BYU football: Tom Holmoe not worried about Bronco Mendenhall

PROVO — It's been less than two months since BYU boldly announced its plan to go independent in football starting in 2011.

Since then, the Cougars have won only two games, endured a four-game losing streak and stumbled to their worst start in decades. Statistically, the BYU offense is one of the worst in the nation, and the Cougars must win four of their last five games just to be bowl-eligible.

But athletic director Tom Holmoe is unflaggingly optimistic about both the immediate and long-term future of BYU football.

"I believe in this program, and I believe in Bronco Mendenhall," he told the Deseret News this week. "Where we are, neither Bronco nor I would want to be in this position. But we both like the prospects of the future. I like the prospects for the rest of this season."

Every week, it seems, there has been a new drama, either on or off the field. So far, the Cougars have tried to make a two-quarterback system work, seen their offense turned over to a true freshman quarterback, dealt with injuries to key players and experienced the mid-season firing of defensive coordinator Jaime Hill. On Monday, wide receiver O'Neill Chambers was suspended for the remainder of the season for disciplinary reasons.

"There's adversity with teams. Some people look it as being somewhat chaotic. But not really," Holmoe said. "It's very difficult to lead a football program. That means that you're looking back and looking forward when you're talking about a program. The football team is this year. I think Bronco's done an incredible job over the time he's been here. When I've been on teams that have struggled, I think coaches sometimes have done the best jobs of their career for the program. Maybe not for that year, but for the program during the turmoil."

Holmoe knows all about dealing with turmoil as a head coach. When he was at the helm of California's football program for five seasons, the Golden Bears compiled a 16-39 record.

"(Mendenhall) relates well to me because of my perspective. We can talk football," Holmoe said. "Quite frankly, I've been in very successful situations and there have been times when I've failed. So it's not like I don't have a whole repertoire of how to do things. I've made decisions that have gone the wrong way. I can tell him, 'Hey, Bronc, I've been down that road. You probably don't want to go down that road.' I know that from working with Bronco through this challenge he's making good decisions. There's not three challenges a day. There are more like 12 or 15 or 20 challenges a day. The public sees three. I see 12-20.