NFL

Jets’ Hoosier TE now part of enemy

Rooting for the Colts as a kid in Indiana, Dustin Keller was a big Peyton Manning fan.

The respect remains.

The rooting is over.

“Really, ever since Peyton’s been there, he was the guy,” said Keller, the Jets’ second-year tight end. “He’s the man. You can’t deny that.”

But what Keller and the Jets hope to deny is Manning the chance to advance to the Super Bowl with a Jets victory over the Colts in Sunday’s AFC Championship game.

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Keller hails from Lafayette, Ind., and attended Purdue in state. For the second time in a month, Keller will have an Indiana homecoming, although this one is surely more meaningful than the Jets’ Dec. 27 trip to Indianapolis. Keller says he’s been besieged with ticket requests, and he’s picked up tickets for approximately 20 family members and friends.

“But all together, people that got their own tickets and everything, I have no clue,” he said when asked how many Keller supporters will be in the crowd. “Hopefully we see a lot of 81 Jets jerseys out there.

“Everybody wants to go to the game before the Super Bowl. And actually people actually hit me up about Super Bowl tickets. I’m like, ‘Give us some time. Let us work first.’ ”

Keller has been one of the Jets’ surging players. Just like rookie Shonn Greene, he has a touchdown in each of the Jets’ two playoff games.

Against the Bengals two weeks ago, Keller produced a 45-yard TD catch that gave the Jets the lead for good. Last week against the Chargers, he produced a two-yard TD grab that did the same.

As Mark Sanchez said of Keller, “He’s a special talent.”

Special enough to have certainly outplayed Cincinnati’s tight ends. And while Keller maybe didn’t have a more productive game than San Diego’s unit (all-pro tight end Antonio Gates caught eight passes for 93 yards and backup Kris Wilson had a TD), he certainly held his own.

Now he’ll see if he can outdo Indy star tight end Dallas Clark.

“Just like I said last week, you want to outplay the other tight end, but you’ll take a win over outplaying the guy any day of the week,” Keller said. “So just as long as we go out there and as a team we handle business, that’s all that matters and anything else is just icing on the cake.”

mark.hale@nypost.com