The Scalley Era begins/ Utah football 2026

Football
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I’m upset at somebody because what I expected to be a smooth transition from Kyle to Scalley has turned out to be a total cluster f#%k. We will never know the full story, so I am going to avoid the speculation of what went down and try to look ahead.

Scalley is HC. Unfortunately for him, the euphoria of becoming the HC is now complicated and in many ways overshadowed by Kyle becoming HC at Michigan. How will the players react to all of this? Will they rally behind Morgan? Will they be deflated by Kyle’s decision? I think it is good that Kyle will not coach the bowl game. Job 1 is to give the players everything he has and have them prepared. Not an easy task under the circumstances.

Retain coaches. Before Kyle took the Michigan job I was of the opinion that most if not all of the assistants would be back. Now, who knows? Morgan could retain everybody or nobody. I am sure he will do his best to keep all of them. I expect Freddie to either retire or join Kyle. As best I can tell, the Michigan staff is coaching the bowl game. The OC has accepted a position at Mizzou and it has been widely reported that Kyle wants Beck. It has also been reported that RB coach Tony Alford, the brother of former Ute coach Aaron Alford, will be retained by Kyle.

Retain players and recruits. We probably won’t know the fallout until February. If Harding leaves, I expect the Obot kid will as well. I think Michigan was his other finalist.

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I think there is next to zero chance that Beck and Harding are back. And we would be naive to think multiple players won’t leave. I hope we’ve all enjoyed this fun 20-or-so-year ride (and the 10-12 years before that were mostly pretty good too), because Utah could be in for some rough years. However, wiht this influx of private equity case, who knows. Maybe Utah can pull a Texas Tech and buy a bunch of top-tier talent. I guess time will tell.

I don’t think I’m alone in saying that my passion for college football is significantly declining.

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I’d love for Scalley to be able to tap into the PE money to retain as many coaches as possible. Utah should be able make the current staff think twice about any offer to move to Ann Arbor. Do you follow Whit to UM for 2-3 years as a transitional, or stay at Utah that now has deep pockets?

Regardless, remember new coaching staffs are built and dissolved at schools every year. There’s a robust market for coaches.

Example: UNM nearly won their bowl game with a completely new coaching staff, losing to former Big-10 rising power Minnesota 20-17 on a great TD reception by the Gophers in OT.

Think about that: New Mexico got better after Bronco & Beck left.

When Urban Meyer came to Utah, he brought mostly offensive staff with him, but had some holdovers, including Whit, and some free-agents mixed in, like Bill Busch, Mike Sanford, OL coach John Hevesy, Brent Myers. There was turnover among coaches between '03 & '04. Remember, Scalley was a player taking everything in as a Safety in '03 & '04, he played for Mac, Meyer and graduated in '04.

But that was a different time. After Meyer lied & left, it took KW a couple of years to get his bearings in the new job of being a HC, and we went through a crazy number of OCs.

Scalley will have a similar transition, but his scenario is a lot better than when Meyer took off:

  • Morgan has had time to ponder a LOT of hypothetical scenarios since he was named the Coach in Waiting. He’ll make mistakes, but it’s less likely to be the fumbling around on things like Whit did. It’s a different era with analytics, advisors, general managers, etc. Less of the burden singularly lies on the HC. (See Joey McGuire’s description of his job being the CEO)

  • The bigger checkbook gives Scalley the edge on making the transition to being a consistent Top 20 Head Coach.

I think we’re going to be just fine.

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And Morgan has connections.

You know he’ll be reaching out to Urban.

Love him or hate him, he’s a good sounding board for Morgan, and he has a lot of coaching tree connections.

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the make or break first decision for me will be if he shows real leadership and recruiting acumen by reaching OUTSIDE of Utah for a new OC (assuming Beck leaving is a done deal). If it’s a return to ARod or another Utah homer pick frankly…I may just be done. I’m already so discouraged by NIL, Transfer Portal, and the complete collapse of any separation between college sports and the pros while still having Universities support and fund this fiasco my fandom has dwindled to almost zero…making staffing choices that are MWC level will make it nil.

