Tom Holmoe Thomas Allen Holmoe ( born March 7 , 1960 ) is the current athletic director at Brigham Young University . He is a former college and professional American football defensive back and coach . College . Holmoe starred in both basketball and football at Crescenta Valley High School in La Crescenta , Calif . . He accepted a football scholarship to Brigham Young University , where he played as a cornerback and safety from 1978 - 1982 . As a sophomore in 1980 , he led the Western Athletic Conference with seven interceptions , and went on to earn all - WAC honors as a senior in 1982 . The Cougars won the conference championship in each of his four seasons at the school . Professional . Holmoe was drafted in the fourth round of the 1983 NFL Draft by the San Francisco 49ers . He played seven seasons for the 49ers , winning Super Bowl s with the team in 1984 , 1988 and 1989 , before retiring due to a knee injury . Coaching . After retiring from pro football , Holmoe entered the coaching ranks , having been urged by LaVell Edwards to return to BYU as a graduate assistant . In 1992 , Holmoe accepted an offer from Bill Walsh to join his staff at Stanford University as the defensive backs coach . Holmoe remained at Stanford for two seasons , helping the Cardinal become the Pac - 10 co - conference champions in 1992 with a 10 - 3 overall record , including a win over Penn State in the Blockbuster Bowl . Holmoe then returned to the 49ers , serving as George Seifert ' s defensive backfield coach for two seasons , where he coached such superstars as Deion Sanders , Merton Hanks , and Eric Davis . As defensive backfield coach , he won a fourth Super Bowl in 1994 . Two years later in 1996 , Holmoe joined the University of California , Berkeley staff as defensive coordinator under Steve Mariucci . Following Mariucci ' s departure to the NFL in 1997 , Holmoe was named his successor as head coach . Holmoe , by his own admission , was an unsuccessful coach . During his five - year tenure at Cal , he compiled a 16 - 39 record , including a 9 - 31 record in Pac - 10 play and a 1 - 10 season in 2001 , the worst in the Golden Bears ' history . Holmoe went 0 - 5 against archrival Stanford and failed to reach a bowl game as head coach . Holmoe resigned at the end of the 2001 season . Shortly afterward , the Bears were found guilty of major NCAA violations when it emerged that a professor retroactively added two football players to a class he ' d taught the previous spring in order to keep them eligible . Athletic department officials knew that the players were ineligible , but didn ' t tell anyone about it . As a result , the NCAA slapped Cal with five years ' probation , stripped the Bears of their four victories from the 1999 season , banned them from postseason play in 2002 and took away nine scholarships over four years . When Jeff Tedford led the Bears to a 7 - 5 record in 2002 , they were not allowed to play in a bowl game . Athletic administration . After resigning from Cal , Holmoe returned to Brigham Young to serve as Associate Athletic Director . In March 2005 , he was appointed the 12th Athletic Director of the University , and the first to oversee both men ' s and women ' s athletics . Under his leadership , the Cougars have achieved enormous success , winning 14 conference championships in the 2006 - 2007 academic year alone . Holmoe has had particular success with his two most conspicuous coaching hires , BYU head football coach Bronco Mendenhall , who has led BYU ' s football team back to national prominence , and head men ' s basketball coach Dave Rose , who has returned BYU ' s men ' s basketball team to consistent Mountain West Conference championships and NCAA tournament appearances . Personal . Holmoe is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter - day Saints . He lives in Provo , Utah , with his wife Lori and their four children . Holmoe ' s brother Steve , a physical education teacher and assistant football coach at Glendale High School , was a strong safety at UCLA before sustaining a career - ending injury .