9 snaps to glory: The unsung hero who ignited spark for Beck-to-Harline

There were three sets of fingerprints on one of the most celebrated footballs in the BYU-Utah rivalry. One set belonged to the tight end who made the game-winning catch, one belonged to the quarterback who threw the pass, and the other from a junior college transfer out of Carson, California, who hiked the ball.
All three needed each other to make the iconic “Beck-to-Harline” improbable finish possible. Eighteen years later, John Beck and Jonny Harline remain at the center of attention when BYU fans recount their favorite finishes. But without center Sete Aulai and his nine snaps to glory — that finale to the game of all games might be remembered as “Ratliff-to-Casteel” instead.
With the smell of an upset in the air, and Rice-Eccles Stadium caught up in a crescendo of delight, Aulai and his BYU teammates trotted out to the 25-yard line. It was a do-or-die, now-or-never time for the Cougars, who had just relinquished the lead on a nine-play, 83-yard Utah drive.
“They drove down the field and scored on us, now it’s our time to drive down and score on them,” thought Aulai, after watching Brett Ratliff’s 19-yard touchdown pass to Brent Casteel, which gave the Utes a 31-27 lead with 1:19 to play.
At the time, Aulai was foreign to the rivalry and still new to his position. He was recruited as an offensive tackle from El Camino Junior College and converted to center out of necessity when Lance Reynolds graduated. At 6-foot-1 and 297 pounds, Aulai was undersized, but he made up for any lack of braun with his brain.
“He was the epitome of a guy who was quick enough, twitchy, had good feet and was smart,” said quarterback John Beck. “It’s the center that makes all the calls. You have to be really intelligent.”
The transition to center in an offense that features the shotgun wasn’t easy, but Aulai was determined to master his craft.
“John and I worked on those shotgun snaps so many times after practice to make sure that exchange was perfect,” Aulai said. “It became second nature.”
As BYU lined up at the 25-yard line, the crowd noise increased. The No. 21 Cougars (9-2, 7-0) were not only playing to complete a perfect run in the Mountain West Conference, but they were also determined to snap a four-game losing streak to the Utes (7-4, 5-2).
“I was thinking about how I’m going to make those calls,” Aulai told the Deseret News. “In Coach (Robert) Anae’s offense, a lot of the responsibility on pass protection lies on the center. I was focused on reading the safeties, corners and linebackers to make sure I was sliding the protection in the right direction.”
Beck took the first of nine perfect shotgun snaps from Aulai and completed a pass to Bryce Mahuika for 15 yards to the 40-yard line. Then he Beck hit Curtis Brown for seven yards to midfield with 45 seconds left.
“My job was to take the pressure off John,” Aulai said. “I had to make sure he had all the time he needed to complete the pass. Utah didn’t rush a ton on that last drive. They dropped their linebackers and would rush three or four.”
Aulai’s fifth shotgun snap started a play that finished with Beck hitting Jonny Harline for 16 yards to the Utah 37 with 27 seconds remaining.
“A quarterback’s eyes are everything. When you have consistent snaps, you can keep your gaze on the defense until you say ‘hut.’ That split second gives you just a little bit more information,” Beck said. “People don’t understand how big of a deal that is.”
“He’s talking about the snap box,” Aulai said. “The ball is supposed to land right at his chest. As long as those snaps are perfect, (John) doesn’t have to take his eyes off the defense and can make his reads.”
Aulai’s perfect snaps and Beck’s precision strikes continued and on the next play, he found McKay Jacobsen for 19 yards to the Utes 11. Time was running short, but BYU’s confidence was growing.
“I remember thinking, ‘We are here. We are going to win this thing,’” Aulai said as the Cougars marched into scoring position. “I was one of the young guys, but I had confidence in our leaders.”
After an incomplete pass to Harline in the end zone with three seconds remaining, there was only time for one more play and Aulai was ready to get it started.
“Just his personality, he was pure confidence. He didn’t get frazzled. There was no nervousness about him going into those crucial situations,” Harline said. “It all starts there. You can’t catch a pass unless the quarterback can throw you a decent ball, and it’s gonna be hard to throw a good ball without protection. On that final play, John had all day.”
As the dramatic moment began, the Utes threw Aulai a curve ball just as he delivered his ninth shotgun snap of the drive.
“I was shocked! They had a great defensive line, but they only rushed two and dropped everyone back,” he said. “A majority of us were right in front of John and kind of got lost looking for someone to hit.”
Beck had an incredible 10 seconds of protection.
