By R.L. Bynum

CHARLOTTE — Even without his best two wide receivers, talented redshirt sophomore quarterback Drake Maye still found a way. And UNC finally found a way to keep pressure on an opposing quarterback.

Showing elusiveness and poise in the opener of likely his final college season, Maye led No. 21 North Carolina to a 31–17 opening-game victory Saturday for Coach Mack Brown’s 100th win as UNC’s head coach.

“I’m really proud of these guys,” said Brown, who, with 158 wins at Texas becomes the first coach with at least 100 wins at two FBS schools. “They didn’t fold; they kept playing. South Carolina has got a really good football team with a lot of confidence and a great quarterback, and our guys hung in there. There are so many things we can get better and fix from tonight even though we won the game.”

It wasn’t all smooth for Maye, though. After he threw only seven interceptions last season, South Carolina intercepted his throws twice. But he finished 24 of 32 for 269 yards and two touchdowns, with a 153.7 passer rating.

With wide receiver Kobe Paysour (seven catches, 34 yards, 1 TD), tight end John Copenhaver (three catches, 52 yards, 1 TD) and tight end Kamari Morales (three catches, 46 yards) the best among nine Maye targets, the offense looked sharp in its first game under the direction of first-year offensive coordinator Chip Lindsey.

The Tar Heels’ defense had its hiccups. But, overall, it looked much better than last season, keeping the heat on South Carolina quarterback Spencer Rattler with nine sacks — including two by linebacker Kaimon Rucker and 1½ each from linebacker Cedric Gray and end Beau Atkinson — more than half of last year’s total of 17.

“They’re playing with a lot more consistency and, therefore, much more confidence,” Brown said of the defense. “They didn’t get their heads down. They didn’t pull the old ‘poor me’ like they did it out of state last year in the fourth quarter. So this should really build on their confidence. We can show them tomorrow the things that they need to fix.”

Gray said that holding an SEC opponent to 17 points, and only three in the second half, speaks for itself.

“We had a lot of Red Zone stops, a lot of third-down stops,” Gray said. “I think we had nine sacks tonight, so I think that proves that we can play defense.”

UNC’s most dangerous wide receivers, transfers Tez Walker (still ruled ineligible by the NCAA) and Nate McCollum (lower-body injury), didn’t play, but Maye did well in his first game without wide receivers Josh Downs and Antoine Green, now on NFL rosters.

“It’s next man up mentality,” said Maye, wearing a Walker jersey. “Same thing as last year. Sometimes we didn’t have Josh and Antoine. It’s tough on a defense when you aren’t honing into one guy.”

Maye made one bad decision that led to a third-quarter interception and had a fourth-quarter pass picked off when Paysour couldn’t make the catch, but those were blips.

“I made a bad throw across the middle,” Maye said of the first interception. “At the same time, I’m trying to make plays. It’s part of my game. Live and die with it. But, at the same time, I can’t make that throw across the middle. The second one, I tried to throw it back shoulder and left it a little bit inside. It happens; you move on. I’ve got to better job responding.”

And, thankfully, Maye didn’t have to lead UNC in rushing (four rushes, 25 yards) as he did for many games last season, getting good games from British Brooks (103 yards) and Omarion Hampton (37 yards and two touchdowns).

“I think it’s an advantage me running around, but at that same time. I’m not trying to take hits out there,” said Maye, who has thrown for at least 200 yards in all 15 career starts. “Good to be able to hand it off and watch them run.”

After UNC forced South Carolina into a three-and-out on the opening drive, the Tar Heels scored on a 70-yard, nine-play drive. Hampton took a short pitch from Maye for the final yard through the left side of the line on a third-and-goal with 9:50 left in the first quarter. That came despite the Gamecocks having 13 defenders on the field.

“It’s frustrating because we had our chances,” South Carolina coach Shane Beamer said. “Defensively in the first half, we were out there way too many plays. On third down, we couldn’t get ourselves off the field defensively, so therefore, I think they played 40 plays in the first half and we were out there for 20 because we couldn’t stay on the field. Starting the game was like the perfect storm of everything that could go wrong went wrong.”

