PROVO — As an institution BYU is known for frugality in athletics, not willing to pay the market rate for its head coaches and assistants.

When Bronco Mendenhall announced his intention to quit as BYU’s head football coach to take over at Virginia, athletic director Tom Holmoe admitted he could not match the new salary, which started at $3.2 million a year. As a private institution, BYU does not have to release its salaries, but it has been estimated Mendenhall would at least double his pay at the Atlantic Coast Conference university.

There’s a reason going back 25 years, as salaries have exploded, BYU has hired first-year coaches at the Division I level to lead the football and men’s basketball programs. The lone exception was Gary Crowton, who was the head coach at Louisiana Tech before succeeding LaVell Edwards.

Everybody else has been a rookie, subject to the youthful mistakes that typically befall those without experience. BYU’s unwillingness to open its checkbook has extended down to assistants, leading the head coaches to hire former players with little experience, including two who were plucked from the high school ranks.

This year, after serving as defensive coordinator at Oregon State, first-year head coach Kalani Sitake brought in four coaches who weren’t on any college staffs. Sitake may have been interested in hiring assistants from Power 5 teams, but he knew head coaches at those programs would offer more money.

In effect, despite playing big-time football, BYU has been an entry-level program at some positions.

There are growing pains in every new position, including for the BYU football coaches. Already this season, two first-year coaches have second-guessed themselves.

Last month, after BYU failed to make the potential game-winning two-point conversion against Utah, offensive coordinator Ty Detmer acknowledged he was wrong to not give Taysom Hill another option besides a quarterback draw. The play, which went nowhere, resulted in BYU’s sixth consecutive loss to its better rival.

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So finally, more than one year after suffering a season-ending foot injury, BYU quarterback Taysom Hill is getting back to the dynamic level he displayed in previous seasons.

For his incredible accomplishments as a player, Detmer had never coached beyond high school ball before finally accepting the latest offer to return to his alma mater.

Last week, Toledo, which plays in the lightly regarded Mid-American Conference, shredded BYU’s defense by posting 53 points. Quarterback Logan Woodside was an impressive 30 of 38 for 505 yards and five touchdowns.

This week, defensive coordinator Ilaisa Tuiaki blamed poor coaching for Toledo’s explosion. Tuiaki, who coached on the staffs of Gary Andersen at Oregon State and Kyle Whittingham at Utah, is a first-time coordinator.

To his credit, much like Detmer, Tuiaki pointed the finger at himself. In a moment of desperation or maybe even panic, he abandoned the game plan and it backfired.

For the first month, BYU’s defense was good, especially against Pac-12 opponents Arizona, Utah and UCLA. The defense was not as good against West Virginia and fell apart in the last game.

“This one was really on me as a coach,” Tuiaki said. “We should have stuck to some of the things we prepped. It would have gotten us out of some of the shots that they were taking down field. We would have been in different coverages. In the moment, you kind of feel like, this isn’t working, we’ve got to do (something different). In the past, it’s helped and it’s worked. But we probably abandoned our game plan and went to a lot of base stuff a little too early.”

Fortunately, unlike in Detmer’s situation, Tuiaki’s inexperience didn’t cost BYU the victory. Propelled by the nearly unstoppable Jamaal Williams, who rushed for a school-record 286 yards and five touchdowns, BYU won the game by two points.

Obviously, the offense let Tuiaki off the hook, which is why he went around hugging the offensive coaches and players.

“There were certain scheme things we probably should have stuck to or made adjustments to instead of abandoning what we ended up planning,” he said. “That’s what we ended up doing. Maybe doing it in the earlier games where we had some success made me feel comfortable about it, but it was just me trying to outsmart myself. So I put it on myself and not the kids.”

Ultimately, Sitake and his assistants likely will be excellent coaches. They just may need to learn on the job.

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