DATE: Sunday, September 28, 1997            TAG: 9709280238

SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C7   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY ED MILLER, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: CHAPEL HILL, N.C.                 LENGTH:   58 lines

BLY GETTING LITTLE ACTION, A SIGN OF OPPONENTS' RESPECT U.VA. THREW ONLY THREE TIMES IN HIS DIRECTION. HE PICKED OFF ONE FOR A TD.

If Dre' Bly was a baseball player, he'd be leading the league in walks.

If he was a boxer, no one would want to step into the ring with him.

But Bly is an All-American cornerback, and so he has a different problem: quarterbacks don't throw his way.

Bly showed why Saturday, in North Carolina's 48-20 win over Virginia at Keenan Stadium.

The Chesapeake native had just three balls thrown his way. But he converted one of them into the type of momentum-swinging play that has become his trademark at UNC.

With 10:30 left in the third quarter, Virginia quarterback Aaron Brooks swung a screen pass toward flanker Bryan Owen. Bly cut in front of Owen, snatched the ball away and returned it 17 yards for a touchdown.

The extra point tied the game at 20, and the Tar Heels never looked back, rolling up four more touchdowns in a comeback that equaled the best in school history.

``I'm always looking for the big play,'' Bly said. ``And that was the one play that brought us back in the game.''

For that reason, Bly ranked the interception - his second of the season - as the biggest in his career.

And for Bly, that's saying something. Bly, after all, led the nation in interceptions last year, with 11, and added two more in the Gator Bowl. He returned an interception 51 yards for a touchdown against Virginia last year.

Bly became the first freshman defensive player ever to be named an Associated Press first-team All-American.

He also became perhaps the least popular player in the ACC: someone to be avoided at all costs.

Against Stanford, Bly didn't have a single pass thrown his direction. Indiana threw two. Maryland, three.

Virginia obviously didn't want to give Bly any pitches to hit, either. The Cavaliers went his way just once in the first half, when Germane Crowell caught a Brooks pass for nine yards.

But then Bly got one he could handle, and knocked it out of the park.

``Dre' Bly is just unbelievable,'' coach Mack Brown said. ``People haven't been throwing at him, but he made a great play.''

Bly said he figured Virginia would come his way sooner or later.

``When I caught it, I was thinking touchdown,'' he said.

Bly said he isn't frustrated that, by his count, just eight balls have been thrown at him all season. Cornerback Robert Williams hasn't been challenged much, either, as teams have preferred to take on UNC's linebackers and safeties by throwing short.

``We just have to keep doing our jobs,'' he said. ``There's other things I can do to help my team. I can go up and make a tackle against the run. I can get my guys up.''

Bly did that Saturday by exhorting the crowd. He was the defense's chief cheerleader.

``They were yelling loud,'' Bly said. ``I just wanted them to yell louder.''

Mission accomplished.

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