The Gamecocks responded with a 4-yard Dakereon Joyner scoring run on a 75-yard, 8-play drive. UNC hurried quarterback Spencer Rattler on a third-and-9 earlier in the drive, but he connected on a 16-yard pass for South Carolina’s initial first down of the game.

After overthrowing Paysour earlier in the drive, Maye connected for 18 yards with J.J. Jones on a third-and-11. But Gavin Blackwell dropped a wide-open pass, one of two first-half drops, that could have been a touchdown. Ryan Coe, a graduate transfer from Cincinnati, kicked a 37-yard field goal to make it 10–7 with 7:05 left in the first half.

It took under two minutes for South Carolina to go 72 yards for a Juju McDowell touchdown and a 14–10 Gamecocks lead.

It took Maye less than 2½ minutes to regain the lead. He connected for 28 yards to Morales on a third-and-3. Two plays later, Maye faked a handoff to Brooks and tossed a 34-yard touchdown pass to Paysour to cap a 76-yard drive and give UNC a 17–14 halftime lead.

UNC weathered South Carolina recovering the onside kick to start the second half, stopping the Gamecocks on a fourth-and-four.

Blackwell made up for his two first-half drops with a huge catch for 37 yards to set up a 1-yard Hampton touchdown run as UNC went up 24–14 in the first 2½ minutes of the second half.

The Tar Heels turned it into a rout when Maye found tight end Copenhaver in the left side of the end zone. Copenhaver made a nice off-balance catch to shove the lead to 31–14 with 6:29 left in the third quarter.

Tomari Fox’s sack of Rattler forced the Gamecocks to settle for a 26-yard field goal with 12:19 left to cut UNC’s lead to 14.

NOTES — UNC plays its home opener at 5:15 Saturday against Appalachian State (ACC Network), which opened with a 45–26 home victory Saturday over Gardner-Webb. … The game drew 68,723 fans. … Junior defensive back DeAndre Boykins is out for the season with a lower-body injury. … South Carolina wide receiver Juice Wells left the game after the first half with an injury. … The Tar Heels gained 437 yards. UNC has won the last 10 times it gained 400 or more yards. … May passed Mitch Trubisky for eighth place in UNC history in total yards with 5,464 (Trubisky had 5,201). … There were scouts in the press box representing the Redblacks (CFL), Colts, Chiefs, Chargers, Vikings, Patriots, Saints, Titans, Seahawks, Bucs, Giants, Bears, Dolphins, Commanders, Eagles, Browns, Jets, Steelers, 49ers and Ravens. … Musician Darius Rucker, also the guest picker on ESPN’s “GameDay” broadcast, sang the national anthem. … Country musician Eric Church, wearing a Tez Walker jersey, was UNC’s honorary co-captain. … Washington quarterback Sam Howell and wide receiver Dyami Brown, Downs, New York Jets linebacker Chaz Surratt and the Charlotte Hornets’ Leaky Black were on the sidelines. … UNC is 17–9–2 all-time in Charlotte games. … Brown is 12–3 in season openers. … The Tar Heels lead the series with the Gamecocks 36–20–4, including 4–2 in neutral-site games. … UNC didn’t punt until 6:35 remained in the game.

No. 21 UNC 31, South Carolina 17

Date	Time	Month/ location	Opponent (2022 record)	Record/ TV
		September
2	W, 31–17	Charlotte	South Carolina (8–5)	1–0
9	5:15	Home	Appalachian State (6–6)	ACCN
16	3:30	Home	Minnesota (9–4)	ESPN or ESPN2
23	TBA	Road	Pittsburgh (9–5, 5–4 ACC)	TBA
		October
7	TBA	Home	Syracuse (7–6, 4–3)	TBA
14	TBA	Home	Miami (5–7, 3–5)	TBA
21	TBA	Home	Virginia (3–7, 1–6)	TBA
28	TBA	Road	Georgia Tech (5–7, 4–4)	TBA
		November
4	TBA	Home	Campbell (5–6)	TBA
11	TBA	Home	Duke (9–4, 5–3)	TBA
18	TBA	Road	No. 9 Clemson (11–3, 8–0)	TBA
25	TBA	Road	N.C. State (8–4, 4–4)	TBA
		December
2	8 p.m.	Charlotte	ACC championship game	ABC