Why Brian Santiago was selected as BYU's new athletic director

BYU officially introduced Brian Santiago as the university's new athletic director in a press conference Wednesday morning.

Santiago and BYU President C. Shane Reese discussed the process of finding a new AD, what Santiago's plans are moving forward and why he was the right man for the job.

Finding someone to replace Tom Holmoe

It's been 20 years since BYU has had to put together a search for a new AD. Since then, BYU has changed conferences multiple times, built new facilities and navigated through the world of NIL.

While Santiago, who has served as the deputy director and Tom Holmoe's right-hand man since 2017, was a frontrunner in the search, BYU looked in every possible corner for their new athletic director.

"Three months ago, we were holding a press conference to announce the retirement of Tom Holmoe," Reese said. "I've since travelled thousands of miles, and combined with Vice President (Keith) Vorkink, we've interviewed more than 50 individuals who are highly qualified."

But it seems the answer always came back to Santiago.

"Brian was a special candidate," Reese said. "To my knowledge, no one in the candidate pool had 27 years of direct experience with BYU athletics, with 20 of those years being under the direct tutelage of Tom Holmoe."

Reese mentioned that this decision was made not too long ago, saying that "Brian hasn't known about this for a long time. This is a fairly recent development for all of us."

While the administration could have easily just selected Santiago as a replacement in February, the fact that it interviewed over 50 candidates shows that President Reese wasn't willing to let anything fall through the cracks.

Who will be Santiago's deputy director?

Almost just as important as filling Holmoe's position is filling Santiago's. He will have to build a staff around him that can carry out his vision for BYU athletics.

"This is not a one-man operation," Reese said. "It's gonna require assembling a team. I think in the coming days and weeks we're going to see that team start to develop."

Santiago made sure to say multiple times on Wednesday that the athletic department already has people within it that can step into his old deputy slot and other high-level positions.

"We have greatness already internally," Santiago said. "We have some great people that are gonna step up and are going to make a difference in our athletic department... we're gonna end up elevating a number of people."

What's the next step for Santiago and BYU athletics

The transition from Holmoe to Santiago will be smooth. While BYU doesn't have an outsider coming in to shake things up on day one, Santiago's first priorities are to get all the coaches on board with his vision.

"All these coaches in the room, every member of the athletic department, we're united in this," Santiago said. "We're going to continue to do this united and that's for one purpose: To strive for excellence, to do it together and to help each other."

After the press conference, Santiago once again spoke to members of the media and outlined what he needs to do for his first action as AD.

"First thing I want to do is make sure our coaches are locked into place at BYU ... starting with Kevin Young," Santiago said.

Santiago quickly shut down the possibility of Young not being locked in to the men's basketball team, but cited that he is a hot name amongst NBA coaching circles, and that the opportunity will almost always be present for an NBA team to inquire about the BYU coach.

Santiago noted that he is going to meet with all the coaches in the next coming days, starting with football, stating that "football drives the ship."

Don't expect any major changes regarding BYU athletics in the first moments of the Santiago era. His years-long partnership with Holmoe has provided a way to keep the momentum of BYU going forward.