Editor’s note: This is the first in a two-part series on BYU athletic director Brian Santiago.
This is the 54th week since BYU elevated Brian Santiago as athletic director to replace the long-tenured Tom Holmoe, and he calls it a blur.
It started with a hammer to the head days into his hire, and it remains a job that is as fast-paced a race as the Provo native has ever experienced.
This past week, Santiago spoke one-on-one with Jay Drew of the Deseret News and to other news outlets, including the 365 Sports podcast out of Waco, Texas. Drew had him for about 10 minutes in his office; the hosts out of Waco had him for 27 minutes. Both interviews provide insight into what Santiago believes, feels and forecasts for BYU sports now and in the future.
Speaking to Dave Smoak of 365 Sports, Santiago explained what makes him tick, what drives him, and what his life philosophy has been centered around. The philosophy was shaped during his days as a star high school athlete at Provo High, at Utah Valley University and at Fresno State, and it continues to impact how he views challenges.
Santiago said his father is Puerto Rican and grew up in the Bronx, a storied borough of New York City. His mother is a farm girl from Tooele. He has seven siblings, and two of his brothers, Kevin and Todd, played basketball at BYU.
Both his parents lost their fathers at a very young age.
“From an early age, I was just taught the power of hard work and the power of believing in people and the importance of believing in people, to lift and elevate those around you,” Santiago told Smoak on his podcast.
The Santiago kids shared a paper route and split the money. His brothers shared the scholarship money they earned playing basketball at BYU to help him after he served a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
“I come from a family where we did everything for the whole. It wasn’t ever about us, it was about helping each other,” Santiago said.
One of Santiago’s mentors was Fresno State coach Gary Colson. He named one of his sons Colson after Gary, who taught him a pair of three-letter acronyms to live by: FAW and NGU. These stand for “Find A Way” and “Never Give Up.”
He has had these letters posted on the walls of his offices over the years, and they now hang in his garage, where he sees them daily.
“It’s a work ethic. I believe that if we put everything into it and we look for opportunities to reach outward and look how we can help everybody else to be successful, that we all win,” Santiago said.
“I was a point guard and my dad taught me that an assist was better than a basket. I’ve lived that, although the guys I play basketball with in the mornings might say, ‘Hey, you may have passed a lot in the past, but you don’t anymore,’” he joked.
Santiago said he always got more thrills out of passing than shooting.
Just days after he was named athletic director at BYU last spring, he and head football coach Kalani Sitake were sitting in the football office when Sitake received a phone call about returning quarterback Jake Retzlaff — and that he was being accused of sexual assault in a civil lawsuit
It was just two months before the start of the football season. Retzlaff would face a suspension and legal issues, ultimately leaving a team that had just tied for the Big 12 championship and featured significant returning talent expected to have a strong year.
“We learned about Retzlaff the same time everyone else did. I was just two or three days on the job,” said Santiago.
He believes that working 20 years at Holmoe’s side helped prepare him for the ups and downs and the sometimes turbulent challenges of the athletic department.
But he had no idea this kind of hammer would come down so fast — a crisis right out of the chute.
He then got a taste of what he says is amazing about BYU and the culture Sitake had established over his tenure.
“Here’s what’s amazing about this place, and here’s what’s amazing about Kalani, is in that situation, there are a lot of different ways to approach it,” Santiago said. “From right in the first moment, we just looked at each other and said, ‘Hey, we’ll do the right thing here.’”
Santiago didn’t get into the details of that day and the subsequent weeks with the Retzlaff case, but fast-forwarded for the podcast hosts.
“In a lot of ways, we wrapped our arms around Jake. It was a super tough situation where he ultimately made a choice to transfer out with only one year of eligibility, knowing he faced a suspension and knowing he wanted to pursue his football career,” he said.
There are things people may not be aware of, such as Sitake and Santiago making sure to help Retzlaff graduate before he left.
“We made good on our contractual agreement with him in those moments,” Santiago said. “Jake left here with a positive feeling about his teammates, coaches and BYU and went on to have an incredible year (at Tulane).”
Retzlaff, in a rare move considering the circumstances, called BYU after leading Tulane to a CFP berth and asked if he could attend the BYU-hosted pro day in the indoor practice facility.
“And in about 10 seconds, it was yes, yes, yes, like, ‘Let’s go,’” Santiago said. “How great is it in that difficult situation like that that we have coaches just trying to do the right thing and try to make sure we pay attention to the human side rather than just the football side?”
Fast-forward even further to this past week at Timpanogos Golf Club at East Bay in Provo, where Sitake held his annual foundation golf fundraiser. Playing in a foursome, there was Retzlaff, among his friends.
“To us, the human element, wrapping our arms around people, making sure the relationships are more important than just trying to win,” Santiago said.
“I look at those situations and I’m just so glad Kalani and I were in lockstep in that situation. There were so many other people at the university, all the way up, who were aligned, our vice president, president and everyone. It was like, ‘Let’s do the right thing. Let’s make sure that we handle each situation with grace,’ and I’m really grateful for the way it played out.”
Santiago said it hasn’t been a marathon of a first year, but there have been tough situations.
“I think in every situation, relationships are strengthened,” he said. “When you go through tough stuff together, people come together, like there’s a bond, a feeling that united we can do things, we can do incredible things.
“I feel that way with 19 head coaches and 500 student-athletes. Nothing’s ever going to be perfect. In a perfect world, we are undefeated in every sport, we win every national championship, and every kid gets a 4.0 and graduates.”
Santiago continued, “The way to look at it is how do we help lift, build and empower these student-athletes to help them fly, to help them chase their dreams, and prepare them to, once done with sports, to go make a difference in the world? That’s a big deal to us.”
Santiago said it fires him up and juices his emotions to go to work at BYU.
“It grows hair on my head — even if I don’t have any.”
Next: Santiago unloads praise on Sitake