Morgan can show he’s entering into a new era…or he can just be Whitt-lite. We are about to find out.

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Is this going to be a “Jerry Maguire” type situation with Scalley working the phone and Whittingham the other to see who they can poach or keep?

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Anyone who has coached at any level knows a simple truth- the most important part of looking like a smart coach is to have the best players. NIL is making new elite programs and it does not have anything to do with finding an elite coaching mind.

Texas Tech hired a high school football coach who turns out to be an excellent CEO for managing the egos and boosters, add in elite $ from oil barons and viola- elite team.

Utah’s success is going to depend on being able to get good enough players for Morgan to succeed. It is unlikely that he will be brilliant enough to consistently beat teams with better talent.

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maybe the familiar cries of “Fire Ludwig” will sound again at RES :grin:

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They’ll full the big house. He’s a Kyle guy

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I guess my perspective is the outlier.

First, I don’t know if everything will be okay. Scally has never been a head coach. Promoting an assistant is more risky than hiring a proven head coach or keeping a proven head coach. Sometimes it works out really well. But great coaches are few in number.

Second, I’m delighted at Whit’s new gig. I wish him spectacular success. I am huge Whit fan.

Third, but I was ready for a change. I was really tired of the same meat grinder one dimentional offense that treats quarterbacks as disposable and only quarterbacks built like linebackers can survive. Utah needs a better passing game, a more diverse offense to make the playoffs and an impact in them. No matter how you slice it, Utah lost the two games they had to win this year. Theyv’e lost three straight times to BYU. For these reasons, and Maake’s point that there are lots of promising OC’s out there, if Beck leaves, fine. Let’s get a strong passing game.

(But Michigan has a good OC, and the no. 1 rated recruit in 2025 who as a freshman started QB. Michigan had a better seasons than Utah did. Its coach was fired for off the field conduct. What makes everyone think Beck is preferable to the current OC? Whit is going to face a cultural transition and his first order of business is to keep a young promising team intact and preserve a strong recruiting season. That counsels stability, not cleaning house. I think Harding is most likely to leave.)

We’ll see how things develop. But I’ve been ready for change, more risk. I’m happy with everything that’s happened including Whit landing on his feet.

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Whitt, Beck, Harding, Jay Hill—none of them have recruited in the Midwest.

They will have Michigan level $$$ to spend, but you still need local contacts.
So maybe he doesn’t bring in all new coaches.

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this was true. However this: Chip Lindsey leaving Michigan football to become Missouri OC as of 6 days ago.

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I’ll bite. What you say is true. You never exactly know if it’s going to work until they’re in the job, and even then it takes some time for them to adjust. Whittingham mentioned early he had no idea he would have to be a psychologist so much.

I remember the big let-down reaction to Whit from more than a few people, after Meyer. “He’s not as inspiring”. “He was a candidate when they hired Urban, we’re getting the 2nd place coach”. “He talks in kind in a monotone, it was a lot easier to get fired up by Urban”.

Etc.

Some coaches are naturals. Urban Meyer was truly gifted in a couple of ways, including PR and knowing how to motivate players and people, overall. He had an impressive knack for saying the right thing at the right time. (Hell, one time he even told me the practice vagrant to “check up and report back”. I can’t even remember what the topic was. I was going to do it anyway, but I remember thinking “yep, he knows how to get things done”.)

Whittingham was more of a “workman” coach… he just wasn’t Urban. He wasn’t as smooth or inspirational behind a mic, not even close. Even into his 2nd and 3rd season, the ghost of Meyer was there. I had high-level athletes (non-football players, granted) tell me they thought Whit just wasn’t a head coach. Great coordinator, not a head coach.

The advice Whit got was to not try to be Urban, but to be his own man, lead his own way. Work ethic, sincere caring about your players but being willing to push them, being an a-hole on occasion, like when he had the heaters turned off at Colorado State when he looked around and too many guys were huddled around them and not watching the game.

The biggest thing that erases doubts is simple results. 2008 chased away all the ghosts for Whit. Sitake used to drive BYU fans insane when he’d get stressed and start blinking. New HCs can work on the little things, clean up any body language issues, you can always get better at something you’re not a natural in. Learn what not to say, etc.

