DATE: Monday, November 10, 1997             TAG: 9711100139

SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C1   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Column 

SOURCE: Tom Robinson 

                                            LENGTH:   67 lines

FOR UNC'S KELDORF, THE THRILL IS BACK

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - The game is back in Chris Keldorf's hands. This time, he thinks he knows how to treat it. Like a lost friend, finally home.

That was one of the little dramas that unfolded Saturday night when North Carolina got creamed by Florida State 20-3 in the Big One, the first ACC game ever between teams ranked in the nation's top five.

Carolina quarterback Oscar Davenport exited for the season with a broken ankle, thus turning back to Keldorf by injury what Keldorf had given Davenport through puzzling inefficiency - the starting job for a team still in the hunt for a prestigious alliance bowl bid.

Funny. Before Saturday, the big thing Keldorf, a senior, was going to accomplish this season was the fastest fade from all-star to also-ran.

Now look. The North Carolina career record for touchdown passes is back within Keldorf's reach. He has 30, four from the record, in just 18 college games.

The offense that inexplicably sputtered and sent Keldorf, the ACC's best quarterback last year, to the bench is his again for the three games - two regular-season, one bowl - that remain in his career.

Just when it appeared he'd played his last for Carolina, a rare chance at redemption is looking Keldorf in the eyes. And Keldorf says he won't turn away, because of the critical first step he's taken toward that redemption.

Call it renewal. His benching two games ago was a sign, Keldorf says, ``a major lesson that the man upstairs was trying to teach me, that I was taking football for granted.''

``I wasn't appreciating it the way I should have. I wasn't playing for the love of the game. I've almost re-taught myself how to do that.''

Even as he watched Davenport, a junior, displace him, Keldorf says he discovered during practices exactly what this brutal, violent game means to him. Plenty.

Certainly, he pouted some. Who wants to get pulled, especially after posting such awesome numbers in '96 - 23 touchdown passes, only five interceptions and more than 2,300 yards? When people are talking about you as a first-round NFL draft choice?

But the Tar Heels continued to win, eight straight before Florida State, and Davenport was excelling. Keldorf couldn't say coach Mack Brown had made the wrong move.

So Keldorf turned the light on himself and found it an illuminating experience.

``Sure, you feel sorry for yourself, you feel down, and think, `God, what am I gonna do now?' '' says Keldorf, a square-jawed 23-year-old from Manhattan Beach, Calif. ``But you know what? This all happened for a reason. I've never been happier in my life than I am now.

``Most people would say, `He's got to be miserable,' but I'm not. I have a lot of fun now in practice, and when I get in there, I'm smiling and having fun. That's what I never had here. Fun.''

That's hard to figure, considering the mark Keldorf, after three years at two junior colleges, made last year in his Carolina debut. Since when is going 10-2 and taking the ACC by storm not fun?

When it's too much like work.

So if you take Keldorf at his word, and if you judge by appearances, you start to believe again.

You believe that being benched was the best thing that could have happened to him. And that Keldorf will turn his found opportunity into a big finish against Clemson this week, Duke the next and whichever bowl opponent the Tar Heels draw.

Because it's just a game. Because it's just football.

``You've got to play it because you want to,'' Keldorf says. ``And you've got to play it because you're having fun.''

Send Suggestions or Comments to webmaster@scholar.lib.vt.edu