When your name is Dan Coke, you learn to expect and accept the inevitable good-natured ribbings.

“They’ve called me D. Pepsi, D. Sprite and Diet Coke,” said Coke, a Kansas University defensive back. “And, you know, I don’t drink any pop.”

A fifth-year senior from Moore Haven, Fla., Coke’s college football career has been more like a geyser than a can of soda pop because he has surfaced only in rare and unexpected instances.

Two seasons ago, for example, Coke started at tailback in the Jayhawks’ opener because Reggie Duncan was serving a one-game suspension. The 5-foot-11, 215-pound Coke carried the ball 21 times for 44 yards against Southwest Missouri State.

After Duncan returned, Coke carried only 10 more times all season.

Last season, moved to fullback, Coke played mostly on special teams, and carried the ball just once. His lone carry was a two-yard burst into the end zone against Bowling Green for what has been his only touchdown in a KU uniform.

“Playing fullback was a challenge,” Coke said. “I had never played there, and I was undersized.”

Last spring, the KU coaching staff moved Coke to the defensive backfield where he was tried as a safety because, as he says, “There aren’t too many 215-pound cornerbacks.”

At last, Coke felt he had found a home. A quarterback-defensive back in high school, he had been named Florida’s Class 2A defensive player of the year by the Fort Myers newspaper.

“Coming out of high school I always knew defense was my natural position,” Coke said. “But I was a quarterback, and I didn’t want to play defense in college.”

Finally, two weeks ago, Coke made only his second career start. He opened at strong safety against Nebraska. He also started last week against Oklahoma State and will answer the bell in his last game at Memorial Stadium today against Iowa State.

He has 16 tackles — including 11 in the last two games — and one pass break up

“It’s been real exciting to play and have some fun out there,” Coke said of his 11th-hour ascension to a starting role. “I’m sure it will be emotional when it hits me that it’s my last game, but God has called me to move on.”

Coke will, in fact, move on to the ministry.

He has enrolled at a seminary in Los Angeles and will begin classes Jan. 5. In addition to football, he is serving as an intern at a west Lawrence church.

“A lot of the principles in football carry over to the kingdom of God and to life,” Coke said.

Time was when Coke thought the Holy Trinity consisted of me, myself and I. Then he began attending campus ministry sessions about 21/2 years ago and his outlook started to change.

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“I wasn’t a religious guy,” Coke said. “But I’m not the same guy I was then. I had a bad attitude. I had no character. I didn’t care about anybody but myself.”

Now that he is plugged into the spiritual concept, Coke has also bought into KU coach Mark Mangino’s philosophy that the whole is equal to the sum of its parts and that the last game of the schedule doesn’t necessarily have to be the last game of the season.

“There is still an opportunity for us,” Coke said, “to do great things.”