.jpg) Holmoe speaking at BYU in 2017 | |||||||||||
| BYU Cougars | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Position: | Athletic director | ||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||
| Born: | (1960-03-07)March 7, 1960 (age 65) Los Angeles, California, U.S. | ||||||||||
| Height: | 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m) | ||||||||||
| Weight: | 190 lb (86 kg) | ||||||||||
| Career information | |||||||||||
| High school: | Crescenta Valley | ||||||||||
| College: | BYU | ||||||||||
| NFL draft: | 1983: 4th round, 90th pick | ||||||||||
| Career history | |||||||||||
As a player: | |||||||||||
As a coach: | |||||||||||
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As an administrator: | |||||||||||
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| Career highlights and awards | |||||||||||
| Career NFL statistics | |||||||||||
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| Head coaching record | |||||||||||
| Regular season: | 16–39 | ||||||||||
Thomas Allen Holmoe (born March 7, 1960) is an American college athletics administrator and formerfootball player and coach. He has been theathletic director atBrigham Young University (BYU) since 2005. Holmoe played college football at BYU and then professionally in theNational Football League (NFL) with theSan Francisco 49ers from 1983 to 1989. He served as the head football coach at theUniversity of California, Berkeley (Cal) from 1997 to 2001.
Holmoe starred in both basketball and football atCrescenta Valley High School inLa Crescenta, California.[1] He accepted a football scholarship to BYU, where he played as acornerback andsafety from 1978 to 1982.[2] As a sophomore in 1980, he led theWestern Athletic Conference (WAC) with seveninterceptions, and went on to earn all-WAC honors as a senior in 1982. TheCougars won the conference championship in each of his four seasons at BYU. At BYU, he was a teammate ofSuper Bowl winning quarterbackJim McMahon and Super Bowl winning coachAndy Reid.
Holmoe was drafted in the fourth round of the1983 NFL draft by the San Francisco 49ers. He played seven seasons for the 49ers, winning Super Bowls with the team in1984,1988 and1989,[3] before retiring due to a knee injury.
After retiring from playing, Holmoe entered the coaching ranks, having been urged byLaVell Edwards to return to BYU as agraduate assistant. In 1992, Holmoe accepted an offer fromBill Walsh to join his staff atStanford University as the defensive backs coach. Holmoe remained at Stanford for two seasons, helping the1992 Stanford Cardinal football team become thePacific-10 Conference champions with a 10–3 overall record, including a win overPenn State in theBlockbuster Bowl.
Holmoe then returned to the 49ers, serving asGeorge Seifert's defensive backfield coach for two seasons, where he coached such players asDeion Sanders,Merton Hanks andEric Davis. As defensive backfield coach, he won a fourth Super Bowl in 1994. In 1996, Holmoe joined theCalifornia Golden Bears staff asdefensive coordinator underSteve Mariucci.
Following Mariucci's departure to the NFL in 1997, Holmoe was named his successor. Holmoe, by his own admission, was an unsuccessful head coach.[4] During his five-year tenure at Cal, he compiled a 16–39 record overall with a 9–31 mark in Pac-10 play. His final season,2001, saw the Golden Bears finish 1–10, then the worst season in school history (the Bears went 1–11 in2013). Holmoe went 0–5 against rivalStanford and failed to reach abowl game. Holmoe resigned at the end of the 2001 season.
Shortly afterward, theBears were found guilty of majorNCAA violations when it emerged that a professor retroactively added two football players to a class he had taught the previous spring in order to keep them eligible. Athletic department officials knew that the players were ineligible, but did not disclose it to anyone.[5] As a result, the NCAA slapped Cal with five years' probation, stripped the Bears of their four victories from the 1999 season, banned them from postseason play in 2002, and took away nine scholarships over four years.[6] WhenJeff Tedford led the Bears to a 7–5 record in 2002, they were not allowed to play in a bowl game.
After resigning from Cal, Holmoe returned to BYU to serve as associate athletic director. In March 2005, he was appointed as BYU's 12th athletic director, and the first to oversee both men's and women's athletics (previously women's sports had its own athletic director). Under Holmoe's leadership, the Cougars have achieved success, winning 14 conference championships in the 2006–07 academic year alone and many others in subsequent years.
Holmoe has had notable successes with his head coaching hires, including for football and men's basketball. He hired head football coachBronco Mendenhall, who returned BYU's football team to national prominence, and head men's basketball coachDave Rose, who led BYU's men's basketball team to consistent conference championships andNCAA tournament appearances. Following Bronco Mendenhall's departure to theUniversity of Virginia and Dave Rose's retirement, Holmoe hiredKalani Sitake as head football coach andMark Pope as men's head basketball coach, both of whom have led their teams to Top 25 national rankings in the end-of-season AP polls.
During theCOVID-19 pandemic, BYU's independent football schedule was drastically altered at the last minute as several conferences decided to play league-only games. Holmoe had to quickly piece together a full season of games. He was able to fill BYU's schedule and the team finished the year 11-1 and ranked #11 in the end-of-season AP Poll.[7] His efforts were recognized by The National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) who awarded him with the 2020-2021 Athletics Director of the Year award.[8]
On September 10, 2021, BYU accepted an invitation to join theBig 12 Conference for all sports.[9] Holmoe was instrumental in positioning the Cougars for the invitation, having petitioned the Big 12 for membership in 2016 and again in 2021.[10]
In February 2025, Holmoe announced he would retire from serving as AD at the conclusion of the 2024-2025 sports season, capping two decades in the role.[11][12]
Holmoe is a member ofthe Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, converting fromLutheranism six years after leaving BYU.[13] He lives inProvo, Utah, with his wife Lori and their four children.
| Year | Team | Overall | Conference | Standing | Bowl/playoffs | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| California Golden Bears(Pacific-10 Conference)(1997–2001) | |||||||||
| 1997 | California | 3–8 | 1–7 | 9th | |||||
| 1998 | California | 5–6 | 3–5 | 7th | |||||
| 1999 | California | 0–7* | 0–5* | T–6th | |||||
| 2000 | California | 3–8 | 2–6 | T–8th | |||||
| 2001 | California | 1–10 | 0–8 | 10th | |||||
| California: | 12–39 | 6-31 | |||||||
| Total: | 12–39 | ||||||||
*Cal finished 4–7 (3–5 in conference), but later vacated the wins due to use of ineligible players
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