No one would bat an eye if we just said straight up "Yes, coaching salaries are in part funded by generous private donors. These donations supplement direct funding provided by the athletic department."
This is how pretty much every other university on the planet is funded. While we joke that Utah taxes pay for KWhitt's salary, he is also heavily subsidized by private donors. Not a big deal.
But CG wants to play a little game of hide the ball here. He might as well have said "Well, actually the Lord Himself pays those salaries because every penny that BYU receives is actually the Lord's money. BYU does not own any money or property in fact. It all belongs to the Lord. So we do not pay taxes or report our finances because the Lord is a government unto himself and he owns everything."
CG can be a clown who will go to great lengths to obfuscate the narrative. If he is this dodgy on something like this, it becomes a bit hard to believe that he is playing straight with BYU admin and faculty when it comes to the more complex issues.