When Drake Maye walked into Gillette Stadium for the first time in his life after being picked No. 3 overall in the 2024 NFL Draft, he brought his three best friends with him in the form of his three older brothers.

Luke Maye is the oldest who played basketball at North Carolina from 2015-19 and currently plays basketball overseas in Japan; Cole Maye played baseball at Florida and was part of the Gators’ national championship-winning team in 2017; and Beau Maye was a walk-on part of the North Carolina men’s basketball team in 2022-23. They come from a family full of Tar Heel blue, as father Mark Maye played football in 1983-88 and mother Aimee Maye attended North Carolina.

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When asked if he has any bragging rights over his three older brothers, Drake Maye doesn’t think he does just yet.

“I think in the Maye family, championships kind of rules over anything so maybe until I get one of those,” Drake Maye said. “They got two national champions over there so I think that still trumps being a first-round draft choice.”

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When it comes to championships, the Patriots know a thing or two about them.

New England is tied alongside Pittsburgh with an NFL record six Super Bowl victories, and all six were under quarterback Tom Brady.

Drake Maye said he has his sights on jersey No. 10 rather than Brady’s No. 12. They’ll get a chance to meet one another soon, and that could come June 12 when Brady is enshrined into the Patriots Hall of Fame. Drake Maye said Brady is the “G.O.A.T.” and that he hopes to learn as much as he can from him.

“I think any quarterback’s got to be a Tom Brady fan,” Drake Maye said. “And I think they’re already talking about June 12 is going to be sold out for Tom and the celebration for him, so just, it will be an honor to get to meet him, to get to pick his brain. And you know, one of the greats to ever do it so it’d just be an awesome moment to get to meet him. And like I said, just be a sponge, soak it all in.”

Drake Maye is New England’s first draft choice since parting ways with former head coach Bill Belichick. College football wasn’t the only form of football to see legendary coaches step aside from their longtime posts, as Belichick departed the Patriots after 24 seasons in the NFL and the Seattle Seahawks moved on from former USC head coach Pete Carroll after 14 years, while in college Nick Saban retired after 17 years at Alabama.

The Patriots named former first round pick from Tennessee and defensive lineman Jerod Mayo as their next head coach in January. Mayo was a member of New England’s Super Bowl XLIX-winning team in 2014, a captain for seven-straight seasons from 2009-15 and he played his entire eight-year career with the Patriots.

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Drake Maye said Mayo is “a player’s coach,” and he could tell “right away” how the Patriots drew toward Mayo upon his taking of New England’s head coaching position. Drake Maye also said he sees parallels between the Patriots and North Carolina where both are “family-type” teams, and he believes Mayo can continue the Patriots’ winning traditions that make them the organization that they are today.

“It’s still a family-oriented organization,” Drake Maye said. “That means a lot to me, and I think every time I’ve seen coach Mayo he’s been in a workout outfit just putting in work. He’s still getting it in so just excited to play for him. Like I said, player’s coach, and understands it, know what it’s like playing as a Patriot, and I think that’s something that you just can’t buy nowadays being in his position.”

Mayo’s new quarterback said he’s “got to do my part before I get on other people’s part” and assume New England’s starting role. Drake Maye said he’s hopeful to be the starter down the line, and “a leader” at the same time.

As a Tar Heel, Drake Maye made the Second-Team All-Atlantic Coast Conference team or better in each of his two seasons as starter, and he threw for 8,018 yards and 63 touchdowns to 16 interceptions in 30 games. The Huntersville, North Carolina, native was named ACC Player of the Year as a redshirt freshman in 2022 while breaking the single-season school records with 4,321 passing yards and 342 completions in 517 attempts.

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Drake Maye said he hopes to show New England that he’s “a grinder” and prove to his teammates and others that he’s someone “who’s going to put the work in.” After a decorated career at North Carolina, Maye will look to make the jump to the NFL within a historic franchise.

“I think the one thing I’m looking forward to show the Patriots organization (is) just that I love football,” Drake Maye said. “This sport, you know, I don’t do anything else besides winning and hate losing. I think me and my brothers, we did that growing up no matter anything. Keeping score, just didn’t want to lose and have the bragging rights. So I’m looking forward to showing that and I think I fit right in in this organization.”

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Nick Saban brought prestige upon the University of Alabama. 

Long before he arrived in Tuscaloosa, Saban was building a coaching dynasty. It wouldn’t be realized for some time after he started his coaching career, though it wouldn’t have happened any other way. 

Saban started his head coaching career at Toledo on Dec. 22, 1989. He went 9-2 in his lone season before heading back to the NFL where he’d already spent two years with the Houston Oilers from 1988-89. 

