# Goodbye Robert Anae



## mm73 (Feb 5, 2010)

http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=272&sid=13735646


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## Huge29 (Sep 17, 2007)

Many people have been calling for their heads, but I did not see it happening. Hans Olsen did state that the likes of Cahoon, Chad Lewis and Reno Mahe had wanted to coach, but Bronco told them that they had no openings, well, it looks like he just made some openings.


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## GaryFish (Sep 7, 2007)

Huh. It wasn't that long ago that Cougar Fans all around were calling for Norm Chow's head. AFTER he left BYU, he coached up three Heisman winners and a couple of national championsihps and is regarded as one of the best OCs in football. Funny how stuff works out. Or not. Interesting to see how things go.


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## Dodger (Oct 20, 2009)

Interesting move. I'd like to point out at the beginning of the season, I was totally against the two quarterback system. 

Anae's play calling this season has also been pretty abysmal, IMO. They spent the first half of the season throwing that stupid fade that never worked. They also gave up the drive at the end of the Utah game. They stopped trying to drive the field and play for the field goal - major coaching error, I think.

I think some of the offensive staff is pretty good - Reynolds has done well with the O-line and Brandon Doman has done some good work with Max Hall and getting Heaps up to speed this year. I'd like to see them kept around. Anae has been frustrating.

I think Norm Chow's problem was the head coach - those were the Crowton years. Didn't he leave though? I remember fans calling for his head, but I thought he just decided to leave to go to USC. 

I'm not sure I'm ready to turn over the keys to the kingdom to Chad Lewis and Reno Mahe et al. I think, most of all though, is that I trust Bronco to make the right decision.


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## mm73 (Feb 5, 2010)

I think this is more about Brandon Doman than anything else. Doman is seen as a hot commodity and he is ambitious to boot. Bronco doesn't want to lose him, and Anae has been less then impressive as OC. The way I see it, this is a way for Bronco to promote Doman to OC and then let him choose the rest of his staff. I would be very surprised if Anae and Higgins are retained, but I think Weber will be back. Reynolds may choose to retire. It will be very interesting to see how this develops but at the very least I think we can conclude that Anae is gone.

Interesting that so many are drawing parallels to Norm Chow, who is also currently on the chopping block at UCLA. Could we see the Return of Chow to BYU? I doubt it but it is interesting to think about...


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## GaryFish (Sep 7, 2007)

The last five years of LaVell, people were calling for Chow's head. He turned down other offers, figuring to be the successor when Edwards retired. Well, then they hired Crowton. I don't think Chow stuck around for any of Crowton, as he wanted to do his own thing with his own system.

As for Lewis and Mahe - Ability to play the game at the NFL level doesn't always translate to teaching the game at the collegiate level. Do these guys have any coaching experience at all?

As for Reynolds - what impact will this have on his kid sticking around for his senior year?


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## Dodger (Oct 20, 2009)

I think MM's analysis is spot on. 

I can't remember exactly what happened with Chow at the end of Lavell's term. I was out of the country at the time, but I absolutely agree with Gary vis a vis the Lewis and Mahe coaching suggestion. I think they might have something to offer, but just because they can play in the NFL, doesn't mean they can coach. 

I think Reynolds (the player) sticks around. I saw something on ESPN that said he was overrated and suggested that he stay for his senior season. I think he does it whether or not pops stays.


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## GaryFish (Sep 7, 2007)

I had to laugh at the choice of words for dumping them. My question, were they "released with a vote of thanks"?


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## Huge29 (Sep 17, 2007)

From what I can see Higgins is gone for sure.


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## mm73 (Feb 5, 2010)

Rumor on the Total Blue Sports message boards is that Ben Cahoon and Ty Detmer have applied for coaching positions. If this is true then I think we can conclude those are the new WR and QB coaches respectively, with Doman as OC. Another very interesting possibility I have heard mentioned is Curtis Brown as the next RB coach. As far as Lance Reynolds is concerned - there is no way in hell BYU is going to fire him. He is an institution, having coached BYU football since 1983, and provided them with four O-line sons, two of which are currently playing. He will either be retained as Assistant HC, or he will retire of his own choice.


