Tom's program: In move from Marsdens, Tom Farden taking Red Rocks 'to another level'

SALT LAKE CITY — As Jillian Hoffman progressed toward her final pass on floor Friday night against a visiting Arizona State squad, Red Rocks head coach Tom Farden tucked himself away from sight.

The coach was nowhere to be found at a spirited Huntsman Center as the No. 2 Red Rocks looked to overcome a shaky and uncharacteristic night on beam in the previous event — Farden would later describe the traditionally consistent beam team's performance as "weird."

Pacing the floor as he watched his gymnasts compete on each of the four events that night, pausing every once in a while to take in a flip or twist — much like any meet, regardless of opponent — Farden eventually found himself underneath the tunnel just outside Utah's locker room.

It was an intentional move by Farden and one brought on by nerves and anxious anticipation. All the hard work and dedication of training with Hoffman, one of his 16 gymnasts he's responsible for, culminated in that moment.

The routine itself had little bearing on what will be a season's worth of effort in a pursuit of a national championship, but the nerves were at an all-time high; that final pass mattered to Farden as if it were the final pass to seal a national title — every tenth counts, Farden is fond of saying.

As she completed the pass, a one and a half front lay, with a stuck landing, Farden darted out of the tunnel with both hands held high, shouting. The 10,000-plus fans in attendance screaming alongside him, along with Hoffman's fellow gymnasts, drowned out Farden's celebratory exclamation. But that didn't stop the animated coach.

Hoffman's was a near-perfect 9.975 performance, and a routine packed with meaning for a gymnast that overcame two years of injuries that has kept her sidelined until the 2022 season. How could Farden not celebrate the moment that would set the tone for a season-high team floor score?

The effort by his team was good enough for the Utes to stroll to a comfortable win and remain undefeated in a season where the Red Rocks have a legitimate claim to a national title — the first since Greg and Megan Marsden last won an NCAA championship in 1995, Greg Marsden's 10th title of a storied 40 years as the program's head coach.

The Red Rocks claimed the runner-up spot five times following the 1995 title, with the most recent coming in 2015 to Florida in Greg Marsden's final year with the program.

But some 27 years after the program's last NCAA championship, Farden has Utah back in the spotlight with a team built to compete for the coveted prize. And while the Marsdens built the program from the ground up and are synonymous with the Red Rocks program, Farden has been a worthy suitor to follow in their hallowed footsteps.

As Farden attempts to make his mark on the program in his third season as the sole head coach, he's got the support of the ones that came before him.

"I think he's taking it to another level," Greg Marsden told KSL.com. "I mean, he's done a tremendous job, has a great feel for personnel — both in terms of the type of athletes he recruits, as well as the type of staff he surrounds that team with. He's got a good feel for all the different — I like to call it keeping all the plates spinning at the same time."

Since his retirement in 2015, Marsden has stayed out of the way; it's "Tom's program" and he doesn't want to appear as though he has any influence over Farden or the program.

"We both felt pretty strongly that once we stepped away from it, it's Tom's things now," Marsden said. "We're trying to just be supportive from afar and be fans, which we are, and we do care, but we try to stay out of it altogether, unless he reaches out to us for something."

Finding a worthy successor

It depends on who you ask, but there was always a plan to find an eventual successor to the Red Rocks program. Megan Marsden called it a "master plan," but Greg Marsden said it wasn't as calculated — at least to the extent that they'd been planning it out for years. Regardless the semantics, there was a plan in place to find a talented coach that could carry on their legacy at Utah.

"When we hired Tom, I wasn't thinking about retirement at the time," Greg Marsden said. "I was thinking about finding somebody who was young and enthusiastic and hardworking, was a good technician and could really help with the recruiting side of it, as well. And he checked all those boxes right from the get go. After a year or two, Megan and I begin to talk about the fact that probably when we're ready to be done that he could certainly carry on."

Farden had no prior connection to the Red Rocks program or to the state of Utah. The Minnesota native received a bachelor's degree from Southeast Missouri State and became the program's head coach in 2004, where he led the Redhawks to their first winning season in a decade that first year.

