it's hard to say without having video of it but just reading the transcript it appears that he hadn't heard it. Why would he lie about this?
I wonder if KF will take him back. My source told me the only reason he came back was because no other P5 schools would offer him a scholarship and he would have had to walk on somewhere else. Kirk's program is really fractured now though so if he thinks he will help down the road I think he has to take him back