Tom Holmoe directed a sinking ship known as Cal's football team to the bottom of the Pacific-10 Conference during a painful five-year journey from 1997-2001 that left many fans disgruntled and bitter. When he was forced to resign after a 1-10 record in 2001, it appeared that the program would be buried for years to come. Now, just four seasons removed from Holmoe's departure, Cal enters its third consecutive bowl game after its fourth consecutive winning season. This game, the Las Vegas Bowl on Dec. 22, makes for a rather uneasy reunion.
Cal is playing Brigham Young University, which hired Holmoe as its athletic director this year. But he still has ties to the Golden Bears, having recruited the team's fifth-year seniors, along with senior center Marvin Philip, who started one season for Holmoe before going on a two-year Mormon mission. "People here in Provo (Utah) see this as a revenge game for me," said Holmoe, who was 16-39 at Cal. "But I'm not going to have anything to do with the outcome of this game. I'm not the coach here. This is more of a reunion." Holmoe insists that it will be a more pleasurable reunion than some would believe. Although he ran through the gauntlet during his final season at Cal, he learned valuable lessons that allow him to assist first-year BYU coach Bronco Mendenhall as he attempts to rebuild the Cougars into a national power.
"I was too idealistic about people, coaches and administrators at Cal," Holmoe said. "I was very, very naive. I understand that people are going to say, 'You fool.' I learned that some people are in it for the wrong reasons. I didn't recognize that soon enough." One reason he was slow to react had to do with his background. He always had been involved with successful football programs, having earned four Super Bowl rings with the 49ers -- three as a player, one as a coach -- following a standout playing career at BYU. "I knew what I was getting into (at Cal) and I thought there was no possible way I could fail," he said. "I had a great plan. If things didn't work, I would just turn the right levers and make the right moves." After one year as Cal's defensive coordinator under Steve Mariucci in 1996, Holmoe was promoted to head coach when Mariucci left after one season to take the 49ers' head coaching job. Then-Cal athletic director John Kasser wanted to keep continuity in the program, so he hired Holmoe, who never had been a head coach.
That lack of experience might have been too much for Holmoe to overcome. It showed in the assistants he hired. His staff never seemed to mesh in his five seasons, and he went through three offensive coordinators. "I made some quick decisions that were wrong," he said. "That's part of being a leader." There also were off-field problems that perhaps a more savvy head coach might have navigated. In 1999, wide receivers Michael Ainsworth and Ronnie Davenport were given credit for a class they didn't take. Holmoe immediately reported to Cal's administration that there was something strange about Ainsworth and Davenport getting retroactive credit for the class. He held both players out of preseason practice while an investigation took place. A few days later, Holmoe was told that everything had been checked and that he was free to use both players. A year and a half later, an investigation by a private law firm discovered that both players indeed had not done the necessary classwork. The NCAA penalized Cal in June 2002, taking away nine scholarships over five years and banning the football team from postseason play that season.
Holmoe was gone by then, but bitter Cal fans got even nastier whenever his name was mentioned. The Bears went 7-5 in 2002 -- Jeff Tedford's first season -- but couldn't play in a bowl game, which would have been their first since 1996. "When you are a leader, you are in charge," Holmoe said. "I do take responsibility for that. It happened on my watch. I could have not recruited those kids. But we needed good players. Those are the chances you take. I was willing to take that risk." Holmoe didn't want to comment further on the investigation.
"I am never going to be able to change what people want to hear," he said. "I knew that story better than anybody. I'm not saying I'm washing my hands of it. From the very beginning, I was dealing with people (administrators) who saw it in a different light." That painful memory has helped him at BYU. "In my position as athletic administrator, I am reminded of that time on a day-to-day basis," Holmoe said. "Coaches look at me and say, 'What are you thinking? Why are you being so thorough?'" Sometimes, Holmoe has to inform a coach that he can't recruit a player whose background is questionable. "I ask them, 'Why do you want this guy?' I try to tell them about the maintenance involved. Now when I see things coming at me, I say, 'Whew, I'm not doing that again.'" At Cal, Holmoe said he thought he could rehabilitate people who had problems. He no longer adheres to that theory. Besides making judgment errors on some important decisions involving assistant coaches and players, Holmoe had his hands full as the head coach. He didn't have a football operations manager, the way Tedford does in Mike McHugh. Holmoe didn't want to discuss Cal's focus on football during his time there, but it's obvious the university re-evaluated how to operate its football program when Tedford was hired. McHugh was hired immediately and Cal spent money on a new artificial surface in Memorial Stadium to give the Bears better practice options. Holmoe didn't blame his failure at Cal on lack of help from school administrators. "It was a hard experience and I came away from it learning a lot," he said. "I had a great opportunity and I didn't make the most of it. The bottom line is winning, and I couldn't do it."
It doesn't bother him that Tedford has turned around the program. "I wanted to win for Cal," Holmoe said. "I'm not the only one. Every coach before me wanted to be the coach to bring that team back to the Rose Bowl. "But I'm realistic about it. Jeff Tedford is a very good coach. He has all the skills to make Cal a better program. He brought in a certain chemistry and wisdom, and it has worked." Added Holmoe: "I love that school and what it stands for." Even so, Cal's fans treated him in a brutal manner that final year. "I had to sit my family down and say, 'This is going to be tough.' There are going to be things said at school, at home, at church, on the radio. They were crying. I told them, 'Hopefully, someday when you are a mom, a dad, a boss, an employee, you can learn from this.” "All experiences are good, but they may not be happy ones."
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