While waiting for spring practices to start, I've been perusing a few sites and come across several comments about what will happen with the offense this fall. Besides the question of the impact of Mendenhall's leadership on the program overall, it's the biggest unknown facing BYU football fans. Some have expressed optimism about the success that BYU will have, feeling that Anae will implement "the Texas Tech" offense and that BYU will immediately regain their prominence as a passing offense, school, and machine. Others say that Anae is "inexperienced" and can't be relied upon until it's proven that he can handle play calling. I can see where both views have some merit, but I myself think that in Robert Anae, BYU's got a real gem of a coach - sure, he'll take some polishing, but it's what he's made of that's important.

Let me make it plain. I think that Robert Anae will be successful as BYU's OC this season. Like coaches stress to their players, it's the fundamentals that are important. What's at the root of Anae's ability?

Football knowledge - Anae as both a player and a coach has been at the heart of some very successful offenses and programs. While studious enough to obtain his doctoral degree, he has applied his intellectual talents towards molding players from the ground up and enhancing offensive schemes.

Teaching ability - Anae seems to have a rare talent of building relationships with his players while instilling intensity and drive. Before the '04 Holiday Bowl, one of his former players at TTech said...

"I think everybody would agree that (Anae's) done a lot to help everybody out as far as developing them as players," center Dylan Gandy said. "What he tries to develop is not only our physical ability, but also our mental toughness. That's an extreme focus of his."

Tech has three starting, fifth-year senior offensive linemen, Daniel Loper, Cody Campbell and Gandy, who played their entire careers for Anae.

Now it's the last Tech game for all of them.

"I think he would want us to just stay focused and not think about that at all, just worry about beating Cal," Gandy said. "But just naturally, I think a little bit will come (into play) with that. We definitely want to send him out on a good note as we send ourselves out, too."

http://www.redraiders.com/stories/122704/foo_122704013.shtml

Flexibility -Anae has made it a practice not to merely take what is given to him, but to study it, enhance it, and implement what works. At the Bleachers Grill talk when asked about the new offense, he said he would first see what the players are capable of, then implement plays accordingly.

My impression of Anae is that he has a solid core of fierce determination to succeed. If Coach Mendenhall wanted someone to help instill the mentality of stripling warriors in the offense, he got the right one to do it.

CougarBandit

My impression of Anae is that at he has a solid core of fierce determination to succeed. If Coach Mendenhall wanted someone to help instill the mentality of stripling warriors in the offense, he got the right one to do it.

Stripling Warriors?
Is Anae trying to put together a group of young guys who talk about their moms a lot?
I'm LDS and a huge BYU fan, but I have to say, I can't stop laughing at the idea of thinking of our football team as the new stripling warriors. I wonder if anyone in Provo understands how silly that sounds.

I know that it sounds funny out of context. I haven't lived in Provo all my life and I appreciate the confusion it would cause among non-LDS if the football team named themselves after the stripling warriors. OTOH, try laughing about Anae's mom in front of him in a way he doesn't see as funny and you might come away with a different perspective of what a stripling warrior is. :wink:

As far as I know, their are no plans to rename the team or to publicly use the title of stripling warriors. It is merely being used as an internal teaching aid by Bronco to get his point across to the players. I'm sure he gives them some context to go along with it.

We don't need to go overboard with the stripling warrior analogy, but when I hear the term, I don't think of momma's boys. I think of young men who are convinced that if they do the right thing, they will succeed. Not a bad attitude for a football team to have.

And I think of men who may get banged up, but when the battle is over, it's their opponents who are dead, not them.

So I suppose bringing in the stripling warrior analogy isn't all that silly. What would ya'll have preferred?

One other thing--we could change from cougars to the stripling warriors and form some sort of partnership with the UHawaii Rainbow Warriors.