Ultimately, none of this is going to matter unless UNC beats both teams who play for the Textile Bowl annually. Of course, they need to beat the Ramblin’ Wreck first, but UNC has shown that it can put up points with anybody. The defense is absolutely putrid, but they have banked so many reps this season in close, high-scoring games. These Tar Heels are both frisky and very dangerous.

In the year after Cincinnati made it in out of the Group of Five, UNC would be this year’s equivalent.

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