North Carolina Football vs. Virginia Postgame Notes

• Saturday was the 127th edition of the South’s Oldest Rivalry. Only Minnesota and Wisconsin’s annual battle for Paul Bunyan’s Axe has been played more often (131 times) among FBS rivalries.
• North Carolina improves to 8-1 overall and 5-0 in ACC play for the first time since posting an 8-0 league record in 2015.
• Mack Brown is 273-140-1 as a head football coach and that includes a 98-64-1 record in 14 seasons as head coach of the Tar Heels. Brown is now 5-9 all-time against the Cavaliers and picks up his first career victory in Charlottesville.
• The Tar Heels are 27-26 all-time on the road against Virginia and today’s win is the first in Charlottesville in 2016 when Mitch Trubisky threw three touchdown passes in a 35-14 victory.
• Carolina has five road wins in a season for the first time since 1997 and now owns the longest winning streak on the road since winning nine in a row between 2014-16.

Drake Maye

• Redshirt freshman QB Drake Maye completed 26 of 37 passing attempts for 293 yards and two passing touchdowns. Maye added 74 rushing yards on 16 attempts and a rushing TD.
• Maye entered Saturday leading the nation in touchdowns responsible for and added three more against Virginia and now has 35 total TDs in 2022. He has tossed 31 touchdowns and rushed for four scores in nine games.
• Maye joins Sam Howell (2019 and 2020) and Mitch Trubisky (2016) as the only three UNC quarterbacks to throw 30 passing touchdowns in a season.
• Maye’s 31 touchdowns this season are the second most in program history. Sam Howell has the record with 38 touchdowns in his brilliant 2019 freshman season.
• Maye’s 31 passing TDs breaks former Pitt QB Kenny Pickett’s ACC record for most passing TDs through nine games in a season. Pickett had 29 in his first name games in 2021.
• Maye’s 31 passing TDs are the third most in ACC history by a freshman QB. FSU’s Jamies Winston holds the record with 40 set in 2013 as a red-shirt freshman and Howell had 38 as a true freshman in 2019.
• Maye went over 3,000 career passing yards today against the Cavaliers and is already 17th in program history in career passing yards (3,053) in nine career starts and 13 total appearances.

Receiving/Rushing

• Sophomore running back Elijah Green made his first career start and set career highs by carrying the ball 22 times for 91 yards and scored a rushing and receiving touchdown. His previous career high was 69 rushing yards in the 2022 season opener against Florida A&M. Green has scored five total touchdowns in the last three games.
• Wide receiver Josh Downs set a new career high with 15 receptions and added 166 receiving yards and a touchdown. Last year against UVA, Downs had a career-best 203 receiving yards on eight catches and two TDs.
• Downs is the first Tar Heel receiver to ever have 15 catches in a game, and finished one shy of the program record of 16 held by Charlie Carr vs. Air Force (1966), Quinshad Davis vs. Virginia (2012) and Ryan Switzer vs. Pitt (2016).
• Downs has 19 career receiving touchdowns, tied for the fifth most in program history. Downs has scored 18 touchdowns over his last 21 games dating back to the Orange Bowl at the end of the 2020 season.

Defense/Special Teams

• Linebacker Cedric Gray recorded a career-high 16 tackles and had two breakups, two TFL and a sack.
• Storm Duck had his second interception of the season and the fourth of his career in the first quarter. He also added a pair of breakups in the Tar Heel secondary.

Courtesy UNC Athletics Communications