“The guys blocking recognized when I turned it into a scramble drill,” Beck said. “As I’m going from one side of the field to the other, they had to be careful not to make an illegal block or go too far up field.”
In the madness, a Utah linebacker rushed the QB, but just before he got to Beck, Aulai hit him. In that timeless split-second, Beck released the ball to a wide-open Harline in the end zone.
“I didn’t see the catch. I only knew the pass was completed because our fans started screaming their heads off,” Aulai said. “I turned around and sure enough, Jonny is standing there with his hands in the air and I’m thinking, ‘Oh my gosh! He caught it! We got it!’ I didn’t know Jonny was over there. I was fooled just like their entire defense.”
BYU’s 33-31 victory, including Aulai’s nine snaps to glory, remain one of the most exciting finishes in the history of the rivalry and is also the last time the Cougars have won in Salt Lake City. They are 0-5 there since.
As for the football and those three sets of fingerprints, it’s unlikely the prints survived more than a few hours and as for the ball itself, it was knocked out of Harline’s hands during the celebration, and no one at BYU has seen it since.
“Those are the kinds of moments you live for in sports, that excitement, the unknown of what is going to happen,” Aulai said. “I’m grateful to be part of two phenomenal finishes between BYU and Utah.”
The next year, in 2007, on the infamous fourth-and-18 play, it was Aulai who delivered a shotgun snap to Max Hall before Hall found Austin Collie behind the Utah defense as part of another miraculous come-from-behind win for the Cougars.
Watching Aulai and his teammates celebrating at Rice-Eccles Stadium didn’t sit so well with Jordan Welch, a Utah freshman from American Fork who watched the game in the MUSS — the Utah student section.
“I was on the phone with my brother who was living in Alaska and giving him a play-by-play,” she said. “I told him, ‘Oh, we got it. We got it.’ Then that infamous Beck-to-Harline happened, and I just fell silent. My brother questioned, ‘What happened? What happened?’ I said, ‘Oh my gosh! We just lost!’ I was in total shock. I thought there was no way (BYU) was going to pull that off.”
Six years later, and after Aulai’s conversion to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, that extraordinary finish on the field resurfaced and facilitated an even bigger surprise.
A friend introduced Welch and Aulai and encouraged them to go on a date. During the meet-and-greet process, they started connecting the dots and some of those dots connected them to that Saturday afternoon at Rice-Eccles Stadium on Nov. 25, 2006 — when Aulai ruined Welch’s day.
Fortunately for his sake, she got over it.
“Here we are 12 years later — with three kids!” laughed Aulai, from their Saratoga Springs home. “And she’ll be cheering for BYU on Saturday.”
“I grew up a BYU fan, but I went to Utah because I was interested in the nursing school,” Jordan said. “I married a BYU guy and now, it’s just back to BYU.”
Aulai wasn’t just a BYU guy, he was the center whose Nine Snaps to Glory helped the Cougars stun the Utes and his future wife at the same time.
Aulai is the section chief for the Utah State Attorney General’s Office that oversees the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. His playing days have been over for years, but the skills he crafted while battling in the trenches at BYU show up every day on the job.
“Football taught me about teamwork, and it takes a team effort to investigate these types of cases,” Aulai said. “The mission of this task force is to save kids. That’s what I do. In football, my job was to protect the quarterback on the field. I’ve taken that mindset and applied it to what I’m doing now in leading this task force to protect children.”
BYU’s 8-0 record and No. 9 ranking has made life a lot easier for Aulai and the other BYU alums at the Attorney General’s office in Salt Lake City.
“It’s unfortunate that the (Utes) are going through their struggles, but they are our rivals,” he said. “We have quite a few Cougar fans at the AG’s office. The AG himself (Sean Reyes) is an alum. We are still outnumbered by the Utes, but we are well represented.”
It has been 18 years since the Beck-to-Harline finish that started with Aulai’s shotgun snap — far too long for his liking. He expects BYU’s drought at Rice-Eccles will come to an end on Saturday (8:15 p.m., ESPN).
“I can’t tell you how entertaining this team is to watch. For them to overcome all of the adversity that happens in a game and see how hard they are playing and how physical they are, it’s just awesome to see,” he said. “I know Kalani (Sitake) is going to have them ready. I know my former teammates, Kelly Poppinga and Harvey Unga, they know what it’s like to win up there. I fully expect them to go up there and beat those guys.”
Dave McCann is a sportswriter and columnist for the Deseret News and is a play-by-play announcer and show host for BYUtv/ESPN+. He co-hosts “Y’s Guys” at ysguys.com and is the author of the children’s book “C is for Cougar,” available at deseretbook.com.