Last Saturday, as Boise State and Air Force clashed in Colorado, two veteran play-callers were pitted against each other, armed with their headsets and play cards trying to scheme their team to victory.

Over 1,700 miles away, at a house in Charleston, South Carolina, their daughters threw a little shindig to watch their dads work.

Kendra Koetter, the daughter of Boise State offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter, and Katie Knorr, the daughter of Air Force defensive coordinator Brian Knorr, are, in some ways, living almost parallel lives.

Both Kendra and Katie moved around as kids every few years for their dad's jobs. Both studied at North Carolina. They were both recruited to join the management sales program at E. & J. Gallo Winery. Then they both moved to Charlotte for work, where Kendra was a sales rep and Katie was her district manager. Even when Kendra left for Charleston a few years ago, Katie moved a mile away not long after.

When they first converged, the two bonded immediately, quickly chatting about a little nugget that most other acquaintances can't relate to.

"We both learned that our dads were both college football coaches," Kendra said. "That's just not a common trait."

Few besides the children of coaches understand the lifestyle. Growing up constantly moving, your dad often missing dinner, the weeks your dad would be away recruiting, the emotional ebbs and flows and the toll a loss can have on a household.

"The highs are high. And the lows are looooow. Lots of tears were shed as kids," said Katie. "I find that football coaches' families are close because a lot of the time, they're all they have when they move around so much. Kendra instantly gets it. It's something that has brought us closer together."

Which led to Saturday. Kendra and Katie had

discussed trying to fly out to Colorado Springs but couldn't make it work. So they opted for the next best thing: A watch party.

They invited all their friends with the instruction to wear blue and pick a side. There were appetizers, plenty of company wine and spirits, a football squares game and two girls glued to the TV watching their dads.

Their fathers weren't supposed to be matched up against each other. Dirk Koetter began the year as simply an offensive analyst helping out Boise State coach Andy Avalos. But as the year began, Kendra would call her mom, Kim, and ask where dad was.

"She'd be like, 'Dad's at the office,'" Kendra said her mom told her. "And finally, after like the fifth time ... I was like, 'You keep saying, 'Dad's at the office. Is he back? Like what's going on.'"

He wasn't. But then Boise State stumbled to a 2-2 record.

When it was announced in September that BSU offensive coordinator Tim Plough had been let go and Dirk was taking his spot, Kendra was at a South Carolina football game when a friend sent her a text: "Your dad's coaching again lol."

"I think I found out he was the coach of the (Tampa Bay) Bucs the same way," Kendra said with a laugh. "I'm like, 'C'mon, dad. You've got to be better at telling us these things.'"

In a short time, Dirk turned around Boise State's offense. The 63-year old transformed a group that looked out of sorts, helping the Broncos rush for over 600 combined yards in wins over San Diego State and Fresno State.

His third game as BSU's OC was against Air Force, against Brian Knorr's fantastic defense. Heading into Saturday, the Falcons were allowing the ninthfewest yards in all of college football while limiting opposing offenses to under 17 points a game.

Which made for quite the watch party — and one absent of much negativity.

"As coach's kids, you have seen some pretty ugly situations where kids will kind of talk smack about your family at school," Katie said. "I think we have such a mutual respect for each other and each other's families, so there really wasn't any smack talk involved."

Boise State ended up pulling out the 19-14 win. The Broncos' offense was phenomenal in the first half, but the Falcons' defense held them scoreless in the final two quarters, which meant Dirk cost Kendra some cash.

"They had live wagering," Dirk said Monday about his daughter's watch party. "Kendra was winning a lot of money in the first quarter. Not so much in the second half."

For Kendra, too, watching the game was a little extra special. She wasn't just watching her father, but her little brother, Davis, a sixth-year receiver for Boise State, who learned four weeks into his final collegiate season that his dad would finally get to coach him.

"I got tears when I found out (they'd be together)," Kendra said. "To have both of them there at the same time, it's a storybook ending."

Just as storybook is the fact that two Tar Heels working for the same company who both settled in the same city were watching their dads call plays during a football game halfway across the country.

"It's kind of funny the way our lives feel so aligned," Kendra said. "Like what are the odds?"