And 35 years later, on Jan. 10, his retirement shook the college football world. 

“I don’t think there’s any good time especially when you’re a coach because once you’re a coach you think you’re going to be a coach forever,” Saban told Rece Davis of ESPN. “But I actually thought that in hiring coaches, recruiting players, that my age started to become a little bit of an issue. People wanted assurances that I would be here for three years, five years, whatever, and that got harder and harder for me to be honest about.” 

After a season in which Alabama won the Southeastern Conference Championship following a 4^th and 31 conversion at Auburn and a dethroning of Georgia’s 29-game winning streak, Saban said last season “was grueling.” 

“It was a real grind for us to come from where we started to where we got to,” Saban said. “Took a little, little more out of me than usual, and when people mention the health issue, it was really just the grind of can you do this the way you want to do it? Can you do it the way you’ve always done it, and be able to sustain it and do it for the entire season? And if I couldn’t make a commitment to do that in the future, the way I think I have to do it, I thought maybe this was the right time based on those two sets of circumstances. That, like I said, there’s never a good time. But I thought maybe this was the right time.” 

Saban gave no indication prior to the 2023 season that it might be his last as head coach. But after his eighth appearance in the College Football Playoff, Saban decided it was the right time to retire. 

He said his role “was a little different this year” in terms of coaching, noting that he spent more time focusing on the defense. 

“Had to be more involved with the defense, that took a little more time, put a little more stress on me, made me feel like, maybe I wasn’t doing as good a job as I needed to in other parts of our team,” Saban said. “I just have a high standard for how I do things. And if I can’t, if I don’t feel like I’m living up to that standard, I’m really disappointed.”

Over the past several years in particular, college football has seen notable drastic change involving aspects such as the transfer portal and Name, Image and Likeness. 

None of those aspects had an effect on Saban’s decision to retire, he said. 

“You know, I’ve always been one that no matter what’s happened through the years, whether they went no huddle and you had to adapt to it, they threw RPOs and you had to adapt to it, we had a changing environment in college football,” Saban said. “My thing was always don’t complain about it, try to figure out what the best solution is so that you can compete well in whatever the environment is. And that’s always the approach that I’ve taken and the situation and circumstances that we’re in. But I will be dedicated to college football and the future of college football and trying to make that sport — as well as other sports and collegiate athletics and whether they’re revenue producing or not because I think they all create opportunities for lots of people — I’m going to be an advocate for trying to make the game as good as it can be.” 

It took conversations with his wife, Miss Terry, and numerous student-athletes before Saban settled on his decision to retire. 

Saban said conversations with players such as Malachi Moore and Caleb Downs “were probably the most difficult” because of the special relationships he’s forged over time. 

Saban said the areas he’d like to see growth is around the participation aspect of college athletics and to “improve the quality of life of the participants.” In being an advocate for student-athletes, Saban can assume that role immediately. 

Saban isn’t the only legendary coach to leave his post. In the NFL, Bill Belichick and Pete Carroll left their head coaching positions with the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks, respectively, after more than a decade at the helm. 

Saban said he’s noticed the change sweeping across all levels of football, and to him, he sees how special it is. 

“I think it’s a tribute because I think it’s much more difficult to sustain success than it is to build a program, to take a 3-8 team and in three or four years make it a successful program,” Saban said. “I think to do it for a long time because people don’t react well to success. They react much better to failure. They’re more willing to change their ways, they’re more willing to develop the habits they need to develop to be successful. But when you’ve climbed the mountain successfully several times you become the mountain so therefore everybody’s shooting at you, everybody wants to beat you, everybody circles that game on their schedule as this is the game that we want to make sure we’re ready for and win.” 

So while Saban will enter retirement and former Washington head coach Kalen DeBoer will succeed him, it’s not like Saban won’t still be around.

He’ll have an office at Alabama and a chance to be around the program almost as much as he has been. Saban wants to still be part of college football, and the Crimson Tide are affording him that opportunity.

And in the many opportunities Saban has created and taken, he still wants to inspire change and make an impact on someone else.

“We want to continue to do those types of things in the community, build houses for people,” Saban said. “It’s just part of having compassion for other people and trying to be helpful, and one of the things that make me sort of most proud is the number of players, whether it was Tua (Tagovailoa), Mac Jones, Bryce (Young), whoever it was, that I saw them working on houses for Miss Terry on a Saturday to build a house for some needy family, and now they all have foundations themselves and they’re dedicated to helping other people. So that’s one of my proudest moments as a coach that because those guys were involved in helping people here and doing things in the community that had an impact to help someone else have a better quality of life, they chose to do that in their future.” 

