...in coming back. Things like having the autonomy to hire my own assistant coaches so that I didn't have to have Bronco's choices on my staff would certainly help.

Anae's relationship with Holmoe is tight, the bond that many of those guys from 1984's National Championship team have is extremely tight. It was Holmoe who hired Anae at the same time Bronco was hired (a strange move but it worked) back in 2005. They trust each other.

If TH was frustrated enough by the lack of direction the offense had taken after Bronco fired Anae and promoted Doman, and the whole Riley Nelson Bromance by Bronco, that he came out publicly back in October of 2012 saying the team disappointed and under-performed, that there were chemistry problems with the coaches (he said, "You can't just snap your fingers or give them some good words and think that they're going to come around."), specifically cited Riley's poor QB play as hurting the outcome of the team, and that things wouldn't be fully fixed until after the season.

When asked by Jay Drew about TH's comments and the rumored changes at the end of the season, neither Bronco or Doman knew anything about it. There's a strong likelihood that history repeated itself and TH again reached out to Anae and cashed in a marker from that friendship and asked him personally to come back.

I don't believe Anae would go back if just Bronco had called him because Bronco was the guy that fired him/told him to aggressively find another job in the first place. I think it took someone he trusted.