Greg Marsden got to know Farden from national coaches conventions, and the two eventually came together when they sat by each other at a breakfast. Marsden said he'd been following Farden's progress at Southeast Missouri State and "watched him really build that program" to where he had taken it "to the next level."

Farden accepted an assistant coach position at Arkansas in 2010; and a year later, Marsden knew Farden was the right hire to replace assistant coach Jeff Graba, who accepted the head coaching position at Auburn — he remains the coach at Auburn to this day.

"I just felt like this was someone to keep an eye on," Marsden said. "And so when Jeff — who was also a tremendous coach and has done a wonderful job with the Auburn program — when he decided to take that head job there, then Tom was one of my initial thoughts in terms of a replacement."

Marsden knew who he wanted.

"I got here and I'm working with one of my icons of our sports, and I remember him on the interview," Farden said. "He looked at me, he goes, 'You can coach bars, right?' Yeah, man, I can coach bars. He looked at me and he never asked another question; that was it. That's like his only question ever. Like you can do this right? And then that was it."

Farden was a natural fit within the Marsdens' coaching philosophy and shared their big-picture plans. And in return, the Marsdens gave Farden all the flexibility he needed to build the program, even as an assistant coach behind two people he calls "legends" of the sport.

"As long as it was a good idea and I had thought behind it and a purpose and good follow through, they kind of left me alone," Farden said. "Whether it was developing a recruiting system here, the way we coached, the way we started individual workouts, just different stuff that I brought to the program, they were fantastic."

Megan Marsden credited her husband for being a "forward thinker" and bringing in Farden early so the three of them could work together before their eventual retirement. Greg Marsden called it a career in 2015 after 40 years and 10 national championships, and Megan Marsden and Farden shared co-head coaching duties until she joined her husband in retirement in 2019.

"I feel like, for me, it was more part of the master plan: that I would stick around a little longer," Megan Marsden said. "How long we didn't know exactly. But it became apparent to me kind of when I was feeling like I think Tom's ready; I think I've done all that I want. And I just assume be retired with my husband, so I carried on four more years and then we turned it over completely to Tom."

But for as much as the Marsdens felt Farden was ready to take over the program — they had complete confidence in him — it was a difficult undertaking to replace two coaches who quite literally changed the landscape of college gymnastics, not just at Utah.

"If you would have told me 12 years ago that I was going to be the gymnastics coach at the University of Utah, I would have said you're nuts," Farden said. "Nobody follows one legend, let alone two, and here I am."

Maybe Farden was crazy to follow two legends, or maybe he was the perfect fit to keep an already well-oiled machine running. Time will be the ultimate decider on that decision, but it's hard not to see that Farden was the right hire. In his short time as the sole head coach, Farden has already upgraded the Red Rock experience through his recruiting and scheduling — to say nothing of his push to market the Red Rocks, increase the number of season tickets and secure an upgraded Dumke Gymnastics Center.

Farden was recently awarded a contract extension through 2026, locking him in and providing more stability to a program that has been to nationals a record 45 consecutive times. It was a move Athletic Director Mark Harlan said was a "no brainer."

"Tom has just done a fantastic job leading the program, certainly putting us in that spot to chase national championships every year," Harlan told KSL.com. "His recruiting has been extraordinary, his staff choices have been elite, and the kind of students he's brought in is incredible. It's a very pressure filled job to lead the Red Rocks and Tom has the makeup, the intestinal fortitude and the intelligence to be very, very good at it.

"Just very grateful that he's going to remain here as coach for many years ahead."

Farden's team identity and rise

Following two legends of the sport, ones who had a clear pattern for winning at a high level, it would be easy for Farden to do it the Marsden way — it's a model that worked well and is proven. But Farden wasn't hired to be a puppet or to follow an already scripted coaching arc.

"When I took over, one of the things that was important to me was just to be me," Farden said. "I've got a little bit underneath my belt, but there's still more to do. I mean, I still think there's a lot more to do here at Utah gymnastics. We've got an expansion that we want to get done. I want to continue to recruit at a very high level. And we'd like some banners to be hung in this place."

