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Two of former BYU tight end Jonny Harline's guitars. On the right is a custom Les Paul Zakk Wylde Signature guitar, the one he's chosen to play on for the national anthem before the Cougars take on TCU Saturday, Nov. 15, 2025.

Courtesy Jonny Harline

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BYU tight end Jonny Harline catches the game-winning pass from John Beck with no time left on the clock in the end zone at Rice-Eccles Stadium to give BYU a 33-31 victory over Utah on Nov. 25, 2006.

FILE photo

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JEREMY HARMON/Daily Herald The Cougars celebrate their victory over Utah after a touchdown by Jonny Harline at Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City Saturday November 25, 2006. Players had to be cleared off the field so that BYU could attempt the extra point.

Melissa Fargo

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Former BYU tight end Jonny Harline plays his guitar during a show.

Courtesy Jonny Harline

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Former BYU tight end Jonny Harline plays his guitar at a show.

Courtesy Jonny Harline

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Former BYU tight end Jonny Harline plays his guitar at a show.

Courtesy Jonny Harline

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If Jonny Harline wanted to play the national anthem on his guitar at a BYU football game, he probably could have walked into the office of Director of Athletics Brian Santiago and simply asked.

After all, Harline made a name for himself playing tight end for the Cougars in the mid-2000s and is one-half of one of the most famous touchdown plays in school history.

Instead, Harline stood in line at the Smith Fieldhouse with up to 100 other musicians, wearing a name tag, preparing to audition.

Harline didn’t think the people listening to his audition even knew who he was, though he later found out they did.

“I was actually kind of happy about it,” Harline said. “I don’t feel entitled or that I should get special consideration. The pressure is on for me to play in front of that many people (at the stadium) so to go through the audition process, it validates it a little bit more.”

Apparently, the audition went well: Harline will don his custom Zakk Wylde-Les Paul Signature guitar on Saturday night and for the first time, play the national anthem in front of 60,000 BYU fans at LaVell Edwards Stadium.

It’s been a long time coming.

Harline said he started playing guitar in junior high. He was a tremendous two-sport star (football and basketball) at Orem High and an All-American tight end at BYU from 2004 to 2006, finishing with 121 catches for 1,788 yards and 17 touchdowns.

His greatest claim to fame was in the 2006 BYU-Utah game, where he caught the winning touchdown pass from John Beck on the final play, a catch referred to as the “Answered Prayer” since Harline slid on his knees in the end zone to make the grab.

After his playing days were over, Harline got married and started a family, living in Las Vegas for 11 years. A few years ago, Harline moved to the Salt Lake area where he works as a middle school teacher at Challenger School.

A short time ago, a teacher from a neighboring classroom came up to Harline and said, “I saw this video yesterday. I didn’t realize it was you making that play.”

Harline and his wife, Tiare, have four children: A 17-year-old daughter attending Juan Diego High School, twin nine-year old boys and a “surprise” baby boy who just turned two.

All the while, Harline continued to hone his guitar skills, playing in several bands and even shredding the national anthem before the start of a BYU-Utah flag football charity game a dozen years ago.

Beck and former Cougar teammate Ben Criddle, who anchors a BYU sports radio talk show on ESPN The Fan, have always encouraged Harline to find the opportunity to play the national anthem before a Cougar football game, even forwarding social media messages to BYU athletic administrators.

“Nobody ever responded,” Harline said. “I just got the feeling that it was not going to happen with someone playing an electric guitar.”

This summer, Criddle texted Harline a link for the information about open auditions.

“I decided I was going to go for it,” Harline said, and that’s how he found himself standing in line at the Smith Fieldhouse.

“Most of the people that were trying out were singers,” Harline said. “I heard there was one guy with a trumpet and there I was, standing in line with my amp and my guitar.”

Harline said he had positive feedback after his audition and eventually received an e-mail indicating he was one of the finalists for playing at an event, but there was no guarantee it would be at a BYU football game.

“A coupe of weeks later they called me and said, ‘Jonny, we’d love to have you do the national anthem at a football game,'” Harline said. “There were a couple of options and the TCU game worked out best. That’s how it went down.”

Harline said he played at a sound check at LaVell Edwards Stadium last month. He’ll be wearing headphones when he plays because of the delay of the sound involved in such a large venue.

“I’ve got to crank those thing up so I can’t hear anything,” Harline said. “That delay is pretty serious.”

So what kind of national anthem will BYU fans hear on Saturday?

Harline appreciates all kinds of music but rock and roll is his bread and butter.

“I like AC/DC, Van Halen, Guns-n-Roses,” he said. “I like heavy metal like Metallica, Iron Maiden and Ozzy Osbourne. I also like blues. I have a lot of guitar influences.

“I could make the national anthem harder than it needs to be and fancy it up but I’ve tried to come up with a good rendition of it. I do feel like it’s an honor to play the national anthem and above all, respect the moment. Living in America, the land of the free and the home of the brave, liberty and justice, those are all things I care about. I feel honored to be the person that gets to express that.”

Harline said he was tempted to play the iconic Jimmy Hendrix version, but that would be pretty hard to copy.

“The big thing is I don’t want to make it about me,” he said. “I want to make it about the song. At the same time I want to make it cool. It’s something to hear a hard rock electric guitar version. I think it’s not too fancy but will come out with passion and excitement. It’s not going to be patterned after anything specific. I just want to do my own take on it. I want to follow the melody but make it a little unique as well.”

Apparently, Harline is still open … for another heart-stopping moment in front of a huge crowd on Saturday.

Harline can’t help but laugh about the thought of ultra-conservative BYU being OK with a former player standing on the field at LaVell Edwards Stadium and playing the national anthem on a Les Paul.

“An electric guitar is an unruly, wild beast,” he said. “You can try and control it as much as you want but sometimes it makes big, ugly noises. But I do want to make it sound nice.”