Anae staying put at Virginia

By Jerry Ratcliffe

Virginia offensive coordinator Robert Anae announced Tuesday that he has pulled his name from consideration for the head coaching job at the University of Hawaii and is staying put.

“After careful consideration I am withdrawing my application for the Hawaii head football coach position,” Anae said. “I have been overwhelmed with the commitment by Coach [Bronco] Mendenhall and the leadership of (athletics director) Carla Williams. I am excited and energized to close out our recruiting class as we continue our quest for the conference championship.”

Anae’s announcement came after a weekend when he was in Honolulu to discuss taking the Hawaii job to replace Nick Rolovich, who left to become head coach at Washington State after Mike Leach was hired by Mississippi State. The Rainbows went 10-5 last season and defeated BYU in a bowl game.

Anae, 61, is a native Hawaiian and played at Kahuku High School in 1977. After a career as an offensive lineman at BYU, he began his coaching career at Hawaii under Bob Wagner, then later became an assistant coach at Boise State, UNLV, Texas Tech, Arizona and BYU before coming to Virginia four years ago with Mendenhall.

Rainbows athletic director David Matlin said his desire was to hire a head coach that had ties to Hawaii and a solid offensive scheme.

Virginia’s offense, paced by quarterback Bryce Perkins, set a program modern-day record of 449 points this past season in 14 games. Anae runs a version of Mike Leach’s “Air Raid” offense, which Anae learned as an assistant to Leach at Texas Tech.

He is a three-time Frank Broyles Award nominee for Assistant Coach of the Year (nominated at BYU, Texas Tech and Arizona) during his career. Anae was an offensive lineman on BYU’s 1984 National Championship team and has coached at eight schools during his 30-year career.

The offensive coordinator came under fire late in the 2018 season after back-to-back road losses at Georgia Tech and Virginia Tech for being too conservative, then again midway through this season when Perkins’ backup, Brennan Armstrong, was injured and the offensive calls also returned to a conservative nature, particularly in a low-scoring loss at Miami when the Cavaliers had six visits within the red zone and came away with a mere three field goals.

Oddly, Anae was considered a candidate for the Miami offensive coordinator’s job after the season but was not offered the job.