Sept. 6, 2007

By Bill Hass
theACC.com

GREENSBORO, N.C. - The education of a young college quarterback can be a harsh thing as he learns just how costly mistakes can be.

Pass a test one week and an even bigger one looms the next week.

For T.J. Yates of North Carolina, that means putting his winning debut against James Madison in the family scrapbook and getting ready for his first road game, at East Carolina Saturday.

"The preparation is a lot different," Yates said. "We had six or seven weeks to prepare for James Madison. So far we've had three or four days for East Carolina. You cram in a lot more information and watch a lot of film."

Yates, a redshirt freshman, isn't the only ACC young quarterback facing a tough situation. N.C. State 's Harrison Beck, who came off the bench to play well in the second half of a loss to Central Florida last week, will start on the road at Boston College.

While Yates and Beck will be on the road, Wake Forest's Brett Hodges, who will fill in for injured starter Riley Skinner, will be at home in his first start - against 16th-ranked Nebraska.

Hodges, a third-year sophomore, has little experience. He played in one game last season, throwing two passes against Liberty, and came on against Boston College when Skinner was hurt in the third quarter. He completed 17 of 23 passes, including a TD and an interception. Hodges' skills are similar to Skinner's, and his grasp of the offense is greater than Skinner's was last season when he replaced an injured Ben Mauk during the opening game.

Beck is also a third-year sophomore, having sat out 2006 after transferring from Nebraska. Before he relieved Daniel Evans last week, Beck's last action was in two games near the end of the 2005 season with the Cornhuskers.

"Last week we wanted to get him in the game because he hadn't played in a game in such a long time," said Wolfpack coach Tom O'Brien. "We got him in in the second quarter and we decided to stay with him into the third quarter. He did an excellent job in the second half. I think he's excited about his opportunity to start. You have to start somewhere, so why not Boston?"

North Carolina coach Butch Davis said Yates will have to contend with a talented East Carolina defense that held Virginia Tech's offense to 10 points (the Hokies also scored a defensive TD). Few of the fans in sold-out Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium will be wearing Tar Heel blue.

"The crowd noise is something he's going to have to deal with," Davis said, "but going on the road in hostile environments is part of his growing experience."

Yates - for the record, his initials stand for Taylor Jonathan - said this will be a lot different than a high school road game in Marietta, Ga., where the crowds were usually evenly split.

"I'm sure it will be really loud," Yates said, "so I'll work on communicating with my teammates better. We'll use some hand signals and in practice they'll be playing crowd noise over the loudspeakers. I think this will be good for our team. The atmosphere will pump us up."

Yates said he's just as excited about his second game as he was about his first one, when he completed 18 of 23 attempts for 218 yards, three touchdowns and one interception.

Davis said Yates has to prepare for East Carolina basically the same way he did for James Madison.

"He's got to do the exact same things that he did last week," Davis said. "I think T.J. went into the game feeling like he had confidence in the supporting cast, the protection, the receivers, that everybody knew their role and knew exactly what they were going to do so that the performance on game day came somewhat naturally. Now, he's going to have a much bigger challenge. Their defense is so talented and so big and so athletic and very fast."

Yates has noticed that on film, too.

"They stop the run well, bring the blitz and are well-disciplined," he said. "We'll have to take advantage of a couple of things that we've seen."

Although he didn't play last season under the staff of coach John Bunting, Yates said he spent the time getting stronger in the weight room and learning more about defenses by watching film. He gained a slight edge over the other starting candidates in the spring, then solidified it in pre-season camp.

He made an immediate impression, hooking up with Brooks Foster on a 65-yard touchdown on his first collegiate pass. Just like he always envisioned it, right?

"To tell you the truth," Yates said, "I didn't think about it until after the game. My mom said something about my first pass going for a touchdown and I said, `Yeah, I guess it did.'"

Davis said he was pleased with the decision-making and poise shown by Yates.

"The things we thought gave him the opportunity to be the starter manifested themselves in the first game," Davis said. "He had poise, he had confidence, he made the right reads, got the ball to the right guys. When he did make a mistake he didn't allow it to frustrate him and shake his confidence. He knew exactly the mistake he made and got over it and came back and continued to play well."

Yates said the interception he threw was "a total mental error by me and no one else's fault. I just forgot about it and moved on to the next play. If you worry about those things too much, it can affect your play."

For a team that won just three games last year, this early road game might be a barometer for this season. At the very least, Davis said, the Tar Heels will find out a lot about where they are.

"It's a huge rivalry, even though we haven't played them in several years," Yates said. "It can be a big game to get us going."

At least until the next week's test comes along.

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Bill Hass is a long-time observer of ACC sports. His career at the Greensboro News & Record spanned 36 years, from 1969 until his retirement in March, 2006. He is now writing "Bill Hass on the ACC" for theACC.com. His weekly columns will keep fans plugged in to the Atlantic Coast Conference.

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