Striving for greatness: Brian Santiago introduced as BYU’s new athletic director
-
- New BYU Director of Athletics Brian Santiago reacts before a news conference announcing his hiring at the BYU Broadcasting Building on Wednesday, May 14, 2025.
-
- New BYU Director of Athletics Brian Santiago, right, and school president Shane Reese address coaches, family, friends and the media at a news conference announcing Santiago’s hiring at the BYU Broadcasting Building on Wednesday, May 14, 2025.
-
- New BYU Director of Athletics Brian Santiago, right, and school president Shane Reese address coaches, family, friends and the media at a news conference announcing Santiago’s hiring at the BYU Broadcasting Building on Wednesday, May 14, 2025.
-
- New BYU Director of Athletics Brian Santiago walks down a hallway in the school’s broadcast building to his introductory news conference on Wednesday, May 14, 2025.
-
- New BYU Director of Athletics Brian Santiago addresses coaches, family, friends and the media at a news conference announcing his hiring at the BYU Broadcasting Building on Wednesday, May 14, 2025.
-
- New BYU Director of Athletics Brian Santiago, right, and school president Shane Reese address coaches, family, friends and the media at a news conference announcing Santiago’s hiring at the BYU Broadcasting Building on Wednesday, May 14, 2025.
-
- New BYU Director of Athletics Brian Santiago addresses coaches, family, friends and the media at a news conference announcing his hiring at the BYU Broadcasting Building on Wednesday, May 14, 2025.
Excited, humbled and, yes, passionate, newly announced BYU Athletic Director Brian Santiago was formally introduced to the position on Wednesday.
Santiago, on the heels of his 27 years of experience working within the Cougar athletic department, spoke extensively regarding his new position, which included a pouring out of gratitude, expressing a genuine love for all things BYU, along with his vision as the Cougars’ new head of athletics.
“It’s been overwhelming the past 24 hours to see how much people around the world care about BYU athletics,” Santiago said upon being formally introduced. “There’s never been a better time to be a part of BYU athletics and this university than right now. … Cougar nation, let’s go!”
Santiago brings a wealth of experience to the position, according to BYU President Shane Reese, along with an acute vision of taking on the current challenges of the ever-changing collegiate athletics landscape. Santiago is viewed by Reese, and others, as the person best qualified in how to maintain and even enhance the mission of the Cougar athletic program on the heels of a selection process that involved traveling thousands of miles to interview over 50 candidates.
“Brian was a special candidate,” Reese related. “To my knowledge, no one else in the candidate pool had 27 years of direct experience with BYU Athletics, with 20 of those years spent working under the direct tutelage of Tom Holmoe on the most complex and challenging issues facing college athletics. And today is maybe the most complex of those times.”
National relevance
Of all the topics touched on during Wednesday’s press conference, Santiago related an experience just over 20 years ago that set his personal vision for Cougar athletics. It was a vision laid out by the late Henry B. Eyring, who was serving as a General Authority for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at the time.
The setting was a sort of question-and-answer session with BYU coaches and administrators with the late apostle. During the session an unnamed BYU coach was pretty direct in questioning Eyring regarding what the General Authority’s personal vision for Cougar athletics, to which Eyring responded, “Excellence, and to be nationally relevant,” as related by Santiago.
“And then he said this, and this is the key, and this is the charge that we feel and this is the charge going forward,” Santiago continued. “He said, ‘If we are nationally relevant, and if we do it the right way, then the world will want to know who we are, and we can tell the story through these remarkable student-athletes.’ So that’s the charge that I’ve always felt at BYU over time. … We’re going to be excellent and we’re going to be passionate about being nationally relevant.”
Santiago has been involved with BYU athletics ever since he can remember and has cheered for many of the greats that have starred in a variety of sports through the years. It’s those very athletes who have built BYU into what it is today, according to Santiago, and it’s one of the primary reasons why he’s so driven to achieve greatness and national relevance across all Cougar athletic programs.
“It would be a disservice to some of the greatest athletes and coaches in the history of sport to be okay with mediocrity,” he said. “We’re going to be passionate about excellence. But what rings through our minds is to do it the right way and to protect the integrity of this great place. … We’re not shying away from it. We want to be great.”
Bleeding blue
One thing that set Santiago apart during the process, according to Reese, was not only his qualifications, but his very apparent and deep love for BYU athletics.
And why wouldn’t that be the case considering his extensive ties to the Cougar athletic program?
Santiago attended and played basketball for Provo High School, which was located literally right across the street from BYU during his prep years. He went on to play for and attend college at both Utah Valley and Fresno State before returning to BYU to earn his MBA from the Marriott School of Management in 2001.
Santiago began his BYU employment in 1997 as a member of then BYU men’s basketball head coach Steve Cleveland’s staff before working in the Cougar athletic administration four years later. He was then named as former BYU Athletic Director Tom Holmoe’s senior associate director in 2008 before being named deputy athletic director in 2017.
“As we visited with Brian, some of the things that we already knew about were the depth of his commitment to the university,” Reese said. “The focus that he has on the relationships with the student athletes and his attention to details, and that is a tremendous set of qualifications. We also found in Brian someone who was humble, someone who was willing to hear feedback and willing to adapt and adjust to a changing landscape.”
And he also bleeds blue.
“I’m obviously a super passionate person. It’s something that’s just in my blood,” Santiago said. “I feel deeply for this place. At times people see that passion and intensity, but the part of me that they don’t see is the deep love I have for people, the compassion I have for people, and that everything I do, I just want to help everybody around me be better.”
Football first
Santiago has been tied to the BYU men’s basketball program throughout his BYU tenure as deputy athletic director, and for good reason. He’s been intimately involved with the program and was instrumental in attracting current BYU coach Kevin Young from the NBA ranks in accepting the men’s basketball head coaching job.
For some, Santiago’s passion for basketball may be viewed as a detractor from BYU football in favor of basketball. But Santiago made it a chief talking point during his interview session to explain that any detraction or diminishing of football won’t happen under his watch.
Indeed when asked regarding his immediate responsibilities, Santiago answered that meeting with BYU football head coach Kalani Sitake was on top of his list.
“Some people aren’t aware and they see me as a basketball guy,” Santiago said. “But (I’ve) been in the trenches and football drives the ship. There’s nothing more important at BYU than our football program. We have an exceptional head coach. He’s not only an exceptional football coach, but an exceptional human being and an exceptional leader.”
Empowering women
Unprompted, Santiago spoke of the importance of not only empowering everyone around him, but specifically the women involved with BYU Athletics.
“It’s super important in this day and age of college athletics that we empower women,” he said. “I just want (women) to know how important they are in this whole scheme of college athletics.”
Hitting the ground running
Considering his former capacity, Santiago is feels ready to take on what needs to be accomplished immediately with regards to realizing the ambitious vision he set forth in Wednesday’s press conference. Chief among those visions is parlaying the recent successes of both the football and men’s basketball programs into even more success while recognizing the challenges ahead.
“I want everyone in the athletic department to know that we’re moving forward,” he concluded. “We need to get ready. No one is going to be picking us last and at the bottom of the Big 12 (Conference.) We have to be ready for what’s coming and the intensity is going to pick up. People are going to be gunning for us now. We’re not going to catch anyone off guard. … We’re ready for the challenge. … There’s so much to be excited about.”
