It took a moment for Carol Yates to understand the significance of what was happening. Motherly instincts tend to take over.
From high atop Jacksonville’s EverBank Field, she watched as Texans quarterback Matt Leinart left the field injured in Sunday’s game against the Jaguars. Her first thoughts were concern for the player’s health and, then, how unfair it was for Leinart, finally getting another chance to start a professional football game.
At the same time, she and her husband, John, noticed his replacement, No. 13, trotting onto the field. It was their son, T.J. Yates, about to make his NFL debut.
“We were stunned to the point we couldn’t speak,” Carol said. “I was thinking ‘He’s not ready. He hasn’t even warmed up.’
“It was the most surprising thing in my whole life, one of my top five moments of my life.”
It was the latest leg in Taylor Jonathan Yates’ remarkable journey from Pope High School to the University of North Carolina and on to the NFL. The odyssey continues Sunday when Yates starts for the Texans against his hometown Falcons.
The 24-year-old rookie has been pressed into a starting role after the Texans lost Matt Schaub (foot) and backup Leinart (broken collarbone) to season-ending injuries in back-to-back weeks. A fifth-round draft pick, Yates was inactive for the first 10 games and moved to the No. 2 spot only after Schaub’s injury. With their son in uniform for the first time and with the proximity of Jacksonville, his parents made the trip to Florida for what they thought would be a relaxing weekend.
“I said to my husband, ‘This is so much fun to come to a game and not freak out and just enjoy it,’” Carol said.
Little did they know.
“Yeah, it’s pretty cool,” Yates said of being thrust into the limelight. “I try not to think too much about it. I’m trying to stay as focused as possible. I’m trying to keep my head out of all the other stuff. It can do nothing but affect my play on the field.”
A year off
Yates’ youth football career started as a third-grader in Indianapolis. The family moved to Cobb County shortly after, and Yates continued to play through his sophomore year at Pope. After a difficult campaign, he took his junior season off to concentrate on basketball.
The 6-foot-4 Yates, who played on the national AAU level, had plans to play Division I basketball. However, he wasn’t attracting offers from top-tiered schools. He accepted the invitation of new Pope coach Bob Swank — after many meetings — to return to football. A chance to play a final season with his friends and a new offensive scheme finally swayed him.
Early in his senior season, North Carolina recruiters attended a game to watch a pair of linebackers on the opposing team. They quickly noticed Yates. He threw five touchdowns and for more than 300 yards in a double-overtime loss.
About a week later, Yates got a call from then-North Carolina coach John Bunting offering him a scholarship. He accepted immediately.
“That was really how good he was,” Swank said of the speed of the recruitment. “T.J. just tore it up. You could see in person he was that good. [After he signed with North Carolina], all of a sudden there was a buzz about him. He wasn’t on anyone’s radar screen because he hadn’t played his junior year.”
Swank had tried to convince the staff at Toledo, where Swank spent the last of his 14 years in the college ranks before coming to Pope, to look at Yates. He told them he was better that Bruce Gradkowski, who played at Toledo and is now in his sixth season in the NFL. Swank said that Maryland and Virginia made offers to Yates once North Carolina recruited him.
Rule changer
Yates played four seasons at North Carolina under Butch Davis, who replaced Bunting. It wasn’t always easy. After a 4-8 campaign as a freshman, Yates led the Tar Heels to three consecutive 8-5 seasons.
His mother recalls that Yates was once booed at a basketball game when he appeared on the scoreboard after his junior season.
Yates threw for 3,418 yards, 19 touchdowns and nine interceptions his senior season. He rallied the Tar Heels to a dramatic comeback 30-27 double overtime victory over Tennessee in the Music City Bowl. The game was highlighted by Yates’ alertly spiking the football with one second remaining in regulation even as the field-goal team attempted to get on the field. After ruling the game over, officials reviewed the play. North Carolina was penalized for too many men on the field, allowing them to kick the game-tying field goal.
This season, the NCAA changed the rule to institute a 10-second runoff as an option if a team commits a penalty that results in a clock stoppage. It is known as the “Dooley Rule” in some circles after Tennessee coach Derek Dooley. It is known as the “T.J. Rule” in other parts.
The play drew praise from North Carolina men’s basketball coach Roy Williams. “I’d take T.J. Yates as a foxhole buddy, because when it was chaos, that young man used his brain, and he’s tough enough to stand in there make throws,’’ Williams said on a radio program. “And I just love him to death.”
Yates, who was named the 2010 Tar Heel of the Year, was one of three recipients of the school’s Patterson Medal for career athletic accomplishment. He will accept the medal in February — at a basketball game.
Yates finished with 9,377 yards and 58 touchdowns. He set more than 40 school records, including every mark for single-season and career pass completions and yards. According to the North Carolina sports-information department, Yates will become the first quarterback from the school to start an NFL game.
Opportunity calls
Yates was drafted in the fifth round by the Texans with the 152nd overall pick. Coach Gary Kubiak said the team had no plans to draft a quarterback, but couldn’t pass on Yates. He spent most of the NFL lockout in Houston working with Schaub and other players informally. As training camp began and the roster trimmed to the final number, the Yates family hung on the hope the Texans would carry three quarterbacks. They did.
Yates waited behind Schaub and Leinart until finally getting his chance Sunday in the final seconds of the first half.
Yates finished 8-of-15 for 70 yards, throwing only nine passes after halftime, as the Texans won 20-13 to improve to 8-3.
“He’s been forced into a tough role, but that’s what he’s here for,” Kubiak said. “He’s worked extremely hard for his opportunity. ... He’s got a bright future in this league. He can do all the things you ask him to do.”
When Yates got into the game Sunday, it set off a wild reaction back home. When his older brother, David, got phone calls that Yates was in the game, he switched from tracking the game online and raced to eldest brother Evan’s home. When they couldn’t get the game on satellite, they moved on to a restaurant for the final quarter.
“I was freaking out,” David said. “I didn’t expect it to be so exciting.”
John and Carol will make the much longer trip to Houston this week. Perhaps their son can score better tickets this time as a starter. They will want to be lower than five rows from the top of the stadium, as they were in Jacksonville.
“It is a very big opportunity,” Yates said. “It’s hard not to look at it in that way because I never expected to be playing this early in my career, especially under the unfortunate circumstances. Two guys ahead of me going down, you never want to see that happen. You have to take every opportunity you get and run with it.
“I’m trying not to look too much outside the box this week. I’m trying to take it meeting by meeting, practice by practice and game by game — just trying to get better every day.”
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