You’re giving them far too much credit. I think that was an expectation of the hire initially. They had moved beyond Elko in the search process. They were hiring Stoops.
I believe Stoops may have intended to retain the D-staff. Then, everyone mocked aggy hiring Stoops. Everyone was laughing at aggy for hiring Stoops, their fanbase threw such a fit that either Bjork panicked OR the decision was taken away from him, so they had to turn him down after he had accepted the job.
At that point, it was such a shitshow that they had to immediately hire someone else to save face. There was no real negotiation after that. They desperately called Elko and HAD to hire within an hour or two. I don’t think he agreed to their weird retention demands. He was the desperation hire. They fucked the whole process up every way possible.
Elko was their last choice, and because they fucked up so badly with Stoops, he didn’t even acquiesce to what they wanted to do. They both ate the shit sandwich and liked it.