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CHAPEL HILL -- Two games into the season, the MVP of the North Carolina football team may very well be ... Danny Carmichael?

Why, you ask, should a sophomore linebacker at Middle Tennessee State be given this award? Because Carmichael, in an indirect way, is responsible for T.J. Yates -- the real early-season MVP for the Tar Heels -- making his way to Chapel Hill.

Carmichael plays a small but critical role in the strange, winding journey that Yates has taken from high school football burnout to Southern Conference-level shooting guard to Division I quarterback with some seriously gaudy stats (562 yards, six touchdowns, sixth in the nation in passing efficiency).

"We're living the dream," said Yates' father, John. "However we got here, it's surreal."

The surreal story begins after Yates' sophomore season at Pope High School in Marietta, Ga. He'd spent the season as a part-time player, switching off every other series with another quarterback in an option-oriented offense.

"I'm not exactly an option quarterback," Yates dryly noted.

Frustrated with the direction his football career was taking, Yates quit football and focused on basketball during his junior season. As a 6-foot-3 shooting guard, he was good enough to attract the interest of Southern Conference schools Furman, Wofford and UNCG (former Spartans assistant Brooks Lee was his recruiter). Not bad, but not exactly what Yates had in mind.

So when a new football coach, Bob Swank, took over at Pope in the spring of 2005 and brought with him a pass-friendly spread offense, Yates was receptive to returning. Still, he was a basketball-first guy. He would spend the summer before his senior season, he told Swank, playing in AAU tournaments, not attending football camps.

The priorities started to change early in his senior season as Yates put up big numbers on the football field. After a game or two, Yates and his parents met with Swank to discuss the possibility of T.J. landing a football scholarship. Swank handed the Yateses a directory of college football contacts with several potential schools highlighted. One of the schools was UNC.

"I thought, 'He's crazy,' " said Carol Yates, T.J.'s mother. " 'T.J. will never play for a big-tier school.' "

That's when Danny Carmichael entered the story. At the time, Carmichael was a big, fast linebacker at nearby Woodstock High School who had attracted the interest of the Tar Heels. When UNC traveled to Atlanta for a Sept. 10, 2005, game at Georgia Tech, linebackers coach Tommy Thigpen dropped by Woodstock's game against Pope on Friday night. He got a good look at Carmichael, but also got an eyeful of Yates, who passed for five touchdowns and more than 300 yards in a 39-33 double-overtime loss.

"We were like, 'This linebacker is pretty good, but the quarterback on the other team ain't bad,' " Thigpen said.

Thigpen passed Yates' name to UNC's offensive coaches. They liked what they saw and acted quickly. Barely a week later, John Bunting called to offer Yates a scholarship. He accepted on the spot.

"It all happened in a week," John Yates said. "We were all kind of shell shocked by it."

Even now, two years after the fact, T.J. Yates can't quite wrap his head around the twists and turns of his sports career.

"Going back to my junior year in high school, this is probably the last thing I ever thought would happen," he said.

Never, though, has Yates thought he didn't deserve to have this happen. It's clear through his understated words and actions that he feels he belongs in big-time football. Yates was not shocked that he went through spring drills and won the starting job for the spring game -- just needed to knock off some rust, he said. Some teammates, though, were caught off guard.

"I was really surprised in spring practice," said UNC wide receiver Brooks Foster. "It seemed like he popped up from nowhere."

By the time the season rolled around, Yates no longer was a mystery man. Still, his numbers in the first two games, as well as the extraordinary poise he displayed, raised a few eyebrows.

"He was amazingly calm," said Tar Heels center Scott Lenehan. "He didn't have that deer-in-the-headlights look."

So calm, that apparently his pulse didn't even quicken that much when he tossed a 65-yard touchdown to Foster with his first collegiate pass.

Afterward, Carol Yates rushed up to her son, gushing. "Oh, T.J! Your first pass!" she exclaimed. "How did you feel?"

Just making the right read, mom.

"I knew it was going to happen," Yates said.

That may seem hard to believe. But given the even harder-to-believe sequence of events that brought Yates and the Tar Heels together, maybe it's not.

"I just feel like this was the plan for him," Carol Yates said. "Everything happens for a reason."

Contact Jim Young at 373-7016 or jyoung@news-record.com