Play pays off for BYU duo

It's been 75 days since John Beck hooked up with Jonny Harline for that game-winning touchdown to end the BYU-Utah game, but that play remains a handshake topic where ever the two travel.

From NFL staff members, agents, reporters and other college players, from the East-West Shrine game to Beck's current workouts in Arizona, folks bring up that play, calling it everything from crazy to amazing to unbelievable.

It has also become part of a latent interest in Beck and Harline by NFL teams. Thanks to playing in a TV vacuum most of the season, the duo have had to put on a rally. Many NFL teams are just beginning to understand what transpired with BYU's football team as players head into the NFL Combine in Indianapolis Feb. 22-28.

That is good news for Beck, Harline and Daniel Coats, who were invited. But the committee did not extend an invitation to Cameron Jensen, Jake Kuresa, Eddie Keele or Curtis Brown. That hasn't settled very well with the neglected. Boise State received invitations for eight players.

Those Cougars left out could blame the snub, in part, for lack of TV exposure, on the CSTV-The mtn deal. Keele, who failed to play most of the season due to knee surgery, petitioned the combine organizers and discovered he was narrowly excluded from an available post-season combine slot by a narrow vote.

Fortunately for Beck and Harline, "The Play" — plus notoriety in the Las Vegas Bowl win over Oregon, personal interviews and other post-season developments — have elevated NFL interest.

Beck and Harline both signed with Athletes First, an agency in Los Angeles, whose clients include Steve Young, Ravens tight end Todd Heap and quarterbacks Carson Palmer and Drew Bledsoe.

Beck will be the first Cougar taken. Some NFL camps are evaluating if Harline is a tight end or fits the mold of a big receiver.

Early last season, Beck's stock was second to third round in many NFL notebooks due to two injured ankles when scouts made personal visits back in September.

Today Beck is being told by NFL contacts, he could move up as a first-round draft pick behind leaders JaMarcus Russell (LSU), Brady Quinn (Notre Dame) and Drew Stanton (Michigan State). His agent has told Beck he is in a battle against Stanford's Trent Edwards, Oregon State's Matt Moore and Stanton to be the No. 3 quarterback taken.

In recent years, an average of three quarterbacks were drafted in the first round.

Making a late move?