Sammie Coates didn’t make the biggest play of the 2013 Iron Bowl, though he probably made the second biggest.

Coates got behind the Alabama secondary for a 39-yard touchdown reception from Nick Marshall with 32 seconds remaining, tying the game and setting in motion a sequence of events that would end in the “Kick Six” — Chris Davis’ 109-yard return of a missed field goal that gave Auburn a 34-28 victory over the two-time defending national champions. Then a redshirt sophomore for the Tigers, the now 32-year-old Coates told AL.com this week the 2013 Iron Bowl is a game “that you pray that you have a chance to be a part of.”

“I got to be a part of something like that, where you never knew how it was going to end,” Coates said. “You never knew who was going to throw the last punch.

“The excitement, the nerves, all that stuff that comes with that game, it was just amazing to be a part of it, to have an experience that. It was awesome to be a part of the win, scoring a touchdown in the fourth quarter, the Kick Six. There was so much excitement.”

Speaking of the Kick Six, Coates had a pretty good view as Davis ran by him on the way to Iron Bowl immortality. At first, though, he didn’t realize the significance of the play while standing on the Auburn sideline.

“I was on the 30- or 40-yard line,” Coates said. “I wasn’t even looking at the actual kick. I was looking down, and I just hear everybody yelling. I look up, and then Chris Davis comes running right past me on the sideline. It was crazy.

“… The whole Auburn team could have tackled him, but no one for Alabama was even close to him. One guy got close to him on the sideline. It was over after that.”

The 2013 Iron Bowl vaulted Auburn to an SEC championship, and a near national title. The Tigers led Florida State in the fourth quarter of the BCS national championship game before a late touchdown gave the Seminoles a 34-31 victory.

Though he narrowly missed out on a national championship as a player, Coates had signed with Auburn while the Tigers were coming off their 2010 title run. A member of the 2011 recruiting class out of Leroy High School, Coates had first committed to Southern Miss — and had also toyed with the idea of pursuing a career in baseball — before signing with Auburn under then-coach Gene Chizik.

“Auburn was the biggest thing going at the time,” Coates said. “… It was pretty cool to see those guys, getting in the locker room, riding up to Auburn that season, going to all the games. … I learned a lot from being around those guys. The way they worked, the way they did everything; they did it with a lot of energy and a lot of effort.”

Coates broke his foot and missed his entire true freshman season before working his way into the Auburn rotation in 2012 after taking a redshirt. He caught a 33-yard touchdown pass from Kiehl Frazier on the final play before halftime in a 31-28 victory over Louisiana-Monroe, but otherwise enjoyed few highlights in a season that would see the Tigers finish 3-9 and Chizik get replaced as head coach by Gus Malzahn.

The speedy Coates had a breakout year along with the Auburn team in 2013, averaging 21.7 yards on 42 receptions and scoring seven touchdowns. He was excellent again for an 8-5 Auburn team in 2014, particularly against Alabama, when he set a program record with 206 receiving yards and scored two touchdowns (including a 68-yarder) in a 55-44 shootout loss that remains the highest-scoring Iron Bowl in history.

“My whole college career, I had some exciting games, but that was probably one of the most exciting ones,” Coates said. “I wish we’d had a better year that year, but it ended how it ended.”

Coates gave up his final year of eligibility to enter the 2015 NFL draft, where he was selected in the third round (No. 87 overall) by the Pittsburgh Steelers. He spent two years in Pittsburgh and one each with the Cleveland Browns and Houston Texans, twice making the playoffs and reaching the AFC championship game as a member of the Steelers in 2016.

But injuries proved to be a detriment for Coates at the professional level, including a concussion late in his rookie season and both sports hernia surgery and knee surgery in 2017. After being released by the Kansas City Chiefs during the 2019 offseason, he played a year in the XFL with the Houston Roughnecks and also spent some time in Canada before transitioning away from playing the game he’d participated in most of his life.

“It didn’t go how I wanted it to, because I went into the NFL hurt,” Coates said. “… I tell a lot of guys now, ‘when your body talks to you, you listen.’ I didn’t listen. I kept trying to play through injuries, and I think that was one of my biggest problems. It started to add up, but it was a great experience. I’m very grateful for that experience I had in the NFL.”

Unsure what to do with his future, Coates spent a year as a high school coach in Florida before pursuing a career in law enforcement. He spent two years as a police officer in Auburn, but ultimately decided to return to football as a coach.

Coates worked as a wide receiver coach on the small-college level at Ohio Northern in 2023 and Virginia-Wise in 2024 then coming back to his home state. In January, he was hired as head coach at Columbia High School in Huntsville.

“When you get done playing, that’s all you’ve been doing your whole life, is football and sports,” Coates said. “I got into my third year of being in law enforcement, and I missed (football) — the preparation, the games, the excitement. I decided to get into coaching. I knew that’s something I’d be really good at. I’m good with people, I’m good with players. So far, it’s working how I want it to work.”

Coates takes over a Columbia program mired in a 91-game losing streak, having not recorded a victory since 2015. The Eagles have had five head coaches in the last decade, and have never made the playoffs.

Coates — who is married with two young sons — said his experience at Columbia thus far has been a positive one, and he’s hoping to take his lessons from a lifetime in football an instill them in his players. Moreover, having lost his father, Sammie Sr., due to a work-related accident when he was 10 years old, he said he’s hoping to be a positive mentor for many young men who might have not one in their life.

“That father figure you get from a coach is something that I had and I leaned on a lot throughout my career,” Coates said. “It gave me that kick, that extra push I needed without my Pops at home. When I got into coaching, it was the same way. I put everything into it and expect them to understand that I’m there and I care about them.

“… I’m very excited about the challenge that lays ahead, but I’m more excited about the kids that continue to work. To be on a team that hasn’t won a game in so many years, they still show up to work, they still grind hard.

“There have been a lot of development issues here, some lack of direction. So once we can fix those things, the winning will happen. I’m trying to work on that culture, try to build something special. It’s bigger than the wins for me, I want the kids to win at life.”