College football: Quarterback Keldorf finally got his chance at North Carolina, and he’s making the most of it.

“Quarterback?” was what assistant coach Jim Zorn said in 1992, when freshman Chris Keldorf arrived at Utah State.

“Tight end,” was what Zorn offered.

Transfer was what Keldorf did.

“Quarterback?” was what the coaches at El Camino Community College said when Keldorf dropped his bag in their offices.

“Have one, Steve Sarkisian.”

“See ya” was what Keldorf said.

“Why not?” was what coaches at Palomar Community College in San Marcos said when Keldorf walked in at 6 feet 5 and 260 pounds and said he wanted a shot at quarterback.

Thirty, were how many touchdown passes he threw in two seasons.

“Absolutely nothing” was what North Carolina assistant coach Cleve Bryant said he knew about Keldorf when Bryant played eenie, meenie, minie, mo with a junior college scouting-service sheet and phoned Palomar in the fall of 1995, the Tar Heels desperate for a backup quarterback to get them through spring drills after starter Oscar Davenport tore up his knee during the regular season.

“One” was how many JC transfers North Carolina Coach Mack Brown said he’d brought in since taking over in 1988.

“Two” were how many seconds Keldorf said it took to say yes when the Tar Heels offered him a scholarship.

“Quarterback?” was what North Carolina center Jeff Saturday said when he picked up Keldorf at the Raleigh-Durham Airport.

“You’re a quarterback?” Saturday remembers asking. “You’re as big as I am.”

“Yeah,” Keldorf said, “I’ve been eating a lot.”

Scarf, was what Keldorf and Saturday did next, at the local steak house.

“None” was how many winning teams Keldorf said he had played on when he squatted behind beef-buddy Saturday in North Carolina’s 1996 home opener against Clemson.

Leader?

“He had never led anything,” Brown said of Keldorf. “We thought, ‘Maybe that’s what’s wrong. Maybe he doesn’t speak in the huddle.’ ”

North Carolina 45, Clemson 0, was the score in Keldorf’s first major college game.

Ten and two was the record the Tar Heels ended with, after defeating West Virginia in the Gator Bowl and finishing No. 10 in both national polls. Keldorf became the first North Carolina quarterback in 22 seasons to make first-team All-Atlantic Coast Conference. He set school records for touchdown passes (23), completions (201), consecutive 300-yard games (three) and passes without an interception (143).

He threw five interceptions in 338 passes.

Character?

Needing to beat Virginia on Nov. 16 to earn an $8-million Alliance bowl bid, North Carolina led, 17-3, with 10 minutes left at Charlottesville and had third and goal at the Virginia nine when the coaches ordered Keldorf to throw a slant pattern.

Yes, a slant pattern.

The pass was intercepted by Virginia’s Antwan Harris and returned 95 yards for a touchdown. Virginia rallied and won, 20-17.

Keldorf sobbed in the locker room afterward but, to this day, blames himself for the pass, not Octavus Barnes, the receiver who changed course on the timing pattern, or the coaches, who called the play.

“To Chris’ credit, it was a busted route,” Brown says. “He understands that. He threw the ball on time where he should have thrown it. That’s why he’s special. Not many kids would take the heat.”

“We have a chance” is what Keldorf says when asked if North Carolina can win the national title.

First round, is where Keldorf probably will be selected in next April’s NFL draft.

“The Man,” is what Tar Heel All-American cornerback Dre’ Bly calls Keldorf.

“Tremendous story” is what Mack Brown says Keldorf is.

*

Keldorf stifles a yawn as he collapses in the North Carolina football offices between two-a-day practices, acknowledging he can’t easily explain what has happened to him since he left Manhattan Beach on an odyssey that has landed him, prayers answered, in Chapel Hill.

“I didn’t ask for any of it,” he says. “It just happened. I guess the best things in life just happen.”

Keldorf isn’t sure why he couldn’t take no for an answer, why he isn’t crunching numbers somewhere in the South Bay instead of being considered by some the second-best NFL prospect behind Tennessee quarterback Peyton Manning.

It should have been over at first rejection. Keldorf arrived at Utah State in no position to dictate terms after an unspectacular career at St. Bernard High.

Who better than Zorn--the former Seattle Seahawk scrambling left-hander--to say that Keldorf wasn’t a quarterback?

Keldorf, that’s who.

“I knew I was better than what they had,” Keldorf says. “I knew I could play quarterback. I didn’t know who Jim Zorn was. I had no clue. Coach Zorn. What did I know? Didn’t really matter what he did in the NFL, I didn’t even know he played in the NFL. What he said to me was just another guy telling me I couldn’t play quarterback.”

