One tough coach: New Y. offensive coordinator Anae is all business

Thirty-five years ago, Joel Tuialeva used to walk by Robert Anae and his older brother Brad and flick their ears.

The Anae brothers were water boys for the Kahuku High School football team in Hawaii. Not yet old enough to play, the Anae brothers hung around the squad and helped manage equipment. Tuialeva was a linebacker and the Red Raider coach, Famika Anae, was Brad and Robert's dad. When Coach Famika didn't play Tuialeva, he'd take it out on his boys, teasing them with the pesty finger flick.

That was before the Anae boys grew. And grew and grew. Now, Tuialeva doesn't mess with the Anae boys. He speaks in reverent tones about his coach, the late Famika Anae, who passed on 22 years ago.

"This is a great family and Robert is the rock, the anchor of them all," Tuialeva said.

Robert Anae was the first hire by Bronco Mendenhall as he took the reins of BYU football when Gary Crowton resigned under pressure. The former offensive line coach at Texas Tech, Anae was promoted to offensive coordinator by Mendenhall and expects the big Samoan and native of Hawaii's north shore to follow in the footsteps of Crowton, Norm Chow, Mike Holmgren, and Doug Scovil.

Anae is a serious man, all business. His sense of humor is subtle, maybe a little sarcastic. He is part John Wayne, part Vin Diesel with some Norm Chow mixed in.

When asked for a 45-minute interview, Anae's reaction was both unpretentious and incredulous. "What do you need 45 minutes for? What can we do in 40 minutes that we can't in five? All you have to know about me is completing passes, third down conversions and no turnovers. There's not much more than that. I am not a teddy bear. I'm pretty much a boring guy."

In his spare time, Anae doesn't watch movies and he doesn't read a lot

of books. If he reads, it's the Book of Mormon, the Samoan translation. When he coached at Ricks College, some friends got him to try flyfishing and he liked it. But his favorite thing to do — if he had a choice — is to surf. His favorite food is ethnic Tongan-Samoan lupulu — with Hawaiian poi and corned beef, that and Texas brisket.

"The problem with me, is I hate talking about myself. I just plain hate talking about myself."

When BYU hired Anae, he had one big concern, that BYU wouldn't like his rough edges, his direct approach, his demanding style, his distaste for babying athletes who need just the opposite.

Anae coaches with an edge, he wasn't sure if BYU wanted that.