Sam Anno
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| Sam Anno | |
|---|---|
| Date of birth: | January 26, 1965 |
| Place of birth: |  Silver Spring, Maryland |
| Career information | |
| Position(s): | LB |
| Height: | 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m) |
| Weight: | 230 lb (104 kg) |
| College: | Southern California |
| NFL Draft: | 1986 / Round: Undrafted |
| Organizations | |
| As player: | |
| 1987-1987 1987-1988 1989-1991 1992-1993 |
Los Angeles Rams Minnesota Vikings Tampa Bay Buccaneers San Diego Chargers |
| Career highlights and Awards | |
| Honors: | NFL Special Teams Player of the Year, 1989 |
| Stats at DatabaseFootball.com | |
| Sam Anno | |
|---|---|
| Position(s) | Special Teams Graduate Assistant |
| Team(s) as a coach/administrator | |
| 1996-1999 2000-2001 2004 2005-present |
Saint Monica Catholic High School Assistant Coach Santa Monica High School Defensive Coordinator Venice High School Assistant Coach USC Trojans Special Teams Graduate Assistant |
Sam Anno (born January 26, 1965 Silver Spring, Maryland) is the special teams coach for the USC Trojans.
Contents |
[edit] Coaching career
Prior to coaching at USC, Anno coached at Santa Monica, Venice and St. Monica High School between 1996 and 2004. He is a former Samohi, USC and NFL player who was an assistant on coach Norm Lacy's championship teams at both Samohi and St. Monica. Anno played a key role in comforting the USC football team and staff when he broke the news to the team of the death USC placekicker (whom Anno coached) Mario Danelo in 2007. His body was found at the bottom of a rocky cliff, and police investigated his death as an accident or possible suicide. The notion that Danelo could take his own life was so unbelievable to Anno that he went to the site near the Point Fermin Lighthouse from where Danelo apparently fell. Anno saw the slippery ice plants, the jutting rocks and the loose ground on the other side of the 4-foot concrete barrier where plenty of people went, despite the "Danger: Do Not Enter" signs. Anno told the story of the former Trojan walk-on's beginnings as a kicker during his San Pedro High career as an All-City linebacker. Danelo had asked his father, former NFL kicker Joe Danelo, whose father kicked for the Giants and the Buffalo Bills to teach him.
"His father told Mario, 'I'll help you kick if you're up and have a bag of balls,'" Anno said. "And every morning at 3 a.m., Mario would be at the door with a bag of balls, and they'd go kick at the high school in the dark until 5 a.m." Anno is currently a Graduate Assistant on Pete Carroll's staff at USC.
[edit] Professional career
Anno played in the NFL between 1987 and 1994 as a linebacker,longsnapper and special teams player for the Los Angeles Rams, Minnesota Vikings, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and San Diego Chargers. Spent three seasons as the Bucs' long-snapper and special teams' captain. Notionally a linebacker by position, he saw hardly any playing time at that spot for Tampa Bay behind heralded veterans such as Hardy Nickerson. Anno was a very popular member of the Bucs with the fans. He went on to fulfill the same roles with San Diego after leaving the Bucs. He was the leading special teams tackler on all of his previous teams. Anno was voted team captain for three years during his career. The special teams tackle records he set still stand today with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. In 1989, players from the NFL voted him NFL SPECIAL TEAMS PLAYER OF THE YEAR while he was at Tampa Bay.
Anno was on the 1991 Tampa Bay Buccanners squad the year that former Santa Monica High School Vikings Quarterback Pat O'Hara (1984) was drafted by the Bucs (10, 260). I was just in junior high school then and even though I didn't know him personally, I knew of him," said [Pat O'Hara], who grew up a mile from [Sam Anno]. "Everyone knew who he was. Sam was a legend."
"It was really weird when I found out that they had drafted Pat," said Anno, who was about to enter his third season with the Buccaneers. "I said, `No way . . . I can't believe that Pat is coming here.' "
Anno and O'Hara renewed their friendship at Tampa Bay. O'Hara spent most of the season on the team's development squad and Anno led the Buccaneers in tackles on special teams.
[edit] College career
Anno played linebacker during college in 1987 at USC alongside All-American linebackers Jack Del Rio and Duane Bickett. Jack Del Rio who is currently the head coach for the NFL Jacksonville Jaguars would be reunited years later in the NFL where Anno and Del Rio played for the Minnesota Vikings. Anno played for Ted Tollner, who ironically, was dismissed seven years ago from Southern Cal despite a winning record. Tollner replaced John Robinson as coach at Southern Cal in 1983. He led the Trojans to a Rose Bowl victory over Ohio State after the 1984 season. But he went 0-4 against Notre Dame and was 1-3 against UCLA and was fired after the 1986 season with a 26-20-1 record ending in a Citrus Bowl loss to Auburn a 16-7 victory over Southern Cal in the Florida Citrus Bowl. dismissed (the first USC coach to be terminated since Jeff Cravath in 1950) following the end of the regular season, effective after the Citrus Bowl. Brent Fullwood, the consensus all-America senior tailback, ran for 152 yards and a touchdown also ran for 52 yards on 10 carries on Auburn's first scoring drive. Then he ran 4 yards for the go-ahead touchdown in the second quarter. A day following the January 1 Citrus Bowl, Arizona coach Larry Smith was named as Tollner’s replacement.
Anno holds the All-Time Tackle Record at USC for a single game with 23 tackles against Illinois in 1986. He also obtained his Masters Degree from USC in Athletic Administration.
[edit] High School Career
Anno prepped at St. Monica High School and then at Santa Monica High School in Southern California where he was recruited to play football at USC. During his tenure at Santa Monica High, actors Charlie Sheen and Dean Cain, also alumni of Santa Monica High School, were teammates and good friends of Sam Anno.
He was also teammates in high school with fellow Santa Monica High standout USC linebacker Keith Davis and Arizona State standout safety Darren Willis and free safety Junior Thurman who eventually (along with Anno) transferred to USC after playing football at West LA College. He starred as a player on the 1982 CIF championship football team and also played defense with Dean Cain, who starred as a defensive back on the 1981-82 team that beat Long Beach Poly 21-8 before accepting a scholarship to play football at Princeton University.
