Tom Holmoe: The best BYU AD

[Viking]

Our football record is extremely impressive. Our basketball program is underrated and on the rise. Our other sports fare very well, too (generally).

Tom Holmoe deserves a significant tip of the hat for an amazing job. I think he is better than any AD we've ever had...and Tuckett was great.

[Surfah]

Our football record is extremely impressive. Our basketball program is underrated and on the rise. Our other sports fare very well, too (generally).

Tom Holmoe deserves a significant tip of the hat for an amazing job. I think he is better than any AD we've ever had...and Tuckett was great.

He needs to be lauded. Especially for hiring Bronco and Rose.

[jay santos]

Our football record is extremely impressive. Our basketball program is underrated and on the rise. Our other sports fare very well, too (generally).

Tom Holmoe deserves a significant tip of the hat for an amazing job. I think he is better than any AD we've ever had...and Tuckett was great.

I have zero respect for Holmoe. He's a yes man. Worse, he's a yes man that knew he had to be a yes man to accept the job. He couldn't even hire the football coach he wanted. Does he have a vision for the athletic department? Does he have a scheduling strategy? The answer is no as far as I know. Rose and Bronco create the vision and the scheduling strategy for their sports. They run it up the flag pole to someone higher than Holmoe to get it approved.

[Surfah]

I have zero respect for Holmoe. He's a yes man. Worse, he's a yes man that knew he had to be a yes man to accept the job. He couldn't even hire the football coach he wanted. Does he have a vision for the athletic department? Does he have a scheduling strategy? The answer is no as far as I know. Rose and Bronco create the vision and the scheduling strategy for their sports. They run it up the flag pole to someone higher than Holmoe to get it approved.

While I'd love a more Rondo-like guy, BYU's AD needs to be a Yes man to survive.

And I am not sure not getting Whittingham can be laid at his feet.

[jay santos]

While I'd love a more Rondo-like guy, BYU's AD needs to be a Yes man to survive.

And I am not sure not getting Whittingham can be laid at his feet.

I don't blame Holmoe for that, because he wasn't even involved in the process though if we had a real AD at the time, the AD would have been involved and likely would have gotten the KW deal done. Everyone was in Hawaii at the time. Holmoe was back at BYU like the Home Alone kid. He had trouble getting Skousen and Samuelson to even return his calls.

I'm talking after we lost out on Whittingham. He wanted Reynolds. Looking back, it was the right decision. But Holmoe didn't make it.

[SeattleUte]

In each instance he hired the only qualified candidate that was available. He hasn't criss-crossed the country chasing recruits or pandered to their mamas. He hasn't endured the boiling heat of two a days. He hasn't fired up the players. He hasn't sweat bullets on the sidelines or called a single play. He hasn't worried the logistics of HC enforcement. He hasn't suffered the nerve and organ damage inherent in the job. He hasn't done squat! He's a paper pusher. AD's are so overrated.

[cougjunkie]

In each instance he hired the only qualified candidate that was available. He hasn't criss-crossed the country chasing recruits or pandered to their mamas. He hasn't endured the boiling heat of two a days. He hasn't fired up the players. He hasn't sweat bullets on the sidelines or called a single play. He hasn't worried the logistics of HC enforcement. He hasn't suffered the nerve and organ damage inherent in the job. He hasn't done squat! He's a paper pusher. AD's are so overrated.

Actually he did do that for Cal, left he program in shambles and on probation.

[All-American]

In each instance he hired the only qualified candidate that was available. He hasn't criss-crossed the country chasing recruits or pandered to their mamas. He hasn't endured the boiling heat of two a days. He hasn't fired up the players. He hasn't sweat bullets on the sidelines or called a single play. He hasn't worried the logistics of HC enforcement. He hasn't suffered the nerve and organ damage inherent in the job. He hasn't done squat! He's a paper pusher. AD's are so overrated.

Would you say the same thing about Dr. Hill?

[SeattleUte]

Would you say the same thing about Dr. Hill?

I have said much the same thing about Dr. Hill. But unlike Holmoe, he's had a lot of hiring options, and decisions to make. Hill also won the bidding war with BYU for Whittingham, in a complicated situation.

Hill found Rick Majerus and and Urban Meyer in relative obscurity and hired them. Majerus and Urban Meyer were terrific hires. I think Boylen, another relative unknown, was a very good hire; we'll see if he's terrific. Giacoletti was a disasterous hire; we're still paying for it. I'll never forgive Hill for that. Credit him, though, for seeing the catastrophic pipeline and firing Giacoletti only two years after the Sweet 16 and MWC title, which got the pundits and coaching fraternity lathered.

He waited 2-3 years too long to fire Ron McBride. But somehow he got Urban Meyer to retain Kyle Whittingham as the defensive coordinator. Kyle was a terrific hire, and as I said, Hill well handled a tough and delicate situation in the bidding war with BYU. However, I think that Utah had to win that contest. It had no choice under the circumstances and Kyle probably could have named his price within reason. Had the situation been less desparate, I'm not at all convinced Hill would have even wanted to hire Whittingham.

[Katy Lied]

I wasn't very happy with Holmoe when he first came in. I didn't like his politicking, which was very similar to early episodes of Survivor. He'd make a friend, take that person onto his side, spend all their political capital, and then stab them in the back and jump over their dead bodies in his climb to the top.

A few years ago, when there was that very controversial firing of the men's volleyball coach, I called him and left a message about how unhappy I was at the way that whole mess was handled. He called me back the next night and talked to me for 30 minutes (he said he was driving home at the time). I still think that he should and could have handled it better, but I appreciated that he cared about my opinion. I was surprised about how emotional and open he was in explaining his side of the issue.

So I feel better about him now. And no doubt the athletic dept is better off for it, although I still am bothered by how he got to the AD position.

Plus, it was funny when my husband walked in during the end of the conversation, and interestedly asked me who I had been talking to, to casually say "Oh, that was Tom Holmoe."

[All-American]

Holmoe has the regrettable task of trying to keep BYU fans happy. By assuming this unenviable task, he has earned our sympathy, if not our gratitude and admiration.

I've been impressed by how responsive he is to fans. I don't always agree with the decisions he makes, but he goes to great lengths to explain how and why he came to the decision. If being a "yes man" means he gets his hands out of the inner workings of a program and gives a capable head coach full control of the reigns, then maybe having a yes man for an AD isn't such a bad thing.

In the end, this is the guy overseeing an athletics program that is churning out a great product year in and year out. He's gotta be doing something right.

[Surfah]

In the end, this is the guy overseeing an athletics program that is churning out a great product year in and year out. He's gotta be doing something right.

My feeling as well. If he's the yes man that will keep the admin happy and serve as a buffer between them and Bronco and Rose so they can do their thing, I am happy.