Coats can't be overlooked in TE tandem

Daniel Coats isn't a tight end playing second fiddle to All-American Jonny Harline.

He isn't taking a back seat, side seat or any other kind of seat around Harline — except being his teammate. And BYU's coaches will never look at Coats as the forgotten player in light of Harline's famous catch to end the BYU-Utah game last month capping an undefeated MWC championship, national ranking and 10-2 campaign.

This week, Harline earned All-America honors from The Sporting News, the latest in several such recognitions. In a rare expression of candid rhetoric, his coach praised a two-headed playmaker; given Harline his due but never forgetting the whole script.

Offensive coordinator Robert Anae will always look at Coats and Harline as a duo, a left-jab and roundhouse hook combo.

"I don't think we've had a pair of tight ends this good at BYU since Itula Mili (Seattle Seahawks) and Chad Lewis (Philadelphia Eagles) back in 1996." Anae said.

Coats' big catches in the regular season finale — including his sixth, a key fourth-quarter touchdown to set up Harline's "Answered Prayer" against the Utes — register as big as any other on that day.

And Anae's got a point.

A boxer needs both hands to slug. BYU needed Coats and Harline to win in 2006.

Coats will play his final game as a Cougar in the Pioneer Vision Las Vegas Bowl, Dec. 21, in Sam Boyd Stadium. He's got the attitude of a brush salesman — the sun is always shining in the Coats universe. It's a place where the best moment of every day is when he walks in the door and is greeted by his three children and wife.

"They are the best thing that's every happened to me," Coats says.

You start there, with Coats. Football is just whipped cream on top of the pie.

His wife, Alicia, has been his girlfriend since junior high. He knew he'd marry her six years ago. Their three children are the most by any couple on BYU's squad. Alicia has spearheaded an informal players' wife organization and made T-shirts for every wife with accompanying jersey numbers.

"She's a grab-the-bull-by-the-horns type of person," said Coats.

The fact that Alicia works with the Boy Scouts in a local LDS ward, and neither Daniel or Alicia are LDS, shows her community involvement, drive and resolve.