BYU football: State of the Cougars

PROVO — BYU athletic director Tom Holmoe was standing at the back of the room at the Armed Forces Bowl press conference, a day before BYU's 24-21 victory over Tulsa, when he struck up a conversation with a reporter.

Before long, Holmoe found himself surrounded by several reporters, resulting in an impromptu 15-minute question-and-answer session about the state of Cougar football. Holmoe addressed a wide array of salient topics.

Year One of Independence was certainly an eventful one. In between the narrow season-opening victory at Ole Miss, and the narrow win in the season-finale in Dallas, there were plenty of storylines, including the mercurial quarterback situation; unprecedented exposure thanks to ESPN and BYUtv; the challenge of late-season scheduling; rampant conference realignment speculation; uncertainty about the long-term future of the rivalry with Utah; and the transfer of quarterback Jake Heaps.

How does Holmoe assess the inaugural year of independence overall?

"In hindsight, it went well," Holmoe said. "As you look at it as a whole, it's just really different …. All things considered, it works … Notre Dame's been doing it forever. Army and Navy have had different experiences. For us, it works right now. With everything going on around us, it's probably a good place to be."

Even before making the decision to go independent last year, Holmoe said it was imperative to have a bowl deal in place. BYU entered an agreement to play in the Armed Forces Bowl last April.

"It came together considering it was our only shot. The alternative would have been to try to be a free agent and go, 'OK, pick us.' I didn't even look at it to see how that would have gone, if someone vacated a bowl, we could have gone," Holmoe said. "In the first year of independence, I wasn't about to get left out. It's possible you could get left out. It's turned out good."

Next year the Cougars, if they post a winning record and are not selected to play in a BCS bowl, are set to participate in the Poinsettia Bowl in San Diego. In 2013, BYU is under contract to play in the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl in San Francisco.