‘He did the right thing’: Tom Holmoe on Mark Pope’s departure, hiring of Kevin Young, BYU’s coaching requirements

As word trickled out on April 11 that longtime Baylor basketball coach Scott Drew had turned down interest from Kentucky to replace John Calipari, BYU athletic director Tom Holmoe figured it was just a matter of time before KU athletic director Mitch Barnhart turned his attention to a former Wildcat great, Cougars coach Mark Pope.

He was right; he just didn’t know how quickly it would all transpire.

Later that night, Pope called Holmoe and let him know he was taking the Kentucky job , the realization of a dream that the 51-year-old Pope had carried since he helped lead the Wildcats to the 1996 national championship.

Holmoe told the Deseret News at the Big 12 football media days last week in Las Vegas that he was “thrilled” for Pope, and knew immediately that he couldn’t match the salary — a five-year deal worth $27.5 million, plus incentives and potential bonuses — that Kentucky was offering.

Holmoe said Pope didn’t ask him to match the offer. Nor did the AD ask for that opportunity.

“But it wasn’t about that,” Holmoe said, recalling that second Thursday in April when he immediately began the process of searching for a replacement, which turned out to be Phoenix Suns assistant Kevin Young.

“I can honestly say that when we signed Mark (on April 10, 2019), we didn’t put into his contract a no-team-buyout clause. We knew about his love (for Kentucky). We literally (knew) about that, but said, ‘Hey, we would like you to be here for a long time.’

“In talking with Mark five years ago, he said the one team that I would leave for, would be Kentucky, and I said, ‘I understand that.’ And I still do understand that.”

Holmoe said when Pope informed him of the Kentucky offer, “it wasn’t a situation where you are going to sit there and noodle back and forth. That was his dream.”

BYU’s AD since 2005, Holmoe’s first major hire was football coach Bronco Mendenhall that same year. Then he replaced Steve Cleveland with assistant Dave Rose a few months later, another successful hire. The hiring of Pope also has to be considered successful, although Pope didn’t stay around as long as the other two.

Holmoe replaced Mendenhall with Kalani Sitake in late 2015.

“I think a lot of the success at BYU in football and basketball, and a lot of our other sports, is the stability and the long-term stays of our head coaches,” Holmoe said. “I mean, you look at LaVell (Edwards). And Bronco had a good run. And you look at Dave Rose, he did too.”

But Holmoe said there was no use trying to keep Pope in Provo. He knew it wasn’t going to happen if Kentucky came calling.

“Like, I am the AD at my alma mater. You can’t beat that,” Holmoe said. “Mark was a national champion there at Kentucky. It is something in your blood, and he should have that chance. And the fact that they wanted to come and get him (played into it). I wouldn’t have been able to match it, in the first place.

“But it was something that was good for him,” Holmoe continued. “He needed to do that. If he hadn’t taken that job, and stayed, that would have haunted him for a long time. He did the right thing.”

‘He was the best’ — Holmoe on getting Kevin Young

As has been thoroughly documented, Holmoe and BYU deputy athletic director Brian Santiago interviewed Young five years ago before they hired Pope away from Utah Valley. Holmoe said with the help of former BYU standout Danny Ainge and Utah Jazz owner Ryan Smith, they’ve stayed in touch with Young since then, and followed his career from Philadelphia 76ers assistant to his lead assistant post in Phoenix.

They knew that Young had interviewed for several NBA head coaching jobs, and knew it was only a matter of time before he got one. So they moved quickly when Pope moved on.

“I am super pleased with (how it came together),” Holmoe said. “It was a blessing for us, because this window of opportunity was really super tight for him. The time that coach Pope left was the perfect and only time he could have taken the (BYU) job. And it just worked out. We knew him. … We had a good relationship with him. Kudos to B (Santiago).”

Holmoe said that BYU “has to hire members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints” for its head coaches, with few exceptions, but that requirement wasn’t as big of a concern for men’s basketball “because there was a decent pool of good college coaches (who are Latter-day Saints) that we could have hired. But, Kevin was the best.”

Without naming the other candidates, Holmoe said Young had a “higher trajectory” than the others and had “grown so much” the past five years.

“And then to squeeze him in before he took an NBA head job (was fortunate). That was just a blessing,” Holmoe said. “And then he had a plan for how he would do this. And how he articulated it to us, it was a good plan.”

Holmoe said that Young’s success in recruiting, retaining key current players, and building his coaching staff has been beyond his wildest dreams, but acknowledges there have been some misses as well on assistants and players “behind the scenes.”

“But he doesn’t (fret it). He just moves on,” Holmoe said. “I am super happy with it, but we are at a point right now where he is putting together a team and the games start in November. We’re excited.”

More on the hiring of BYU coaches

Whenever BYU hires a head coach, especially in a major sport such as men’s basketball, women’s basketball, or football, the question always arises: Do BYU head coaches have to be active members of the faith that sponsors and supports BYU, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints?

Holmoe said they do, “in all sports,” then noted that the requirement is “probably” not written down anywhere and is “a practice, but not a policy.” But it is a directive he continues to adhere to as BYU’s athletic director in constant communication with the school’s governing Board of Trustees.

“The biggest thing is, our coaches work day-to-day with our student-athletes. Our student-athletes are talking to their coaches about missions, and boyfriends and girlfriends that are going to lead to marriages, potentially children, while at BYU,” he said. “With those cultural decisions it is unreasonable for us to think that we couldn’t have somebody from outside of our faith that would be able to come in and counsel them on those issues.”

What about Diljeet Taylor, the women’s cross-country head coach and associate director of BYU’s wildly successful track and field teams? Taylor was raised in the Sikh religion, according to a 2021 school news release when she was named head cross-country coach, and is not a Latter-day Saint.

Holmoe said Taylor was promoted because she had been at BYU since 2016 and had proven that she was familiar with the religion, the culture, and the expectations previously outlined.

“I think with (Taylor) that was a great way to do it. She was already here. She wasn’t hired (in 2016) as a head coach. She was here a little bit. We saw the things that she did. … The Board of Trustees were the ones that said, she really represents what the mission of BYU is, let’s go for it. And I think it was a good move. She’s got a few Olympians (she has trained) that are tremendous people.

“Diljeet has sent missionaries out. She has had (athletes) that have had babies, and she has had runners that have been married. And so she gets our culture seamlessly. And she proved it before we (promoted) her and we said, ‘Good work, here you go.’”