TOM HOLMOE PICKED up the phone on the first ring, which was no real surprise. This isn't someone you're going to catch unprepared. He was ready and waiting, having scheduled the interview several days ahead. Like any good coach and former player, he'd studied the situation and had a good idea what what was coming.
Holmoe, a former BYU and San Francisco 49ers defensive back, doesn't believe in leaving things to chance. Never did. When he was in college, he and teammate Dan Plater - both anticipating a career in medicine - had an exam coming up one Monday in a zoology class. The problem was, they also had a football game in Hawaii the previous Saturday. So they sneaked a shark cadaver out of the lab, stuffed it in an equipment bag and took it to Hawaii."We just kind of confiscated it," he said sheepishly.
Hawaii Five-0's Steve McGarrett himself couldn't have discovered the crime had it not been for the odor coming from the equipment bag. When it arrived in Honolulu, it had roughly the same aroma as sardines packed in formaldehyde.
"When we went through customs, they smelled something funny, and so they opened it up and saw it," said Holmoe. "We had a shark, a turtle and a couple of other critters. But we had a practical exam coming up. We had to know the anatomy of all those animals."
Returning the cadavers to school was out of the question, so the players took them to the hotel room, where they dissected them on a table. Both players aced the test the next Monday. And Room 1822 of the Princess Kaiulani Hotel may never smell the same.
Sixteen years later, Holmoe has another test looming. This time it's to see if he can bring Cal into football prominence in the Pac-10. It won't be an easy task. Last year Arizona State finished fourth in the national polls. Washington is ranked among the top three teams in most preseason polls this year. USC, UCLA and Arizona traditionally have Top 20 programs, and even Stanford has its years among the rankings.
Meanwhile, the Bears are seldom considered a contender. Hol-moe is the school's third coach in five years. At age 36, he's one of the youngest head coaches in the country.
In Holmoe, Cal got a young, smart, optimistic coach who projects the image the school wants. His recruiting skills are widely respected. At the same time, he has never been a head coach. As the team's defensive coordinator last year, he led the worst defense statistically in Cal history.
By some standards, Holmoe is out of his league. He has only seven years experience as an assistant. Most coaches are just getting used to the feel of polyester pants by the time they've worked seven years. Utah head coach Ron Mc-Bride was an assistant for 25 years before he got a head coaching job. But beating the odds is nothing new to Holmoe. Not even his college coach, LaVell Edwards, dreamed he'd last seven years in the NFL.
If short on experience, Holmoe isn't short on plans. Ask about his goals and he'll deliver a short dissertation on leadership and unity. He not only knows where he's going but how he's getting there and in whose vehicle. As a player coming out of college, he wasn't on anyone's A-list of NFL prospects. You could time his 40-yard run with a sundial. Still, he picked up three Super Bowl rings, playing both safety positions and on special teams.
He is a proponent of hard work, dedication (then again, who isn't?) and has deep philosophical convictions of what the college football experience should be. Cal has wagered a five-year contract he'll be able to transfer those qualities to its program.
Although Holmoe is a careful planner, even he couldn't have predicted his career path. Seven years in the NFL ended his ambition of going into medicine. Next he planned a career in sports administration. He had been accepted into the graduate programs at Ohio and Ohio State when Edwards asked if he wanted to join the Cougars as a graduate assistant.
"You know I couldn't turn down LaVell," he said.
The first game Holmoe ever coached at BYU was the Cougars' upset win over No. 1-ranked Miami in 1990. He was mesmerized. It was there he realized he wasn't going to get the same adrenalin rush sitting in an office making out schedules.
"I knew then I wanted to coach," he said.
The BYU job was followed by two years as an assistant to Bill Walsh at Stanford, then two years with the 49ers as a defensive backfield coach. Next came his single season at Cal as a defensive coordinator. When Steve Mariucci left to become coach of the 49ers, Holmoe was named the replacement.
So now Holmoe has his own team, which could be an imposing prospect. Some Bay Area media members have speculated Cal made the wrong choice. Perhaps. Then again, not everyone knows what the shark in the equipment bag learned a long time ago: When the big tests come, Holmoe has already done his homework.