the timeline:

12/4/2015 - Virginia announces hiring of Bronco Mendenhall
12/19/2015 - BYU announces hiring of Kalani Sitake
12/24/2015 - BYU announces hiring of Ty Detmer as OC
12/24/2015 - BYU announces hiring of Ilaisa Tuiaki as DC
12/26/2015 - BYU announces hiring of Ed Lamb as associate HC

1/6/2016 - Utah announces hiring of Guy Holliday as WR coach

1/14/2016 - BYU announces hiring of Mike Empey as OL coach
1/20/2016 - BYU announces hiring of Ben Cahoon as WR coach
1/25/2016 - BYU announces hiring of Steve Clark as TE coach
1/26/2016 - BYU announces hiring of Reno Mahe as RB coach
1/28/2016 - BYU announces hiring of Jernaro Gilford as DB coach

When a new coach is hired, they are typically given a chunk of money to hire coaches out of. Kalani spent a good amount of his money to hire Detmer, Tuiaki, and Lamb. There wasn't much money left over for the rest of the staff, which is a big part of why we ended up with such an inexperienced staff.

The fact that Holliday left at least a week before any of the position coaches were hired tells us that he almost definitely had not been offered a job at BYU before he took the Utah job. It is true that the fact that BYU went with budget friendly hires across the board shows that they likely weren't willing to spend a lot to retain Holliday, but the narrative that Utah outbid BYU for him is still false. I have never seen a single piece of evidence that shows that Kalani intended to have Holliday stick around and be part of his staff. Two things can be true without being connected: 1) BYU went with a budget friendly approach on its position coaches; and 2) BYU probably never intended to keep Holliday around regardless of how much he wanted to get paid.