First he told the Baltimore Sun he was not leaving to go to VT. Nuff said so don't play the silly words game.
Second there is a way to handle the job candidate question. You decline to answer. Or say that right now your focus is on the current team. Blah blah. We got a year of that from Buzz even though he knew he was leaving. You can dodge the questions without lying.
I never felt good about coaches who say there is no way they are leaving and then 5 days later they are announced as the new coach at the other place.
Truthfully any of those 150 UMBC fans would fully understand a coach leaving them to go to an ACC school and make 4 times the money. Its such a no brainer that its an insult to anyone's intelligence to pretend otherwise.