The “strong impression” came to 20-year BYU athletic director Tom Holmoe last July, but he’s not exactly sure of the precise day.
After several years of saying “let’s go one more (year), let’s go one more, let’s go another” to his wife of 42 years, Lori, Holmoe decided it was time to finally step away after 23 years of service to the school at which he also played football, coached with LaVell Edwards, and raised funds as an athletic department ambassador before he got the AD job in 2005.
“This is the right time,” Holmoe said Wednesday at a news conference in the BYU Broadcasting Building. “This is a really good time to make a smooth and effective and powerful transition. I sincerely believe that the pieces are in place for us to continue to really thrive. The Big 12 has been a special blessing for all of our teams. We all believe in the Big 12, the leadership of the Big 12.”
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The Holmoes told their four children about their joint decision last summer, and they weren’t on the same page at the time.
“They said no,” Holmoe said, chuckling. “And I said, look, whether we go 0-12, or 12-0, in football, this is my last season. But we are not going to go 0-12. I knew it.”
Of course, the Cougars went 11-2 in head coach Kalani Sitake’s ninth season, their second season in the Big 12, and defeated Colorado 34-16 in the Alamo Bowl.
Holmoe said he waited until two weeks after the football season to tell BYU president Shane Reese and BYU advancement vice president Keith Vorkink of his plans because he didn’t want it to be a “big distraction” for the football team and other teams.
Holmoe also revealed Wednesday that he has never had more than a one-year contract with BYU.
“I have never had a multi-year contract. I never asked for a multi-year contract. They never gave me a multi-year contract. And I didn’t want it that way,” he said. “I really wanted it to be where I had to work for my food. … My bosses through those years would slide the contract across the table when it was contract time and I would sign the contract without looking at it, or looking at what the terms were.”
Wait, what? How did Holmoe know the football team was going to be outstanding after it went 5-7 in 2023 and was facing an even more difficult schedule in 2024?
“Through the spring and winter conditioning in my talks with Kalani, I knew that we were going to have a good football team,” Holmoe said. “I will be honest and say I didn’t think we would reach the heights that Kalani and his team reached. But I believed that we were a bowl team. I saw it coming together. At that point in time I was just praying that it would come together, and it did. I am so super grateful for my sanity that it was just a sweet and special year.”
What’s next for Holmoe, and how will he stay involved?
Away from the cameras, Holmoe mentioned to several reporters that he expects the position to be filled quickly. But that doesn’t mean he is handing in his keys within the next week or two. His contract runs through August, and he intends to keep working until then.
“I told president right off the bat that I did sign up for another year (last August), so if he needed me to (work until) that day, I am in. But, I said, ‘It would probably be better for everybody getting someone in here sooner than later,” Holmoe said. “And that’s a good thing. So, if it takes a week or a month, or whatever the time is, when that new AD comes in and asks for the keys to my office, I will give them to him and then maybe be selling nachos at the Smith Fieldhouse for the rest of the time.”
At that point of the news conference, Reese interjected with a joke about him asking “our contracting staff” if they could change the year on Holmoe’s contract to a later date.
“I will say this: Tom’s willingness to be a part of our process going forward is incredible. It shows commitment to the institution,” Reese said. “Candidly, until then, it is going to be business as usual. We are in the throes of a very active basketball season. … We have an athletic department that needs to be run, and I am so grateful for Tom’s willingness to dig in and to treat this as another chapter of his incredible legacy that he is continuing to build at BYU.”
Then Holmoe mentioned that he was in Morgantown, West Virginia, on Tuesday night to watch the Cougars defeat the Mountaineers 73-69 and still hasn’t stopped working for, or supporting, BYU.
“I have the greatest job in the world. I really believe I have the best job in the world,” he said. “And to be able to see (coach) Kevin (Young) come running off the floor after the win (was incredible). … Just to embrace a coach that just fought like crazy to win a game, that’s my bliss, is being in the games, seeing the players coming through and looking at all their eyes. … How do you beat that? That’s hard to beat. That is the part I think I will miss.
“I will be in the stands with some of our donors and sponsors and friends, and Cougar Nation, and I will have plenty of opinions that I will state that I can’t really state right now,” Holmoe said, drawing laughter.
Did Holmoe endorse BYU deputy AD Brian Santiago?
Holmoe didn’t publicly endorse any candidates to be his replacement, but it is noteworthy that he did bring up the name of his deputy athletic director, Brian Santiago, when he was asked what challenges face his successor. He said the department has been working every day to plan for the future and deal with changes brought on by the transfer portal, NIL and the House settlement.
“I got a great team right now, and I have in the last year, and maybe even two (years) subconsciously knowing that this was going to come to an end soon, I have been turning over a lot of strength and power to my team. And I have a right-hand man, a wing man, B Santiago, and I have been giving him a lot of strength,” Holmoe said.
“So it is not like we are going to start from scratch. We are down the road quite a bit. They will make adjustments when I am not here, because I will be gone,” he said. “And that is a good thing to have people look at things in a different way. I am confident … that changes will happen naturally and in a normal way. We got this.”
As the Deseret News reported Tuesday, other possible candidates are BYU associate AD for development Chad Lewis (a former BYU football player), BYU senior associate AD and senior woman administrator Liz Darger, former BYU baseball player and longtime college athletics administrator Craig Angelos and former Utah State deputy AD Jerry Bovee.
Lewis and Darger attended Wednesday’s gathering, along with Utah Jazz owner Ryan Smith, former BYU basketball great Danny Ainge, Sitake, Young, women’s track and field and cross-country coach Diljeet Taylor, volleyball coach Shawn Olmstead and others.
Tuesday, KSLsports.com reported that another candidate could be Marc Hill, who is currently a deputy athletic director at the University of Kentucky and has been at that SEC school for 25 years. Hill is a member of the stake presidency in the Lexington, Kentucky, stake of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
President says BYU will conduct a national search
In his opening remarks, Reese praised Holmoe for guiding BYU athletics through some tumultuous times.
“From navigating (football) independence to more recently entering the Big 12, his legacy as a student-athlete, a coach, and an administrator, merits every accolade and celebration we have planned for him and his family,” Reese said.
The former associate professor of statistics who became BYU’s president in May 2023 said BYU is grateful that Holmoe has agreed to help during the transition “as we work to appoint an athletic director who will build on the legacy of Christlike leadership that Tom has set.”
Reese said the formal search process has already started.
“This formal search will focus on an individual who absolutely loves BYU, someone who bleeds blue,” Reese said. “… It will also focus on our distinct mission of both athletic excellence and spiritual development.”
Asked later if his statement that the successor must be passionate about BYU and its mission means that the school will look at internal candidates first, Reese reiterated that it will be a national search.
“We are going to cast a broad net with the intent of getting a person who is passionate, who bleeds blue, and (is) committed to the mission,” Reese said.
He noted that the candidates must understand BYU is sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints “and our connection with the (Church’s) Board of Trustees and having that alignment from top to bottom is an incredible asset.”
Reese said that alignment is a “strategic advantage” and had led to some special things this year.
“I think it is what led to some of the magic we saw with our (national championship) cross-country teams this year,” he said. “It is what led to this magical football season. It is the magic of this athletic program and I think that alignment matters critically. So that means we have got to be rigorous in our approach in searching for a replacement.”
Speaking of which, the president said there won’t be another AD like Holmoe.
“I don’t think you ever replace a man like Tom Holmoe. I think there is a successor in this role. But Tom Holmoe is an irreplaceable athletic director,” Reese said. “Twenty years an athletic director. I go around looking at Big 12 schools, and that is a rare individual.”
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