When Rod Elkins enters Kenan Stadium for Saturday's North Carolina vs. South Carolina football game, his thoughts will race back 26 years to another Carolinas confrontation.

The former Tar Heels standout quarterback won't be alone in that regard. It will be the same for hundreds, probably thousands, of UNC fans who remember a period when their football team was almost as good as the school's basketball program.

It was Oct. 24, 1981 -- the day the Tar Heels dropped a shot at the national championship for the second straight year.

With a 6-0 record and having outscored their opponents by a collective 258-48 count, Dick Crum's fourth UNC team was ranked third nationally and a big favorite over Jim Carlen's 4-3 Gamecocks.

Right down to kicker Jeff Hayes, the Heels' roster was awash with future NFL players. A year earlier, most of the same players had taken a 7-0 record and No. 6 national ranking to Oklahoma, where they virtually imploded upon arrival. An ensuing 41-7 Sooners rout dropped the Heels to No. 16 in the polls. UNC rebounded with four straight wins, including a 16-7 bowl victory over Texas but couldn't return to the top 10 until the year's final poll.

"We knew from that Oklahoma game that we could never afford any kind of slip-up again," Elkins said. "We just didn't have the national respect to take a loss and still stay in championship contention. It was frustrating, but that was the way it was."

The Tar Heels slipped that afternoon against the Gamecocks. Elkins suffered an ankle injury early in the game and had to leave after attempting two passes. Star tailback Kelvin Bryant was still shelved by an ugly knee injury at Georgia Tech three games earlier, and Carlen was desperate for a headline victory.

South Carolina won, 31-13, opening the door for Clemson to motor along to the national championship that the Heels might have had the chance to pursue. To this day, UNC is the highest-ranked team the Gamecocks have beaten. South Carolina wound up 6-6 and Carlen didn't keep his job, but the blow for national attention was struck and the Heels had to pay the price.

Two games later and with Elkins still limping, Clemson went to Kenan, bled out a 10-8 win, closed the regular season with a 29-13 win at South Carolina, went to the Orange Bowl, whipped No. 4 Nebraska and brought back the ACC's first national football title since Maryland in 1953.

"I guess those of us on that team will always think it could have been us rather than Clemson," Elkins said. "But that day against South Carolina, we just couldn't get things going the way we usually did. They smoked us, and their quarterback [Gordon Beckham] was incredible. It might have been more disappointing than the year before at Oklahoma."

Elkins, now 46, living in Chapel Hill and working for a medical supply firm, never fully recovered from the ankle injury. The team finished 10-2 with Bryant and fellow tailback Ethan Horton each rushing for more than 100 yards in a Gator Bowl win over Arkansas. Elkins went most of the way and ran for a score, but it was a bittersweet reward.

"We went 21-3 those two years. But in a way, it was a little hard to accept, because we were right there with a chance to do a lot more both seasons," Elkins said. "We got criticized some that season after some of us said something about being a little disappointed with the Gator Bowl while Clemson was going to the Orange Bowl with a chance to win it all. We had our chances, though. We just didn't make the most of them."

A year later, the fifth-ranked Heels went to No. 1 Pittsburgh to start the season and lost, 7-6. That UNC team finished 8-4 and easily stopped No. 8 Texas in the Sun Bowl, but the days of hopes for a shot at a national title were gone and wouldn't return until 1997.