CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Even as doctors tended to his injured right knee in the training room Saturday, Brandon Tate was cheering as his North Carolina teammates rallied to beat Notre Dame.

"I was jumping around — trying to anyway," he said.

Less than 24 hours after learning that the injury is a torn anterior cruciate ligament and torn medial collateral ligament, sidelining him for the rest of his senior season, the Tar Heels' top playmaker remained surprisingly upbeat Monday — saying he will recover, he will play in the NFL, and he will be his football team's biggest cheerleader.

"This is just one little bump in the road," said Tate, one of the best receivers and return men in the country. "Am I going to overcome it, or am I going to let it get to me?"

It could be a roadblock for the Tar Heels, who lose the NCAA career leader in combined kickoff and punt returns (3,523 yards) and one of the leading contenders for ACC Player of the Year. Tate, who is from Burlington, was third in the nation in all-purpose yards entering the weekend and had scored five touchdowns for UNC. He returned kicks and punts, started at receiver, rushed and even completed his first career pass this season.

Carolina, ranked No. 18, had been in the beginning phases of a "Tate in '08" publicity blitz for All-America honors.

Now, coach Butch Davis said, it will take multiple players over multiple weeks to fill the player's void. But Tate, who will have surgery Wednesday and was using a crutch, said he has no doubt his team will succeed without him.

"We've got playmakers on the roster; you all will see Saturday at Virginia," he said, referring to the 5-1 Tar Heels' game against the Cavaliers (3-3).

Teammates say the 6-foot-1, 195-pound speedster has had a positive attitude since his injury.

"He's been the same old Brandon, smiling and saying, 'I'm going to be all right, we're going to be all right,"' said quarterback Cameron Sexton, who has started the past two games for another injured UNC playmaker, T.J. Yates.

Tate, though, admits that he was initially "heartbroken" that the injury was so significant, because until Sunday's 5 p.m. MRI exam, he had held out hope that it wasn't that bad.

He was returning a punt late in the first quarter against the Fighting Irish when "I made a quick move to the left, and I was going to the right, and at the last second I just saw a gold helmet coming, hitting my leg," he said. "... I kind of jumped back at the last second to help take some of the sting off of it, but he still got me pretty good.

"When I got up and ran off, I thought I got hit, and maybe there would be a bruise or something."

But it was a whole lot more.

In the training room, doctors told him they thought he might have sustained ligament damage, a frightening proposition for players who rely on healthy knees for quickness and cuts.

Tate prayed. His family prayed.

And after the initial devastation of Sunday night's news, he starting putting everything into perspective.

"My next personal goal is to get to the NFL; I've been striving for that since Day One," he said. "So I'm going to go into rehab and just work harder than I ever have before. Because I know this is it for me."

Tate said doctors haven't told him exactly how long his rehab will take.

"They said they'll just worry about the surgery right now, and they'll just handle all that whenever it comes up," he said.

But there is reason to believe he could still achieve his professional dream.

Davis told Tate that two of the best receivers he has ever coached — Michael Irvin, at Miami and with the Dallas Cowboys, and Reggie Wayne, at Miami — endured the same injury. They went on to star in the NFL.

"He will be back, and he will recover from this," Davis said.

And so will the Tar Heels, Tate said.

"Teammates have been upset about it, but I've been telling them, 'I'll be all right, don't worry about me. You guys have still got business to take care of,"' he said. "We've still got a long season ahead of us. Just look at it as a minor setback, and everybody just still focus in on the big goal."