It seems a simple, no-duh kind of pronouncement for BYU, but it’s more complicated in scope and meaning than just that: The man replacing Tom Holmoe as the Cougars’ athletic director, a person Holmoe had previously described as his “wingman,” is not … Tom Holmoe.
No. Brian Santiago is a whole different dude, a dude who might scare some people while trying to motivate them by way of what he described as his “passion and intensity.”
“People have seen my competitive side, and it’s real, I’m not going to back away from it,” he said during his introduction atop BYU sports on Wednesday. “… We’re going to be passionate about excellence.”
He added: “If we’re not relevant, nobody cares who we are.”
And when he said that, you could almost picture him with a battle helmet on, with ivory-handled pistols strapped to his hips, a la George Patton, ready for his tanks to roll. Oh, hold on … and he loves people, he said, wants to let them see his lesser-known “soft and sensitive side, a compassionate side,” so much so that he’d kick them toward greatness if that’s what’s required.
“I’m a super passionate person,” he reiterated. “It’s in my blood.”
While Holmoe, the outgoing AD who weathered many storms and accomplished so much leading BYU athletics, proceeds toward being free to do whatever he wants now in retirement, without worrying about department financials and administrative politics and nearly a thousand individual athletes and the teams on which they play and winning percentages and student behaviors and NIL and coaching contracts and the overall condition of the ever-evolving world of college sports, Santiago takes the helm.
Holmoe can focus on floating on a raft in a pool somewhere.
Santiago, conversely, will pick up so many of Holmoe’s worries and also his wins. He should be used to the weight of the lift, and the good feel of recent success, considering he’s already been majorly involved in carrying the load and pushing forward as Holmoe’s top lieutenant.
“Cougar nation,” said Santiago, staring into the cameras and lights, “let’s go!”
He admitted: “Tom and I have a lot of similarities, but we’re also unique in our own approach. … This is a new day.”
A new day with a new sheriff, a new general in town.
Holmoe was a pleasant, capable administrator, a guy you could talk with about complex issues, but also easily laugh and swap stories with over pizza and a root beer. Still, he was nobody’s pushover.
Santiago is capable, too, an alleycat who knows how to work a room, especially a room with money in it, but — and it’s a big but — if anybody attempts to push over BYU’s new dog, figuratively or literally, that body will get shoved back. Santiago may have enough self-discipline and savvy than to make a scene on the sideline and in the aftermath of a tight, disputed football game against a rival, but that’s not to say he wouldn’t feel the urge on the inside tempting him to do so.
The guy now in charge at BYU is as competitive a human as humans come. The former college basketball player is direct in his dealings with others, maybe to the point of offending a few, but he’s more than familiar with the way things work at BYU, having been employed there for 27 years, with a religious spirit in the hallways and all that ecumenical, scriptural stuff. It’s just that now the spirit might bring a little more heat and breathe a little more fire than it has heretofore.
(Bethany Baker | The Salt Lake Tribune) Brian Santiago, right, speaks beside BYU President Shane Reese during a press conference following the announcement of Santiago as the new BYU athletic director at Brigham Young University in Provo on Wednesday, May 14, 2025.
Yeah, I know. It’s kind of a strange mix, that intensity stirred with what Santiago emphasized as BYU’s real goal — to help God’s children become the best they can be, on the field, on the court, in the pool, on the track, and in the world.
He made a specific point, straight as he stressed the importance of gaining excellence in athletics, of thanking his “Father in Heaven and Jesus Christ” for his place at the school.
Santiago fully intends to win games at BYU, God willing, and he knows the ins and outs of making it happen. He’s observed what’s transpired with BYU football, gone to hundreds of Cougar soccer and volleyball games, track meets, tennis matches, and was neck-deep in luring Kevin Young and much of Young’s staff to the basketball program, moves that have altered not only the way BYU basketball looks at itself, but also the way the country looks at it. His top priority and problem in that regard will be keeping Young, what with NBA teams more than aware of the quick success the coach is finding in Provo.
As mentioned, Santiago has established deep relationships with heavy boosters at and around BYU who want to see the Cougars succeed in every way, donors who are motivated to lend more than a hand in making that happen.
BYU president Shane Reese said during the news conference that the school probed far and wide, traveling thousands of miles, to interview “more than 50” candidates for the athletic directorship. He said what he discovered was, “The number of people who are invested in this place emotionally, financially, spiritually is remarkable. It would drop your jaw the number of people we visited.”
(Bethany Baker | The Salt Lake Tribune) BYU athletic director Brian Santiago poses for a photo with his family after a press conference following the announcement of Santiago as the new BYU athletic director at Brigham Young University in Provo on Wednesday, May 14, 2025.
The prez also mentioned that in college sports’ changing environment, Santiago, especially with his local and global perspective and experience, was well suited to tackle complicated matters, issues such as NIL, revenue sharing, and coming government legislation.
Santiago concurred, saying, “I’ve taken a deep dive into the world of NIL, rev share, in the trenches with our coaches and student-athletes.”
Even so, Reese said: “We’re going to have a lot of lessons to learn.”
Even more so, with the prowess BYU has enjoyed over the past year, having embraced mostly victory in the high-profile sports — football and men’s basketball — in the Big 12, as well as top finishes in other athletic realms, Santiago said: “It’s important to protect [the momentum]. We’ll protect everything that’s good. And we’re going to continue climbing the mountain. It’s a big mountain.”
His mouth didn’t snarl when those words crossed his lips. His eyes did. Who knows, maybe his heart did, too.
One other significant moment on Wednesday came when Santiago said he wants to “empower women,” wants female athletes at BYU to know “how important they are in this whole scheme of college athletics.”
Bottom line, according to the ultra-competitive new head of BYU sports, an ultra-competitive head who actually got in a run of basketball early on Wednesday morning with his regular ultra-competitive mates, is what he believes the purpose of BYU, in and out of sports, is and always will be.
“The vision,” he said, “is for us to be great.”
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