The nuance came at a later point for Baylor coach Dave Aranda.
Asked by popular Baylor-centric outlet SicEm365 about the football program's recent recruiting success, the outlet noted that Aranda said, "We're paying players," per Craig Smoak.
Later, inside Allegiant Stadium before dozens of media, Aranda offered a more in-depth answer.
"In the past, and I mean, this part still holds true today, I've always felt really strong about our recruiting visits, our official visits, our visits of any kind, any type of interaction," said Aranda, who had starred as a defensive coordinator and catapulted his success at LSU into an head coaching opportunity. "The feedback from the parents has been, hey, this is authentic, real people. These are people that are going to be mentors to my son. These are people that care about his education. These are going to be people that aren't going to abandon my boy when things get hard. These are people that are going to see him still and work to get him back up where he needs to be.
"So that's always been that, and it still is that now. It's that in today's climate, that's not enough. That hasn't been enough."
And?
"I think that was really kind of the story of last year in a lot of ways, last year's recruiting, that it wasn't enough," Aranda, whose seat atop Baylor was extremely warm and who made significant staff changes, said. "Now with the money part of it, and I know it's still shocking for people to hear it, but there's certain guys you recruit and the money part is kind of how maybe we as a general consensus kind of -- it's shocking to hear it. There's some people that recruit that it's like that. But the higher ranking guy you go, it is not like that at all. It's like, that's the expectation to get into the thing. Then once you get into the thing, it's an escalator to try to win the thing.
"So I think you have to say yes to that because that's where it's at."
Aranda revealed that he has found the formula to be staying true to program tenets but also facilitating monetary opportunities for players.
"The balance is to be that and then not lose who you are and to not lose the relationships, not lose the authenticity and being genuine and really caring because we talk about buying players," he said, "what you don't want to do is make it so it's so transactional that that's what it is, you're buying and discarding and off and on.
"I feel like, yeah, that's the challenge. As coaches we're trying to get the best recruiting class, but really what we're doing is trying to be transformational and transactional all the way act."
Baylor, which is entering a pivotal season under Aranda on the heels of an 9-16 run across the past 25 games, opens its 2024 slate Aug. 31 against Tarleton State.
The Bears then have an Sept. 7 tilt against perennial conference contender Utah traveling to Deion Sanders and the Colorado Buffaloes Sept. 21.