This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

As you've probably already noticed if you follow me on Twitter, BYU athletic director Tom Holmoe sat down with reporters who cover the school's sports teams today and held his semiannual roundtable Q&A at the Student Athlete Building on campus.

Holmoe spoke off camera for about an hour, then did some sound bites with the television stations for another 10 minutes or so.

Obviously, it would be impossible to recap all that Holmoe said in one newspaper article.

But that's what this blog is for. Over the next few days, I will post a lot more of Holmoe's comments on all kinds of topics.

For now, here's what he said about the job BYU football coach Bronco Mendenhall is doing, and how he (Holmoe) would characterize the state of the football program.

"I think two years ago, [Mendenhall] was 13th in tenure. Think about that — in 8 or 9 years [at BYU]. There had been 113 coaching changes. Schools had changed coaches. So to have one coach for 10 years, that's pretty amazing. And the reason that that has happened is we because we believe he has done some really good things for our program.

Over these last few years of independence, it has been harder on him. I ask him to do things, and that team to do things, that are not easy.

And when we've struggled with our win-loss record, a lot of times issues rise to the surface that may have been in the program when we were winning a lot of games, 11 games. So it is a very difficult job that I feel Bronco has stood up to very well.

He has made mistakes along the road, and he has done things, probably, that he wishes he could have had back. This guy has got a great outlook in moving forward. He is a strong personality, and he has a great confidence in what he can do. And working together with him, I believe we can reach the dreams that the two of us have. It is going to be hard. We both have to make changes to the way we have done things — because people adapt. Our fans have adapted.

With independence, we have forced our fans to adapt. And that's on me. I got to figure out ways to help Bronco and his staff to adapt to 2015. We live in a new world."

Holmoe on what Bronco will do in the future:

"I expect Bronco Mendenhall to give everything he has. I am excited that he has made the decision to go back and be the defensive coordinator and call the plays. … I am looking forward to a year of him as defensive coordinator and head coach and what our football team can do in 2015."

Holmoe on how he would characterize the state of the football program:

"It is something that people want me to give a day [update]. I am looking at it — every day I am here. I go downstairs and I talk to the coaches, I talk to the players. I talk to the fans. I talk to our media. And I have kind of a moving average, I guess you could say, of where our team is.

At certain points of the season last year, it is a lot easier to define where you are. And there were times in the season last year, where the season is right in front of you, where we weren't in a great spot. And all wasn't good in Cougar Nation.

And there were some things that happened last year that led me to believe, OK, this is a tough situation we are in, but we are going to be OK.

And a lot of that had to do with Taysom [Hill], for example. If you take the average of our season and how you feel about it, I don't know how you describe that — the status.

There were highs and lows last year. Right now, like I said, we are learning from the lows last year. We did some things last year that we can definitely improve on. And a lot of it is not just on the field, but off the field: things that we can do with our fan base, and we can do with me, our athletic director, and our coaches, and our players.

We learned a lot about ourselves last year. That's where we are focused right now is, turning the page on 2014. We can still go back and flip back and say, 'what do we need to do?' But our focus is on 2015 and beyond.

There are a lot of indicators that would say some people aren't buying. But there are a lot of people that are buying into the Cougars still."

Holmoe on the bowl game tie-ins:

"We have announced some into the future, but we have agreements for a bowl game this year, and coming into the future. At this point in time, for reasons of the contract, and the people that are involved, it is not being made public at this time. But I feel good about where we are at. We made some agreements a year or so ago that went out I think five or six years. So we feel secure in those games that we have [contracted], based on our eligibility."