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## Huge29 (Sep 17, 2007)

mm73 said:


> Rumor on the Total Blue Sports message boards is that Ben Cahoon and Ty Detmer have applied for coaching positions. If this is true then I think we can conclude those are the new WR and QB coaches respectively, with Doman as OC. Another very interesting possibility I have heard mentioned is Curtis Brown as the next RB coach. As far as Lance Reynolds is concerned - there is no way in hell BYU is going to fire him. He is an institution, having coached BYU football since 1983, and provided them with four O-line sons, two of which are currently playing. He will either be retained as Assistant HC, or he will retire of his own choice.


I have to agree with this post from top to bottom. Pretty exciting! Of course, we were all pretty excited Anae's first year too and it took him some time to figure it all out.


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## proutdoors (Sep 24, 2007)

GaryFish said:


> Huh. It wasn't that long ago that Cougar Fans all around were calling for Norm Chow's head. AFTER he left BYU, he coached up three Heisman winners and a couple of national championsihps and is regarded as one of the best OCs in football. Funny how stuff works out. Or not. Interesting to see how things go.


There was good reason to call for Norm's head, the last 4-5 years he was a terrible OC! He was way too conservative, and way too predictable. It may have been Edwards fault, but nobody was going to throw Edwards under the bus to save Chow. As is often the case, a change of scenery gets a coach re-focused. Also, I would assert Chow has superior talent at USC than he did at BYU, so that was a HUGE factor in "coaching up three Heisman winners". He wore his welcome out pretty fast at USC, and now at UCLA, his longest tenure was at BYU running LaVell's offense.

Anae lost the ute game, IMHO. He was notorious for coaching not to lose, instead of being aggressive and playing to win. If BYU played offense as aggressively as they play defense when Bronco is calling the plays, they would be a very good and exciting team. They have the tools going into 2011, now they need to be given the freedom to use them.


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## xxxxxxBirdDogger (Mar 7, 2008)

> From what I can see Higgins is gone for sure.


That's the only one I've been really concerned about. Receivers are supposed to be sure handed, especially when you're sacrificing speed!


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## HighNDry (Dec 26, 2007)

Robert Anae is a good man. I hate to see this happen to him or anyone for that matter. I heard a rumor that he has the option to stay with the team in another capacity if he wishes. If he leaves I hope he lands on his feet somewhere. 

He was from the Edward's era and through that period they called a lot of plays "to not lose" games. Even in the Holiday "miracle" bowl, it was Jim McMahon who didn't want to come off the field on a 4th down and had to convince the coaching staff that if they punted at that crucial time it was giving up. He kept the offense on the field and the rest is history.


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## mm73 (Feb 5, 2010)

proutdoors said:


> Anae lost the ute game, IMHO.


I agree. The whole game turned on the failed 4th and 1 conversion in the 3rd quarter. That stop energized the whole Utah team and gave them all the momentum from that point on.


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## jahan (Sep 7, 2007)

mm73 said:


> proutdoors said:
> 
> 
> > Anae lost the ute game, IMHO.
> ...


I also agree, I thought BYU had it in the bag.


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## mm73 (Feb 5, 2010)

HighNDry said:


> Robert Anae is a good man. I hate to see this happen to him or anyone for that matter. I heard a rumor that he has the option to stay with the team in another capacity if he wishes. If he leaves I hope he lands on his feet somewhere.
> 
> He was from the Edward's era and through that period they called a lot of plays "to not lose" games. Even in the Holiday "miracle" bowl, it was Jim McMahon who didn't want to come off the field on a 4th down and had to convince the coaching staff that if they punted at that crucial time it was giving up. He kept the offense on the field and the rest is history.


\

He is a good man, and I am sure he will land on his feet somewhere. I just don't think it will be as an OC. Remember, Robert Anae was not hired by Bronco, or any other coach for that matter. He was hired by Fred Skousen who was acting as interim AD at the same time Bronco was promoted from DC to HC. Prior to that he had absolutely no experience as an OC, his only prior coaching experience was offensive line, which is what he played at BYU. So nothing from his playing career or his coaching career qualified him to be the OC of an elite Division 1 football program, and if that is what BYU wants to become then they need to make a change.


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## NHS (Sep 7, 2007)

BYU is playing down rumors of any coaching changes on the offensive side.

http://www.heraldextra.com/sports/c...cle_6f17d50c-0d0d-11e0-982a-001cc4c002e0.html

Pretty interesting read. Time will tell....


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## HighNDry (Dec 26, 2007)

Hmmm. I thouight Anae was actually coaching in the Pro ranks when BYU came looking for his services. I'll have to do some research on that.

So how much blame do we put on the coaches and how much do we put on the players for not making the play happen, and how much credit do we give to the opposition for stopping the play?

