This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

As you've probably read or heard by now, BYU athletic director Tom Holmoe conducted a roundtable discussion, a Q&A session, as it were, with media members on Friday morning at the Marriott Center's Cougar Room. It was the first roundtable talk with Holmoe since Feb. 24, 2015.

Here's my quick report on the 30-minute discussion, which obviously only includes a small portion of what Holmoe had to say.

In the next few days, I will post excerpts from my transcription of the proceedings.

For starters, here's generally what Holmoe had to say about the hiring of new football coach Kalani Sitake, and his staff. No fewer than 10 questions were asked about the coaching change, most of them in the first half of the discussion.

Here they are:

On his overall thoughts about the hiring, five weeks later:

"It has been a good month. It has been a really good month for me to get to know Kalani better. When you are going through the interview process, it is a short period of time, and pretty intense. It has been a great experience for me to get to know him better and to see how he works, how he operates, and see some of his strengths — things that I hoped for, that I am beginning to see. So I am excited about that."

On the staff Sitake has assembled and whether he had much input:

"I am happy with the staff. First, right off the bat, when you talk to people that you are interviewing for the head coaching job, you ask them about their staff and who they would like to assemble. Some people aren't really sure, and haven't thought through that at that point. Kalani had a good feel for what he wanted to do, and as we started working through that, it was important to get the coordinators in first and I like the fact that he used the coordinators, and counseled with them to select the position coaches. He actually made a little switch at one point. That was kind of a cool thing to see that he had the courage and felt that was the best thing to do, and just did it."

On so many former players on staff and whether that was a goal:

"It wasn't for me. I didn't hire the assistant coaches. We spoke early on about some possibilities, and there are people on the staff that were in those discussions, and some people not on the staff that were in those discussions. So really, it came down to him. Being a head coach myself, I think it is really important that the head coach picks the staff, and the athletic director stays out of his business. I was there as a resource — I know a little about football and staffs and things like that. But Kalani's staff, I feel really good about that."

On the perceived lack of college coaching experience on the staff and whether that's a concern:

"It depends on how you define experience. I mean, people say Ty Detmer doesn't have any experience? I beg to differ with that. If you are saying college football coaching? Yeah, possibly. In my experience of recruiting, I have seen high school football coaches that could definitely be NFL coaches. Not necessarily head coaches. That's a hard job. But head football coaches in high school could be NFL assistant coaches, if it wasn't for connections, networking, people that they knew. To me, experience is important, but this is a unique situation at BYU, where I think there are other factors that are as important as college football experience."

On whether they are paying new coach and staffers more than former staffers:

"Yeah. When I say obligation, it is something in talking with a number of our candidates, as well as some of the people I just counseled with, prior to the selection and during the interviews, I felt that it was important that we added some resources, and people. So, we had some financial resources that went up, and we have added a couple people to the staff, just for support. Only in support. You can only have nine coaches, one way or the other."

On paying the market value for coaches as opposed to attracting those who want the BYU experience:

"Well, I think that is what every school should do, is do what they think is right. And I think one of the things that we try to do at BYU is to be aligned with the university and mission of the church that sponsors us. So I take counsel from my superiors, and I know what they like and what they want, and the parameters. So to try to compare BYU to any other school, you can't do it. People will make the comparisons, but when you get into the thick of things, there are reasons why we do the things we do. There are reasons why we don't do some things. It is odd to me to see everybody compare themselves to each other."

On the difficult 2016 schedule and the new staff facing it and expectations in first year for them:

"That will be a difficult part, that part of it, because when you get into the games, there is nothing like being able to call a game, and make adjustments. That part of it, with a stiff schedule like that, will be difficult. I like our guys, and what they will do. I like the fact that to kind of balance that out, we have an experienced team of good skill people in positions that are important. I like where we are going with our interior people. That is something we will spend a lot of time on."

On whether the new coaching staff has rallied donors and created excitement among boosters:

"Yeah, a little bit. I think Kalani has a personality where he likes one on one. He's good with recruits. He's good with donors. I think some people that we have been associated with that have helped us with resources over the years have talked with him, and want to be around him. He's good at that. That will be a blessing. Some of the other guys on the staff are good at that. You talk about experience? This is one thing that, we have some guys on that staff right now that can really plug right in to this university. To me, that's a part of college football. It isn't a part of the NFL. But it is a part of college football to plug into the culture of that campus. I like what I've seen so far."

On whether he's seen a bump in recruiting excitement:

"I would say that's probably true. I think that everywhere in the country right now, this time of the year, you are on high fuel level. You gotta go, because you can lose guys, you can flip guys. It is really a critical time. I think the proof in the pudding will be how we do in an entire recruiting cycle. And when we go out in the spring recruiting, what kinds of impressions we make on freshmen and sophomores. That's not something that we've really done in the past. But to compete against some of the teams that we have got to compete against for our kids now, you gotta start them young. That will be something that I will look to see. I am pleased where they are right now. For a little while there, we had three coaches on staff for two weeks. That was a little hairy, during recruiting season."

On the Polynesian influence on coaching staff and recruiting and how it plays a role:

"Well, I think we hired a Polynesian coach. He has a lot of friends and interests that have been with him for a while and have been part of his success. So, I don't think that is any different than if you were at another school, or another team, somewhere else and you got hired. You would bring the people that you believe in, and trusted, and felt could help you be successful. That being said, we have a strong influence of Polynesian student athletes on our football team, and have for a long time. I think that will help in some regard. The thing that is important about this, is part is the staff, and part is the coaches and individual student athletes. It only takes one student athlete to hit one coach, to match up with that, and to connect with them. That's what a lot of recruiting is about. It is about connections. Ulltimately, we want to connect them with the school. That's what we have been able to do for so long. We have a great connection with the culture. But there are a lot of choices for PSAs, potential student athletes. And we got to work. We got to work hard. We got to make more connections, and tie more individuals into the things that are attractive to them here, versus somewhere else. And we can do that. We have got a great place to sell. BYU sells itself. I know people think there are distractions and maybe weaknesses. But to me, it is a great place to sell."