It will take some time, but Scalley will settle in and when the recruits and results roll in… none of the early concerns will be remembered. Be steady, be fearless, demonstrate you give a damn, but demand the players do, too.

You never know until you’re under the lights for a while, but I think he’ll be fine. It gets more comfortable the more you do it.

When I see interviews of Joey McGuire at Texas Tech, he’s definitely not winning any Urban Meyer award for gifted public speaking. He describes himself as the CEO, on top of a big organization. Same kind of “meh” reaction when Cignetti of Indiana speaks. “Don’t quit your day job, coach”.

These guys aren’t touring corporate motivational speakers, they’re football coaches.

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Here is one way I think Scalley will need to change, once the money really starts to impact recruiting:

We’ve always taken risks, especially on defense. A ton of pre-snap movement, coverage masking, 40-something types of blitzes, etc. Overall, it’s worked well, we’ve had a highly regarded, sophisticated defense.

But when you get really good players, you don’t have to do that, as much. When I look at Texas Tech’s defense, there’s very little pre-snap movement and they don’t blitz that often. They simply have the players to beat you, whatever you’re going to do. They look like an NFL defense.

There are always the calls to go for it on 4th down on offense, the analytics. And sometimes you need disrupt a QB using a blitz or change coverages. But if you have the talent, there’s less exotic scheming involved.

That really stood out when we played Texas Tech. “Damn, these guys are just good”.

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Scalley is better publicly and with recruits than Kyle

Scalley’s first media scrum in Vegas was more engaging than anything Kyle has done

Will it translate? It’s impossible to say, however it’s interesting to note how many former players have been excited about this change.

I also think it may have played a role in the change itself.

Part of me wonders if it was less admin, and more alumni/players etc whispering a change needed to happen.

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I also find the hatred of Harlan kind of sad and funny at the same time

He’s the built in villain for so many.

Kyle just told the media in Orlando he was treated fairly by the admin at Utah and it was his choice to step down, the first comments online “Harlan should be fired, Kyle is a company man, of course he said that”

What company is Kyle representing?

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These are two comments at the Athletic thread about Whittingham. Are either of these anywhere near true, or does anybody even know?

Matthew P.
@Jason H. Utah wanted him gone before their “head coach in waiting,” Morgan Scalley, took a head coaching job somewhere else. Whitt didn’t want to retire, but felt Utah didn’t want him there. So he left, and made it clear he wasn’t done coaching.

Greg L.
@Jason H. The Utah AD wanted a time table on how long he wanted to remain coach. Whittingham refused and stepped aside.

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Is it possible–just throwing this out–that Kyle decided it was time for Utah to go in a different direction, but at the same time, he wasn’t done coaching?

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The most plausible things I’ve seen and heard from people I trust.

Kyle had made it clear all year he was retiring. But when the time came he had second thoughts. (It should be noted multiple people have said Kyle was the one who really wanted Scalley to get the CIW title)

This was also coupled with Sitake being overpayed to stay, which possibly (and we’ll likely never know for sure) led to Kyle not only changing his mind but asking for a long term higher paying deal, which was declined by people above Harlan.

As I’ve said other places, this reminds me a lot of the 25 year cops who decide to retire, then come back. I know 3 in the last year who have done so.

The hard part for people like Kyle is, like it or not, his entire identity is being a high profile football coach. He doesn’t know what else do to. And the “I want to spend more time with my family” often wears off quickly.

I recently talked to some I know who retired about 3 months ago after 30 years. They said the first 30-45 days was great. But now they’re looking for things to do as being home just isn’t what they expected.

My honest guess? Kyle was fully intent on retiring and had made it clear to everyone (Scalley even alluded to this in his remarks in Vegas) but when the time came, he couldn’t do it and he ‘lucked’ into the great spot to keep going.

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Thanks Diehard, you always have good info.

That said, has anybody chronicled what Dampier and Ficklin are saying considering they re-upped with the expectation that Whittingham and Beck were in place?

Are they just resigned to the fact they re-upped or are they unhappy?

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