What would we be saying right now if Anae called a pass play and it was picked off in the endzone because Heaps tried to force it in? 

Yes, I would have liked to see more aggressive play calling, but you know you'd be singing a different tune if it was a pass and picked off or it was incomplete. I bet you'd all be saying, "Why didn't they just run the ball and put it in position to kick a field goal and win the game." It's so easy to sit here and run through all the what ifs.

The game was lost by a combination of things from kick off to the blocked field goal. To sit here now and blame it all on Anae is just scapegoat talk. Just my opinion.


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## mm73 (Feb 5, 2010)

Anae was the O-line coach at Texas Tech prior to coming to BYU. He has never coached at the professional level. Here is his bio on BYU's athletics site: http://www.byucougars.com/StaffProfile.jsp?ID=12

Of course you can't blame EVERYTHING on Robert Anae, and I don't think anyone is. However, you can question his play calls at certain key points in the game, like the aforementioned 4th and 1 on the Utah 10 yard line. There are many examples like that where even casual observers of the game, like my wife, ask "why on earth did they do that?". And there is the way that he stubbornly calls the same play over and over again even after it has failed the previous 5 attempts. You can almost see him on the sidelines saying "this time it will work!". And why does he stand on the sidelines anyway, when almost every other OC sits up in the press boxes where he can get a full view of the field? Anyway, my point is not to trash the guy. I am sure he is a fine person, and a good O-line coach, but he is an amateur offensive coordinator who was fortunate to have some very talented players the last 5 years who made him look good in spite of his horrible play-calling.


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## GaryFish (Sep 7, 2007)

If you remember the 4th and 1 play, it was a play action pass, with Heaps throwing to the TE coming from left to right, across the middle. Utah bit on the play action and Heaps' pass was dead on- hit the receiver right in the hands and he dropped it. The play call was brilliant, as it would have resulted in a first down and then some, as the utes had over-committed on the run. It is also a normally high percentage play. Heaps was completing 70% of his passes which is dang near perfect when you consider intentional out of bounds throws or whatever. And the receiver just dropped the ball. The play call was a GREAT call, as it caught the ute defense totally by surprise. It was also risky, playing to win, instead of not losing. But it was a good call.


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## HighNDry (Dec 26, 2007)

I'm not a guru on this stuff so maybe someone who has played can give insights. Do you think players ever get the play from the sideline and then look at each other and mumble, "What? Why is he calling that play?" and then half-minded run the play without much effort because they disagree with the call?

Can another coach (head coach) overrule what is being called? Can a player call timeout and ask for clarification and maybe ask for another play to be called? Can a QB option out of the play at the line? Can the defense actually rise up and snuff the play out with more aggression because of the circumstances and critical nature of the point in the game? 

What is Anae's record with play calling in the last 5 years? When the Y was going 10-2 every year was there an outrage on his play calling or is this all coming out because of the 7-6 season? 

Does a head coach who couldn't make up his mind in the first 5 games on who the QB should be take some responsibility on having an OC that didn't know what to call because he wasn't sure who was being shuttled in at QB? Mendenhall is taking the blame for that. I see that coaching error as more detrimental to this season than one stupid loss to Utah. I think Bronco cost the Y some games early on. Now he's some kind of folk hero for supposedly pulling out the season. I'm not buying it.

What about this scenario: Word gets out that other schools are looking at Dolman and the Y is now trying to find a way to keep him. Bronco is leaving for vacation in Mexico and tells all the coaches that they should upgrade their resumes and be prepared for some changes. The media gets the leak and blows the whole thing out of proportion. 

What about this scenerio: A few X-BYU football jocks strole into town looking for work (maybe Detmer, Mahe, and Calhoun), Bronco mentions this to the other coaches and they get paronoid and start throwing different scenerios out the media grabs a few and runs with them.


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## mm73 (Feb 5, 2010)

GaryFish said:


> The play call was brilliant... It was also risky.


I don't follow your logic Gary. It may have fooled the Utah defense (and I am not convinced that it did - as I remember Hoffman had a defender draped all over him), but that does not mean it was brilliant. As you said yourself, it was risky, and that is why it was the wrong call in that situation. They only needed a few inches so there was no need to throw the ball and risk an incompletion, or worse an interception. The smartest thing would have been to just kick the field goal, but if you are going to go for it the best odds of getting the first down in that situation would have been to use your big offensive line and just pound it up the middle with either a handoff or a quarterback keep. The play action pass would have been fine on 1st or 2nd down, but not on 3rd down and certainly not on 4th down.