Farden is animated, he's tough and he expects the Red Rocks to be as competitive as the best gymnastics programs in the country. Senior gymnast Cristal Isa said Farden's "conditioning is way harder" and he pushes his gymnasts to be the best they can be in practice and in meets.

He's tough when he needs to be tough but approachable in a way that allows his gymnasts to be human and share their emotions. And more importantly, he's hired a complimentary set of coaches to balance out what he sees as his weaknesses.

"I have a good sense of what I can bring to a program and what I can't," Farden said. "And the things that I have weaknesses, like everybody, I'm going to try to cover."

He's hired four former gymnasts — Carly Dockendorf (Washington), Myia Hambrick (LSU), Hailee Corry (Utah) and Misty-Jade Carlson (Iowa) — to help with the team's four events or to oversee various aspects of the team, like marketing or some of the operations. He also brought in Jimmy Pratt, who is a proven coach to help the team compete at a high level on vault.

All have a complimentary job on the coaching or administrative staff to give the gymnasts the best opportunity to succeed — and to obtain the ultimate goal of a national championship. While it would be easy to get caught up in the administrative aspects of the job, Farden is all about the gymnasts and working to push them to be their greatest.

"This year is probably my favorite staff of my college career," Isa said. "And I think all of them just really balance each other out. Like when Tom wants to be mean, Jimmy's very nice. And Myia and Carly are absolutely hilarious and they're also very nurturing, so it all kind of balances out."

Farden's team has not won a national title yet — the Red Rocks finished third last season — but it's been a gradual climb ever since he took over the reigns as head coach.

He shares the same aspirations as Greg Marsden, the "big picture ticket items," he says. And for as much as Marsden pushed the limits at times — to get gymnastics into the Huntsman Center or to become a mainstream sport, among other foundational aspects of a decorated career — Farden is there to take the baton and push it even further.

"We both like the marketing, moving NCAA legislation forward, moving the sport, progressing the sport — we love that stuff," Farden said. "Both he and I, we like the political side of stuff. We don't mind getting our hands dirty and that. And then the recruiting, he was always focused on recruiting, and so am I. And so it was very natural for all of those things for me to follow in those footsteps."

But not everything can be replaced, he said. Farden admitted Megan Marsden was much more personable with media and public events, and he finds it difficult to replicate her success in that area. And while his staff compliments him in every facet, he's now the face of the program and can't turn away from it.

It's not that Farden isn't approachable — he is and very personable — it's just ancillary to his love and passion for his gymnasts. The other "stuff" is necessary but not something that drives him each day.

"I think he really sincerely cares about the athletes," Greg Marsden said. "I think they're a No. 1 priority for him. And I don't think he looks at that as a job. He looks at it as I did: his life's passion. I mean, something he loves, and it's just a part of him 24/7. He's constantly thinking about how to make things better — whether it's improving ticket sales and attendance or the recruiting process or surrounding himself with staff that can really help him with his vision of where he wants the program to go. It's not a job for him; it's just his life's work."

"One thing that I always felt is that he's a worker bee," Megan Marsden added. "We would tease about him being kind of the Energizer Bunny, because he doesn't seem like he sleeps much and he's always high energy and getting a lot done. That was something — I mean, Greg and I always felt that we were pretty hard workers and we didn't miss a day of work hardly ever, and Tom fit into that as well."

All of that passion and hard work, and his commitment to the program and the gymnasts, has put Farden in a position to eventually claim his first NCAA championship. He recruited an incredibly talented roster that features Olympians and some of the best gymnasts in Elite, and continues to position the Red Rocks as a formidable force for seasons to come.

"I feel like he really took the baton and has run with it," Megan Marsden said. "And I think part of what shows that is, I mean, the accolades he's accomplished as a coach — through the time that I was there with him once Greg was done, but even more so now that I'm finished in these last years during COVID. It's been unbelievable what he and his teams have been getting done.

"I think all you have to do is look at his record right now and know that we're pleased; he's taking it to another level. I think we both thought he would be successful, but, I mean, I think he's doing even better than we dreamed."

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