Whoever replaces Tom Holmoe as BYU’s athletic director will not only have some big shoes to fill, he or she will have some big Halloween costumes to fill as well.
The Cougars’ longtime sports boss, who announced Tuesday afternoon that he is stepping down at the end of the 2024-25 sports year after 20 years on the job, is well known for his annual dress-ups on Oct. 31.
He’s also known as a person who guided BYU athletics through college football independence and into the Big 12. When all is said and done, that’s going to be his legacy, even more than appearing as Aladdin, Abraham Lincoln, Albert Einstein, Lord Voldemort or the Mad Hatter.
While we’re dropping names and the like, the obvious question that arises out of Holmoe’s not-so-surprising decision to retire at the age of 65 — he turns 65 on March 7 — is simple.
Who will take his place?
The Deseret News actually posed this question in an article published five years ago when it celebrated Holmoe’s first 15 years at the helm. Remarkably, the candidates then are probably the same candidates now.
“They will have big shoes to fill,” said former BYU athletic director Rondo Fehlberg, who stepped down in 1999 and was replaced by Val Hale. “Tom has done an excellent job.”
In 2020, just before the pandemic made Holmoe’s job even more difficult, Hale said he expected BYU leaders to look in-house first.
“That’s because there aren’t a ton of athletic directors out there who are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints” which owns, operates and supports BYU, Hale said. “That’s always been BYU’s way of operating.”
Here’s a quick look at some of the candidates to replace Tom Holmoe
Current BYU deputy athletic director Brian Santiago: Holmoe’s right-hand man has been at BYU since 1997 in a variety of positions and received his MBA from BYU’s Marriott School of Management in 2001. Santiago currently oversees 10 sports at BYU, most notably men’s and women’s basketball and men’s and women’s volleyball.
He also supervises game management for football and basketball, and oversees sports marketing and communications.
In 2020, Fehlberg said Santiago has more day-to-day knowledge of what the position entails than anyone else on the planet. However, Santiago “has a very, very different personality” than Holmoe, Fehlberg said.
BYU associate AD for development Chad Lewis: This former BYU and NFL football player has the experience and talent to succeed Holmoe, but some have questioned whether he wants the job. Certainly, he has the name recognition and respect within the department, probably more than Santiago.
“You need to be someone who can stand up in front of a crowd and get people excited about the program and open their wallets,” Hale said.
Lewis, 53, certainly fits that description. Lewis has been a BYU sports ambassador since 2010 and has worked to sell the school and its football program, specifically, to potential donors and sponsors.
Senior associate AD and senior woman administrator Liz Darger: A 2000 graduate of BYU who has gone on to earn advanced degrees at the school, Darger has worked at BYU since 2015 and serves the critical role of Senior Woman Administrator, as mandated by the NCAA.
She oversees some of the most successful sports on campus: women’s soccer, men’s and women’s cross-country, and the spirit squads. Darger was credited for her work getting BYU to host “Common Ground IV” — an initiative that builds bridges with the LGBTQ community and helped pave BYU’s path to the Big 12.
Former BYU baseball player and former Hawaii AD Craig Angelos: If BYU looks to the outside, Angelos certainly has the credentials and experience to merit consideration. The former BYU baseball player and returned missionary was controversially fired as Hawaii’s athletic director last November after stints in athletic departments at Miami, Indiana, Florida Atlantic, South Florida, FIU, Temple and LIU.
He has never publicly expressed interest in the BYU job.
Former UHSAA administrator Jerry Bovee: Another former AD who is also a member of the faith, ex-Weber State AD and ex-Utah State deputy AD Jerry Bovee, may also get a good look.