Sure, BYU had other chances to win, and players just failed to make plays, and those failures cannot possibly be blamed on Anae. But that one play, more than any other, changed the complexion of the game. Before it BYU was in control and had all the momentum, but after it the momentum shifted towards Utah where it remained for the rest of the game.

Now I am not saying Anae should be fired for that one play, or that one game, or even that one season. But over the last 6 seasons Anae has demonstrated that he is too predictable and lacks creativity or innovation. He is also not very personable and is not well liked according to several former players. He is fine if you are content to be an above average MWC offense, but BYU is striving to be better than that and Anae is just the OC to take them there. That is just my opinion, and apparently there are many others who share it.


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## mm73 (Feb 5, 2010)

HighNDry said:


> Does a head coach who couldn't make up his mind in the first 5 games on who the QB should be take some responsibility on having an OC that didn't know what to call because he wasn't sure who was being shuttled in at QB? Mendenhall is taking the blame for that. I see that coaching error as more detrimental to this season than one stupid loss to Utah. I think Bronco cost the Y some games early on. Now he's some kind of folk hero for supposedly pulling out the season. I'm not buying it.


Many people close to the situation have disclosed that Anae favored Nelson while Doman favored Heaps and the two could not agree on who should be named the starter so they came up with the compromise and Bronco just went along with it. I don't know if that is true or not, but I do know that Bronco was not involved in the offense very much. He takes responsibility publicly for mishandling the QB situation because he is the head coach, but in reality he was just trusting his coordinator and QB coach, and I am willing to bet he sees now who was correct and who was not.


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## Huge29 (Sep 17, 2007)

mm73 said:


> GaryFish said:
> 
> 
> > The play call was brilliant... It was also risky.
> ...


A coaches job is very complex! Just because a receiver drops the ball certainly does not mean it was a good or bad call, having thrown it to the side where an awesome CB was certainly should have been changed to the other side or possibly a different receiver. 
One instance in which I can think of where I disagreed with Anae was on that final drive at about the 50 yard line where he called two runs right down the middle on 1st and 2nd downs. In the end, it worked out great as it burned time off of the clock, but there is not a worse type of play to run in that situation against that team. I can't think of any other instance in which Anae disappointed me from memory. It is interesting how things are so criticized when things have fallen apart due to numerous factors, but many serious issues go ignored when the results are good. I feel a similar scenario in the banking industry, a few years ago there was appreciation like crazy and even though there were loans made that were totally fraudulent they kind of carried on, but now that appreciation is gone, the same FDIC/Congress who previously criticized banks for not being aggressive enough now criticizes the banks for doing what they were told to do and every loan is criticized greatly for minuscule issues that were all previously ignored. In the meanwhile, many banks have been very consistent in what they are doing all along, but since the economy crapped out primarily due to what the FDIC/OCC/Congress forced banks into doing, they are now criticized to no end. A cycle, I reckon!

Okay, off my soapbox.


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## willfish4food (Jul 14, 2009)

I think the reason Anae is taking flack this year is because he finally had a team that couldn't make his bad play calling work. I've never liked Anae's calling. I don't think he plays to the strengths of his team very well and I don't think he hides what's coming very well. As evidenced in the Utah game, when he comes out in certain formations you know a run is coming. 

In the past he's had good enough players that no matter what he called they could make it work. With the talent that's been at BYU during his tenure I could have been calling the offense and the ball would have moved down the field; you didn't NEED a good OC. This year that wasn't the case. For most of the season he had a freshman quarterback that didn't have the confidence to check out of play's, receivers that dropped balls, and no running back that could break four or five tackles running up the middle. At the beginning of the year the OC had to be good to win games; Anae is not very good, and it showed in BYU's record. It's the same as with Hill as DC. He was good enough in years past when the offense was on the field long enough to give the defense breaks and giving up some points didn't mean the game was lost. In the case of Hill, Bronco himself said that the termination was overdue, but in the past they were winning games and he didn't see the need to change things up. I'm pretty sure that's the same situation we are seeing with Anae. The change is overdue and this year showed it.


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## Riverrat77 (Sep 7, 2007)

There was an article in the Tribune today about this and Mr. Monson called out Bronco for his lack of tact in dealing with the situation. Not sure what to say about that... just paraphrasing part of the article that says the school still insists nobody has been released yet sources say that some coaches were strongly encouraged to seek employment elsewhere and conveniently, Bronco is unavailable for comment.


