As if Thursday night wasn't bad enough for T.J. Yates — he finished with only 64 passing yards, tossing an interception en route to blowing an 18-point lead in a loss to Florida State — the North Carolina quarterback says he had a fan throw something at him as he left the field.
Either a pin or a coin pinged off his helmet, Yates said today, but he's trying not to let the criticism get to him.
"Walking off the field, people are yelling at you and everything, so it's kind of hard not to hear it," Yates said. "... It's hard not to hear about all that stuff. I try to do my best to just try to block it out, because it doesn't really matter."
First of all, throwing objects at the players is beyond stupid. Regardless of Yates' play on the field, he still wears the Tar Heel uniform and is doing his best to win games.
Unfortunately the first thought that entered by head concerned the irony of a fan being more accurate throwing objects at Yates from the stands than Yates has been throwing passes this season. I know. I am an awful, awful person.
Anyway, Yates is correct. It doesn't really matter because the only player who could have stepped up to take Yates job left the program last spring leaving an inexperienced Braden Hanson and a shell-shocked Mike Paulus as the only options. In other words, Yates is like that shopping cart with the bad wheel you choose to put up with all the way through the grocery store because you do not want to go through the trouble of returning to the front to change carts. There is a silver lining though. The cart ultimately gets the job done in that squeaky, unbalanced sort of way. Just don't expect it to be pleasant.