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CHAPEL HILL -- Jay Perdue just knew it, was as certain about it as anything else in his football coaching career. Brandon Tate should be playing wide receiver at North Carolina.

So when Perdue, Tate's high school offensive coordinator, got the chance, he shared that knowledge with a man who could do something about it.

That chance came when North Carolina offensive coordinator John Shoop made a recruiting visit to Cummings High in Burlington. The purpose of Shoop's visit was to reel in the Cavaliers' standout receiver, Dwight Jones.

"We need to get Dwight in here," Shoop told Perdue. "We need some help with our receiving corps right now."

Perdue couldn't hold back any longer.

"Dwight's a great player, don't get me wrong," Perdue said he told Shoop. "But you've got a guy that you've already got down there that's just as good, if not better, that you're not even using.

"Brandon Tate."

"The kick returner?" Shoop said in surprise. "You think so?"

"No," Perdue responded. "I know so."

Six games into the season, Perdue looks like a prophet. Tate has become the second receiver the Tar Heels were desperately seeking, and much more. Through six games, he has 14 catches and three touchdowns to go with his usual assortment of fireworks in the return game. Put that together with the touchdown run Tate made on a reverse against Miami, and it's fair to say the junior from Burlington is UNC's most dangerous offensive weapon.

"Every time I get the ball, I'm just trying to make a play," Tate said.

Compare those numbers with what Tate compiled in his first two seasons in Chapel Hill -- five catches for 72 yards -- and it raises the question that everyone keeps asking, one that Perdue and others have been asking for a while now:

Why didn't Tate play more last year?

The funny thing is, Tate might be the only person not really interested in learning the answer.

"I'm not worried about last year," he said. "I'm just worried about now."

Maybe if Tate had acted more like the stereotype of a wide receiver -- Get me the ball, now! -- he might have gotten through to the previous coaching staff. Maybe if he had threatened to transfer or thrown a fit in the meeting room he might have been given a reverse or a go route once in a while.

But Tate had respect for the player ahead of him on the depth chart last year -- senior Jesse Holley -- and he had a rare thing for an elite college athlete: patience.

"That's his personality," said Tate's older brother, Barry, a defensive back at Lenoir-Rhyne. "He really doesn't let too much get to him. That's just him. He's a guy that just rolls with the punches."

Tate might be that way because he has some experience with being overlooked -- and he always has found his way out of the shadows. Even in middle school, Tate didn't get much playing time.

"All I knew him was as Barry Tate's little brother," Perdue said.

Eventually, Tate forged his own identity, helping Cummings win the 2-A state title his junior season and make a semifinal appearance his senior year. Yet again, though, he was about to be overlooked -- this time by college recruiters. North Carolina was the first school to offer a grant to Tate, and only after Perdue pleaded with former UNC assistant Marvin Sanders to check out some tape. The other suitors for Tate? Marshall, Ohio University and Wake Forest.

"Marvin did his homework," Perdue said. "He got himself a diamond in the rough."

Yet that diamond was promptly reburied when Tate came to Chapel Hill. There were flashes of his potential on punt and kickoff returns, followed by long stretches of silence when the offense was on the field and Tate was on the sideline.

"When I'd go home, all my friends would tell me, 'Man, you should play,' " Tate recalled. "I just told them, 'Just wait. My time will come.' "

Tate's time is here. Now the trick for the UNC coaches is making sure they take full advantage of his skills.

"We decided as a staff we were going to be creative and get this guy the ball," Shoop said. "We've got to keep doing that in more ways than we are."

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