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That rule is that the Rebels refrain from talking about the College Football Playoff throughout the year. It’s something that makes Kiffin unique to his players even though they’re well within striking distance of the Playoff. 

“We don’t ever talk about that because I think that’s out of our control,” Kiffin said. “I think people get up and start lobbying about that and focus on that and you see a lot of people do that and then lose.” 

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But maybe Georgia head coach Kirby Smart has a rule of his own — he doesn’t respond to text messages during game week. 

That’s what Kiffin said he’s gotten in the days leading up to Saturday’s top-10 bout between No. 9 Ole Miss and No. 2 Georgia. Kiffin said there’s a group text chat among Southeastern Conference coaches, and Smart has yet to give him a ring. 

“Maybe he has a rule during the week of the game he doesn’t respond to you,” Kiffin said. “Obviously it goes without saying like he’s done an unbelievable job and they’re in the midst of a run. I think I read where No. 1 in the country for so many weeks and the next one to catch is the USC run when I happened to be an assistant there so that just tells you how hard it is to do what they’re doing to stay No. 1 that long to be close to a three-peat is really phenomenal at anytime let alone nowadays with scholarship limitations, portal and everything.”  

The Rebels will get a crack at the nation’s two-time defending national champion Saturday night at 7 p.m. on ESPN. It will be the first meeting between the two teams since Ole Miss won 45-14 in 2016. 

Georgia will enter on a 26-game winning streak having not lost a regular season game since 2020. The Bulldogs will have a chance to set a new program record as they ride a 24-game home winning streak, something Kiffin and the Rebels are tasked with stopping. 

“There’s not a lot of answers out there how to beat these guys at home,” Kiffin said. “A lot of people have tried, and so we got to have a really good week of practice. This is a very challenging combination now of having elite phenomenal players and elite phenomenal coaches combined and on the road so there’s a trifecta of what’s the hardest thing to pull off and this would be it.” 

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Kiffin has experience being a part of winning streaks. He was an assistant coach at USC when the Trojans won 34-consecutive games from 2003-05, and he was also offensive coordinator at Alabama when the Crimson Tide went 40-4 from 2014-16 including a 26-game winning streak. 

“I think those two examples there of being fortunate to be at USC when we won 34-straight I think before we couldn’t tackle Vince Young and when I left Alabama I think we were at 26 straight or something,” Kiffin said. “To be a part of that is the only way that happens is a phenomenal head coach that has like Pete Carroll and Nick Saban and now Kirby Smart to be able to hold that together to be able to manage when you’re going to have down games, things aren’t going to go well, it’s football, and to overcome those poor games to me is what being a super elite program and super elite head coach is about.” 

The current Ole Miss team under Kiffin is currently on a five-game winning streak. The only slip up for the Rebels this season is a 24-10 loss to the Crimson Tide in Week 4. 

Ole Miss boasts the No. 3 total offense in the SEC averaging 478.9 yards per game. Quarterback Jaxson Dart is fifth among passers in the conference with 2,467 yards. 

The Rebels have won three of their past five games by one possession. Last week, the Rebels fought off a comeback bid by Texas A&M and thwarted the Aggies 38-35 as running back Quinshon Judkins ran in the go-ahead score in the final two minutes, and Kiffin had a new nickname for his team. 

“I joked with them they’re kind of like the cardiac kids,” Kiffin said. “To have so many like games that go to the wire, got to come back from being behind in fourth quarters. So I don’t know that I really remember this many within a season, especially not a full season yet but it says a lot about them. This is a really cool group of kids to coach. And you guys know, I’m very honest, that for every year it isn’t like that. It just is what it is. And this is a really, really neat group that overcomes things.” 

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Kiffin said he thinks Ole Miss runs “a pretty unique offense” and added the caveat “when it’s working.” It’s a high-powered offense with a good balance between passing and running, as Dart and Judkins both rank in the top-five in passing and rushing yards in the conference, respectively. 

What Kiffin wants to do is limit the “super elite defensive talent” that Georgia has, as the Bulldogs secondary is loaded with All-Americans in safeties Javon Bullard and Malaki Starks. 

And what else Kiffin wants to do is lead the Ole Miss team into doing something not many people expect. 

“I kind of feel like this one’s different whether it’s right or wrong,” Kiffin said. “It’s kind of more like playing with house’s money meaning no one expects us to win. We’re double-digit underdogs and feel like those big games over the years, the places and stuff, those were more like they were the big game or the national game and the teams were considered close. I think that no one’s expecting us to win or probably even play them close so just go in there and see what happens.” 

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