Michigan Athletic Director Dave Brandon can be deft when trying to avoid questions he doesn’t want to answer.

First, he spent weeks not answering questions about former Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez’s job security.

And now, he’s not answering questions about the coaching search he conducted the past week — at least not specifics. Brandon said that’s because he wants to respect the confidentiality of conversations he has had with various people.

Though members of the media spent days tracking flights and calling sources to try to figure out where Brandon was and who he was interviewing, Brandon wouldn’t fill in any blanks at Wednesday’s news conference that introduced Brady Hoke as Michigan’s next football coach.

“It ain’t going to happen,” Brandon said. “I’m going to fulfill my promise to those people. We’re not going to blab about what we talked about or who we talked to and when we talked to them.”

Brandon said he visited five cities in six days and had multiple phone conversations with potential coaching candidates.

On Tuesday, Brandon told The Associated Press that he never offered the job to either Jim Harbaugh or Les Miles — two coaches at the center of Michigan's coaching rumors. And on Wednesday, he also refuted rumors that University President Mary Sue Coleman vetoed any coaching candidates.

“I am extremely pleased for our student-athletes and fans to welcome Brady Hoke back to the University of Michigan to lead our football program," Coleman said. "His impressive credentials and his previous experience with U-M tell me he is a leader both on and off the field. I look forward to the 2011 season and the excitement that is Michigan football.”

Brandon said he called and offered the job to Hoke early Tuesday morning. Hoke accepted it immediately, without talking about his salary. Hoke has agreed to a six-year contract with Michigan.

“We never talked about what he was going to be paid,” Brandon said. “The only guy I’ve ever heard of who took a job without knowing what it paid was named (Bo) Schembechler.”

The Schembechler reference was just one of the many allusions to Michigan history and the storied football program on Wednesday. It’s no secret that hiring a coach with ties to Michigan — and therefore a coach who understood the uniqueness of the job — was a goal of Brandon’s throughout the search.

“Brady understands Michigan and what football means here,” Brandon said. “He has lived it as a coach and he knows what it takes to be successful. He doesn't have to learn the words to 'The Victors' — he's sang it many times in the locker room. He doesn't need a map to get around Ann Arbor; he was a member of our community for eight years.”

Brandon also repeatedly referenced Hoke’s Big Ten Championship rings and 1997 National Championship ring from his time as Michigan's defensive line coach under then-head coach Lloyd Carr. Brandon said the players know Hoke’s history of success, and that reminds them of what they want — championships.

Brandon said the fact that Hoke is known as a players' coach was a significant factor in his decision to hire him. Brandon evaluated coaching candidates on 12 different sets of criteria. During last week's press conference announcing the firing of Rich Rodriguez, Brandon talked about how he wanted a defensive coach, a person who understood Michigan and its challenges, a person who would be flexible in the scheme they run among others.

And there was one that Brandon didn't mention last week: the fact that Hoke's a players' coach makes a difference too.

“I think one of the most important things in judging a coach is if players want to play for him,” Brandon said. “We had a long discussion about how he approaches his job. It became very apparent to me that this wasn’t a guy where ‘It’s all about me.’ This is a guy who is all about the team. He’s a guy that players want to play for.”

—Daily News Reporter Joseph Lichterman contributed to this report.