Quarterback T.J. Yates takes center stage

T.J. Yates sits in the sparkling new fifth floor of the Kenan Football Center. Reporters crowd around him. Cameras are in his face.

For question after question, North Carolina’s junior quarterback answers in the exact same inflection. His voice stays on a completely even keel, even as recorders and microphones creep uncomfortably close.

“All summer long we’ve been working our tails off. All through summer camp we’ve been working really hard,” he said.

It’s a stock answer to a stock question, but Yates is clearly comfortable and in command, even while a spotlight brighter than Kenan Stadium’s new lights has focused itself on the signal caller.

It started heating up immediately after Hakeem Nicks, Brandon Tate and Brooks Foster all departed. Those three were the receiving core for UNC in 2008, and caught 114 of North Carolina’s 182 completed passes in 2008.

That means that for the first time in his career, Yates, who set the bar high with UNC season-records of 2,655 passing yards and 14 touchdowns as a freshman in 2007, does not have a proven go-to receiver.

 Instead, he will rely on Greg Little, a highly-touted player out of high school who spent 2008 as a running back, and a host of freshmen.

“We really haven’t changed much offensively at all, as far as concepts and schemes and everything,” Yates said. “There are more things we have to do offensively as far as spreading the ball around. We’re just becoming a smarter offensive team — which is helping us, I think.”

Most of that distribution will be up to Yates, and thus most of the burden will fall to him to look to the third, fourth or fifth option on passing downs.

If Yates feels pressure about the tremendous load placed on his shoulders, he’s not showing it.

“My first season and a little bit of last season I was still trying to learn all the plays and learn all the offense,” Yates said. “But now, having that completely embedded in my memory, it’s more about preparing and watching film and getting ready for the defense we’re facing.”

But teammates have noticed Yates taking command in the huddle and in practices, making sure that he is in control of the offense.

“T.J.’s stepping up, definitely,” running back Shaun Draughn said. “If young guys in the huddle don’t know what to do, he makes sure they know what to do so we go out crisp, sharp. Everybody knows what to do.”

Even if Yates is perfect on offense, he still has to stay healthy.

Injuries bothered him for the first two years of his career, even sidelining him for six games in 2008.

But Yates enters this season healthy, and the North Carolina coaching staff has been emphasizing footwork in the pocket — which should be vital, given that the offensive line is young and thin.

More than anything, Yates finally has the stage to capitalize on the potential he has shown during the past two years.

One way Yates will do that is by building chemistry with the tools he has returning — limited though they may be. Yates is relying extensively on Little and tight end Zack Pianalto.

“Just knowing where he’s going to be, the way he runs his routes, and the way he leans, I have a read on him, how he’s going to break, how he’s going to read a certain zone,” Yates said of the player that will be his safety net in 2009.

“It’s simple things that come with experience and getting a lot of offseason work.”

But no matter how good Yates makes Little and Pianalto look, the spotlight is fixed on him — and it’s not going anywhere anytime soon.


Contact the Sports Editor at sports@unc.edu.