El Camino seemed the logical exit ramp. He could be close to his parents, Russell and Anita. But how was Keldorf to know the team’s quarterback, Sarkisian, would turn out to be the Steve Sarkisian, who would go on to lead the nation in passing for Brigham Young last season?

That was when Keldorf almost lost it.

“I just wanted to quit, go to school, concentrate on getting my degree and go to work,” Keldorf says. “I really didn’t want to play football anymore. I got tired of coaches telling me I couldn’t play.”

Keldorf didn’t let on to his parents, but they saw the hurt in his eyes.

“They knew if I didn’t follow through I’d be hurt a lot later in life. So they pushed me, ‘Hey, don’t give up. Don’t quit. If we’ve got to send you someplace else, we’ll send you someplace else. You’re not out of eligibility yet.’ ”

After a redshirt year, Keldorf headed off to Palomar, which ran a pro-style offense.

Keldorf wasn’t asking for much.

“Give me a shot,” Keldorf remembers thinking. “I needed to be coached. I needed someone to sit me down and break it down. I needed to be refined, retooled, polished. I didn’t get that until I got to Palomar.”

Keldorf credits quarterback coach John Mitchell for turning him around.

After North Carolina’s Bryant phoned Palomar and ordered the film, the North Carolina staff poked into Keldorf’s background.

“When we saw him on film, we said, ‘You know, he’s really good,’ ” Brown remembers. “ ‘No one’s recruiting him, and I’m not sure why. There must be something wrong here.’ ”

Bryant checked. Academics? Solid. Character? Strong. Police record? None.

“I went far back,” Bryant says. “I went to his high school coach, his high school principal. I could not find anyone to say anything bad about Chris Keldorf.”

Not only did Keldorf get the Tar Heels through spring practice, he beat out Davenport for the starting job in the fall and headed off a possible racial divide--Davenport is black--by becoming Davenport’s best friend.

Of course, real life is rarely all storybook.

On Nov. 23, in the final regular-season game against winless Duke, Keldorf’s left ankle snapped while he was being tackled.

“I was having the greatest season of my life, and it’s over in a second,” Keldorf says.

Instead of going straight to the hospital and getting prepped for surgery, which was the suggestion, Keldorf demanded to watch the second half on a stretcher from the end zone. Later that night, doctors inserted a metal plate and put 14 pins in his ankle.

On Jan. 1, with Keldorf on crutches, sophomore Davenport led the Tar Heels to a 20-13 victory in the Gator Bowl and was named the game’s most valuable player.

And Keldorf was with him every step.

“He did a fantastic job,” Keldorf says. “As he would drop back, I would go through the reads with him. I was in the game mentally with him.”

Yet, Keldorf knew this all meant his starting job was in jeopardy this season, so he confounded doctors by returning in time to participate in spring practice. He also has lost 30 pounds since last season.

“Last year, I was just a fat guy playing quarterback,” he maintains.

Motivation?

“He’s on my tail,” Keldorf says of his competition.

Davenport has another season after this.

This, however, is Keldorf’s last shot to show NFL scouts his ankle is sound and that last year wasn’t a fluke.

“I wanted to make the most of the off-season, be the best physical specimen I could be,” Keldorf says. “Just go into the season and be in the best shape of my life. Just give it one big shot: ‘NFL, this is it. This is what you’re going to see.’ If that buys me a ticket to the next level, that buys me a ticket. If it doesn’t, then, well, it wasn’t meant to be.”

First things first. Despite Florida State’s five-year chokehold on the ACC title, Keldorf and company aren’t shying from national championship talk. The Tar Heels have nine of 11 starters from last year’s top-ranked defense, have two quality quarterbacks and the nation’s best set of receivers.

Florida State is 39-1 in conference play, but North Carolina played tough in a 13-0 loss last year in Tallahassee, and North Carolina fans have had this year’s rematch, Nov. 8 in Chapel Hill, circled for months.

The Tar Heels’ three toughest games--against Stanford, Florida State and Virginia--are at home.

“If you have a dream, follow it, son, or you’ll regret it later in life,” Russell and Anita Keldorf advised their son.

Chris followed the advice.

“Phenomenal, truly phenomenal,” is what Cleve Bryant says of the diamond found in the junior college rough.

“He might have, should have, quit,” is what Mack Brown says.

“He’s a steal,” is what Bryant says.