Y. coach came from Texas Tech: Red Raiders' offense had its way with Cal in last year's Holiday Bowl
By Patrick Kinahan
LAS VEGAS - One year ago Robert Anae faced a similar situation, on a coaching staff trying to determine the best ways to attack California's defense. The difference this year is he makes decisions, not suggestions. Twelve months removed from serving as Texas Tech's offensive line coach, Anae will call the plays for Brigham Young in Thursday's Las Vegas Bowl against California. The fact that the Red Raiders pounded Cal's defense last season doesn't mean much to Anae as he prepares BYU's offense. "It was so long ago, I don't know what I can draw," he said. "That game was the Holiday Bowl, this game is the Las Vegas Bowl. "That was a Cal defense full of a lot of seniors. I don't really draw that much. I just struggle to compare the two." Expected to play in the Rose Bowl as part of the Bowl Championship Series, the Bears lost out to Texas after Longhorns coach Mack Brown did a heavy dose of politicking. Ranked No. 4 going into the season's final week, Cal took a hit for beating Southern Miss by only 10 points in Hattiesburg, Miss. Texas Tech took advantage of Cal's bitter rejection and enjoyed a profilic game offensively. "We were a little disappointed last year because we expected to go to a BCS bowl," linebacker Ryan Foltz said. "That doesn't explain why we didn't play so well. We just picked the wrong time to play a mediocre game." Sonny Cumbie threw for a career-high 520 yards and three touchdowns in the 45-31 win last Dec. 30 in San Diego. The senior was 39 of 60, breaking Ty Detmer's Holiday Bowl record of 59 pass attempts. Trailing 14-7 after the first quarter, Texas Tech scored 24 unanswered points. Four scoring drives took less than two minutes each. Anae's indifference to the past hasn't stopped Cal coach Jeff Tedford from comparing the Cougars and last year's bowl opponent. "From what I have seen, maybe BYU runs the ball a little more than Tech did," he said. "[They are] very similar as far as what they are trying to get accomplished. They have a really good running back and they throw the ball to a tight end more than Texas Tech did. I think their personnel may be a little different, where Tech was a lot of four-wide
receiver type stuff."
As teams prepared for BYU this season, defensive coaches incorporated last season's Texas Tech games into their film study. At this point, Anae sees no reason for Cal to review the offensive philosophies of his former team. By now, he said, Cal defensive coordinator Bob Gregory has a good read on BYU's offense. The world can see Curtis Brown rushed for more than 1,000 yards and John Beck passed for 3,357 yards and 24 touchdowns. "I don't think they'll use one Texas Tech thing to prepare for us," Anae said. "There's too much material on us. There's 11 games worth of material. I bet they don't even look at Texas Tech film at all." Knowing Cal has pages of information on BYU doesn't faze Anae. His point is to emphasize execution over schematics. In other words, the Cougars won't line up with two running backs and one receiver. "Really good bowl teams do what they do," Anae said. "Very few guys that are good through the season will change.
"For example, if you're a throwing team going into the bowl game I doubt if you'll run the option, and if you do put in a couple of option plays I bet you're not very good at them.". We're going on the premise that what we want to do going into the bowl are things we do well." Cal had seven senior starters on defense in the Holiday Bowl. This year's depth chart lists only three seniors, including defensive backs Harrison Smith and Donnie McCleskey.
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