BYU football: Cougar, Bruin assistant coaches cut from same Hawaiian cloth

They were born more than two decades apart. One is in the twilight of a storied career; the other guy is just starting to hang his hat on some big numbers and players.

But Norm Chow and Robert Anae are bark off the same tree.

Offensive coordinators R Us.

The master and the student meet in a surreal encounter on Saturday.

Some would argue Chow is the master, but calling Anae the student is way off base. Anae has the No. 3-ranked passing offense (412 ypg) and No. 1 receiver (Dennis Pitta) in the NCAA this week.

Chow is a hired gun, brought on board by UCLA's Rick Neuheisel to once again create a high-powered offense.

The two Hawaiian play-callers will be on center stage when UCLA's Chow returns to Provo, where he and BYU's Anae will kick off a game of chess going against opposing defenses.

Both grew up on Hawaii's island of Oahu. Chow attended the private Punahoe High in Honolulu, and Anae went to public school an hour away on the north shore at Kahuku.

Neither were quarterbacks. Chow was an offensive lineman at Utah. Anae played guard and center at BYU.

Both had key roles on BYU's early 1980s run of conference championships, bowl victories and a national championship in Provo. Their histories are intertwined; their backgrounds knotted together like rope. Both shared

time in the LaVell Edwards era that included four WAC titles and a 43-7 record from 1981 to 1984.

Both have strong personalities. Both are well-educated. In fact, both are doctors, as Chow has a Ph.D. in education and Anae has his doctorate in sociology. They are outspoken, sometimes even stubborn. They also can be a little shy, but a little behind-the-scenes kind of guys both are supremely confident, and friends say they are very focused in their approach to their jobs.

Anae has been criticized as a play-caller in Provo, but Chow was the ultimate target of many BYU fans throughout his career in Provo, where fans used him as a tethered goat because Edwards was off-limits, but Chow was fair game after losses.

Chow could tell Anae, "Heat, Robert? You've had a candle; I've felt fusion."