Watch Holiday Bowl for Anae, Tech's offense

SAN DIEGO, Calif. — Robert Anae can give folks back in Utah a list of reasons to watch the Holiday Bowl tonight. It's the 20th anniversary of BYU's victory over Michigan that led to a mythical national championship.

Anae and 42 Cougar teammates are on hand to remember and be honored as guests of the bowl. While his former teammates are on vacation, Anae is working the sidelines. Also a point of interest around these parts is a peek at the Texas Tech's offense, of which Anae is the line coach. It may be a preview of what Anae will install in Provo now that he's the new offensive coordinator.

But Anae's first duty is to do everything he can to help 7-4 Texas Tech defeat 10-1 California, a team that should have been in a BCS bowl this weekend. Oddsmakers predict Cal will win by more than 11 points.

Anae hopes the Red Raiders from the Big 12 will display the precision that won them the 2004 NCAA passing title, averaging 388.7 yards passing per game.

It is a spread offense that hung 70 points on both Nebraska and TCU this past season.

It is an offense Red Raider's head coach Mike Leach, a former BYU student, helped former Valdosta State coach Hal Mumme install, then carry to Kentucky for quarterback Tim Couch. Leach then took it with him to Oklahoma and quarterback Josh Heupel. Mumme used to hang around BYU spring football in the '80s, and that's where he met Leach.

It is an offense, in a yet-to-be tweaked and adapted form, that will become the future at BYU. In a sense, Cougar football will return to its roots but in a high-tech, Playstation, 21st-century kind of way.

Say what?

Simply put by Anae, what he intends for BYU is not Playstation, a label Leach has caught in Lubbock. Anae envisions an offense based on what he labeled "effort and precision rather than genius."

It is an offense called Playstation, because of its gaudy numbers posted in pass attempts, completions, yards and points. Blockers take wide gaps, and formations go from sideline to sideline.

Again, Anae believes it's more than formations.

"It's been begged and borrowed from a lot of places," Leach said. "A lot is similar to Kentucky, kind of borrowed from the West Coast offense ideas like from BYU when they were throwing it a lot and the run-and-shoot people like Mouse Davis back in the day. Then we've put in any plays that we felt attacked the field and got the ball into everybody's hands without being too complicated."