Holmoe: Transition Between Head Coaches Played Part In Yoeli Childs’ Suspension

PROVO, Utah – Every year in the month of August, Brigham Young University holds its annual Education Week.  For individuals who are fans of BYU athletics, they get a treat in hearing from BYU Athletic Director Tom Holmoe.

Holmoe held his annual Education Week meeting on Wednesday in front of a capacity crowd at the Clyde Building on campus.

Usually, the class is filled with Q&A from the attendees to Holmoe, but this year Holmoe opened up the class discussing John Maxwell’s “Five Levels of Leadership,” and also how important it is for people to connect with one another.

Then after Holmoe’s opening remarks, he went into the Q&A portion of the event.  Here are some of the highlights.

Yoeli Childs Nine-Game NCAA Suspension

“This timing was really hard.  Everyone knows that Yoeli was very interested (in the NBA) and it was a distinct possibility that he was testing the waters of the draft. So our last game of our season was not a very good memory, that was his last memory. From that point forward, for about a week maybe, where everyone was just kind of in limbo.  A short time after that Dave Rose retired and then there was a 15-day period until we hired Mark Pope. So in that period of transition, there weren’t a lot of people with him at that time,” said Holmoe.

During that period of time, we tried to reach out to him, our compliance office, our coaches that were still on staff tried, but he -and he’ll say this- he wasn’t in a good spot with how things we’re going to be.”

“He’s an incredible kid and we realized he wanted to come back he had some goals that he wanted to achieve around the team and what he could do for the team, not just what he could do for himself, it was a great thing. So we made an appeal, we got him reinstated, so that meant he got his eligibility back but I thought the penalty was egregious so we appealed the penalty and we were denied,” Holmoe said.

Late Kickoffs on ESPN

Holmoe was asked about late kickoff times and what can be done to get earlier kickoffs.

Holmoe's reply, "The better question to ask is, why is the money so important that you play at 8:15 p.m.? We need the money." #BYU

— Mitch Harper (@Mitch_Harper) August 21, 2019

Tom Holmoe’s Greatest Accomplishment as Athletic Director

Holmoe was asked what his single greatest accomplishment as BYU Athletic Director?

Holmoe quickly replied, "Brandon Davies and his decision to come back to BYU after his suspension."

— KSL Sports (@kslsports) August 21, 2019

Will have more on this story as we continue to update. 

Mitch Harper is a BYU Insider for sports.ksl.com and host of the Cougar Tracks Podcast and Cougar Sports Saturday (Saturday from 12-3 pm) on KSL Newsradio. Follow him on Twitter: @Mitch_Harper.