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## mm73 (Feb 5, 2010)

Yes I read that as well, and all I can say about it is Gordon Monson seems to make his living by impugning the character of others, particularly people at BYU. It takes a small man to call someone else "dishonest" when he knows very few if any of the facts about the situation. I am not a Bronco apologist either. Sometimes the man does or says things that I don't like, but I do not think he is a dishonest man. We know very little about this whole situation and how it is being handled except what one reporter, Dick Harmon, has leaked to the press. We will have to wait until this whole thing shakes out before we can judge Bronco for his handling of it.

RR, just to be clear, I am not commenting on you or your comments, just the stupid column you are referring to.

willfish4food, very good post.


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## HighNDry (Dec 26, 2007)

willfish4food said:


> I think the reason Anae is taking flack this year is because he finally had a team that couldn't make his bad play calling work. I've never liked Anae's calling. I don't think he plays to the strengths of his team very well and I don't think he hides what's coming very well. As evidenced in the Utah game, when he comes out in certain formations you know a run is coming.
> 
> In the past he's had good enough players that no matter what he called they could make it work. With the talent that's been at BYU during his tenure I could have been calling the offense and the ball would have moved down the field; you didn't NEED a good OC. This year that wasn't the case. For most of the season he had a freshman quarterback that didn't have the confidence to check out of play's, receivers that dropped balls, and no running back that could break four or five tackles running up the middle. At the beginning of the year the OC had to be good to win games; Anae is not very good, and it showed in BYU's record. It's the same as with Hill as DC. He was good enough in years past when the offense was on the field long enough to give the defense breaks and giving up some points didn't mean the game was lost. In the case of Hill, Bronco himself said that the termination was overdue, but in the past they were winning games and he didn't see the need to change things up. I'm pretty sure that's the same situation we are seeing with Anae. The change is overdue and this year showed it.


So with this anology, do you think Anae could get better? Can he learn to be better just like the players? I mean come on, we allow the players to grow and develop but an OC doesn't get that chance (maybe he did with the 5 years or so he has been OC). I'm just saying, we see these men in sports get tossed around when they don't do the job they were hired to do and then we replace them like some game piece. How do any of us become good at something ? Are OCs just born gifted or do they learn through the years like the rest of us. So was it Crowton that was a bad head coach or was there some other factors involved like players that didn't like his style or personality or whatever? He goes down to LSU as the OC and they win a National Championship. Was it Crowton's play calling or just superior athletes? Listen, football is way to demensional to put the blame on one or two people. I don't buy into your idea that winning is good players making bad coaches look good because they can make a bad play work.


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## Dodger (Oct 20, 2009)

Could Anae get better? Yes. Does he get the same chance to do so as the players? No. The players are 19-24, most of them. They are still learning, growing, and developing in the game. We expect more from a mature coach. They're not just coaches because they've exhausted their eligibility, they are coaches because we expect that they know more about the game than their young players.

We hire coaches to perform, not to get better. It's the nature of the job and real life in the workforce. Perform or find another job. We don't have time for an OC to learn how to do the job.

Crowton may be an awesome OC but he sucked as a head coach.


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## willfish4food (Jul 14, 2009)

HighNDry said:


> So with this anology, do you think Anae could get better? Can he learn to be better just like the players?
> Sure he can learn. The question is does the rest of the coaching staff, players, school, fans, etc. want to wait around while he does. In collage football, where players don't get paid for what they do, if a player is not cutting it he gets benched. However, no matter what the situation, when people get paid for what they do and they're not getting the job done they get fired.
> 
> I mean come on, we allow the players to grow and develop but an OC doesn't get that chance (maybe he did with the 5 years or so he has been OC).
> ...


I think I understand where you're coming from. I really don't think that the bad start of this season is ALL on Anae's shoulders. There was a lot going on and it certainly wasn't all his fault. But at the same time I don't think he did anything to help the situation either.


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## Riverrat77 (Sep 7, 2007)

mm73 said:


> RR, just to be clear, I am not commenting on you or your comments, just the stupid column you are referring to.


No worries man.... I didn't take it that way. When I read the column, I didn't agree with it either because I don't think Mendenhall is that kind of person either. I'm sure there is a lot going on behind closed doors that the press just doesn't have access to. Its never cool to see somebody lose their job but changes probably do need to be made to exercise the full potential of BYU's offense.


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