‘A Utah guy’: Why Utah feels Morgan Scalley is the right man to continue what Kyle Whittingham has built

There’s no doubt in Kyle Whittingahm’s mind that Morgan Scalley is the right person to take over as head coach at Utah after his retirement.

Last month, Utah publicly announced what had been official since November of last year, when Scalley signed a contract extension that restored his “head coach in waiting” title.

When Scalley will take over as the head coach, which will be the first head coaching change at Utah in two decades or more, is dependent on when Whittingham calls it a career.

Heading into a new conference, and a new challenge, for the third time as a head coach, the 64-year-old is as “excited and enthused about the season” as he’s ever been.

Speaking at Big 12 media days in Las Vegas last week, Whittingham said that it’s a “day by day” process for him, and Utah athletic director Mark Harlan said that “whenever he’s ready, he’ll let me know.”

When that day arrives is up to Whittingham, but he did offer somewhat of a timeframe, saying he would “probably won’t be sitting here” at Allegiant Stadium when the Utes open the 2027 season against Miami in Las Vegas.

That means that after this season, Scalley is likely just two years — or less — away from filling the giant shoes Whittingham will leave behind and inheriting his dream job.

‘A Utah guy’

There’s few that know football in the state of Utah as deeply as Scalley, who has spent all of his football life in Salt Lake City.

“First of all, Morgan Scalley is an exceptional football coach. He’s a proven commodity. He’s a Utah guy, played high school ball in the state of Utah, played at Utah, jumped right into coaching at the University of Utah when he was done playing. He’s invested in this program as much as anybody ever has been,” Whittingham said last week.

Scalley first drew attention while starring at Highland High and winning the Deseret News’ first-ever Mr. Football award.

”It’s very rare you get the complete package of everything like he has. He has the best combo of balance, vision, strength and speed as any kid I’ve ever seen,” Highland coach Larry Wilson told prep sports editor Jody Genessy in 1997.

A two-way player for the Rams, Scalley rushed for 1,647 yards and 19 touchdowns on 151 carries and added 22 catches for 466 yards during his senior season. He was similarly impressive on the defensive side of the ball, with three interceptions and 39 solo tackles.

He even returned kickoffs and punts for the Rams, ending his career with 5,505 all-purpose yards and 54 touchdowns in just two years of varsity football.

In a September game against West, Scalley showed off the speed that would make him a highly effective safety at Utah and a two-time All-Mountain West Conference selection as a punt returner, taking a punt 97 yards to the house and cementing his name in the UHSAA record books to this day.

Out of high school, he committed to Ron McBride and Utah – the same school that his father, Bud, played at — and after serving a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints mission in Germany, returned in 2001 to start his college career.

Listed as a wide receiver in 2001, Scalley mostly returned punts during his freshman year, returning 26 for 249 yards, and even had a stint as the kick returner — four returns for 77 yards.

Though he wanted to play on offense during his time on the Hill, by the time his sophomore season hit, defensive coordinator Whittingham was looking to use him on defense, and Scalley accepted his new role at safety.

He continued to field punts — 24 for 270 yards — and even did punting himself for Utah, when the Utes “employed an unusual “rugby punt” scheme with Scalley having the option of running the ball or punting on the run like he did in high school as a rugby player,” against Colorado State, the Deseret News’ Mike Sorensen reported.

Scalley also saw the field as a backup safety, making eight tackles on the season.

When Urban Meyer showed up from Bowling Green in 2003, he took an instant liking to Scalley, elevating him to the starting free safety position, and Scalley rewarded him for that decision. He was named to the All-Mountain West second-team in 2003 after one of the most successful seasons in school history to that point — a 10-2 record and an outright Mountain West championship. One of the most consistent performers on that team, Scalley racked up 73 tackles, a sack, forced two fumbles and recovered a pair, and had two interceptions.

An excellent student in the classroom, where he was a two-time first-team Academic All-American, Scalley also showed the football smarts and the long hours in the film room that he’d become famous for as a coach while playing at Utah. He’d also refine his leadership skills as a team captain.

In helping Utah to a 12-0 season, capped by being the first team from a non-automatic-qualifying conference to “bust down” the BCS door and defeat Pittsburgh in the 2005 Fiesta Bowl, Scalley earned second-team All-American honors and was named the Mountain West’s co-defensive player of the year.

He was everywhere on the field for the undefeated Utes, leading the Utes’ defense with 51 tackles, 2.5 sacks, six interceptions, two pass breakups and even a blocked kick.

Scalley even got back to his special teams roots, with five kickoff returns for 209 yards — including a 90-yard kickoff return for a touchdown in the pouring rain against UNLV.

Bo Nagahi took the opening kickoff and pitched it to Scalley at the 10-yard line, who reversed field and sprinted 90 yards down the right side to open the 63-28 win in style.

Another highlight that year came against Colorado State when Scalley scooped up a Caleb Hanie fumble on Utah’s 12-yard line and returned it 88 yards to set the school record for a fumble recovery touchdown, looking up to the university’s new video board in the south end zone while he was running to gauge how close a chasing Colorado State player was.

After Utah, he had tryouts with a couple NFL teams, including the Philadelphia Eagles, but was too undersized to make it in the pros. He was set to play for the Utah Blaze in the Arena Football League, but nixed that idea to get into coaching.

And where better to start coaching than at his alma mater?

‘He’s a great evaluator of talent’

In 2006, Scalley got his foot in the coaching door by becoming an administrative assistant for the football program, then moved up to a graduate assistant in 2007.

When Derrick Odum left Whittingham’s staff ahead of the 2008 season, Whittingham took a chance on his former safety, hiring him to coach his old position room.

“It’s not the usual path to a coordinator job,” Scalley told the Deseret News’ Doug Robinson in 2016.

“Usually, it’s a lot longer. Things have just worked out for me. I’ve been in the right place at the right time and with the right people. I work hard but also I’m smart enough to realize I’ve been lucky. People really took a chance on me, Kyle being the first. I realize how blessed I am.”

As it turned out, four years after Scalley helped the Utes to a 12-0 season, the 2008 Utes would also go undefeated.

Utah defeated Michigan, Oregon State, TCU and BYU, then beat Nick Saban’s four-ranked Alabama team 31-17 in the 2009 Sugar Bowl to cap off a 13-0 season.

Coached by Scalley, Robert Johnson was one of the key players on Utah’s defense, intercepting four passes on the season — including two against Alabama — and breaking up three to go with 41 tackles. The other starting safety, Joe Dale, had three interceptions, four pass breakups and 66 tackles.

Talk about a rewarding first year as a position coach.

“I love this crew,” Scalley told the Deseret News’ Dirk Facer in 2008. They come to work every day. It’s what I envisioned coming in, just a great group that care about doing things the right way.”

Johnson was drafted by the Tennessee Titans, while Dale followed Scalley’s path and is now the co-defensive coordinator and safeties coach at Weber State.

Scalley could relate to his safeties well, having been in their position just four short years ago, and was able to get the best out of them.

He also emerged as one of the program’s top recruiters. Utah was never a program that got top high school talent a la Ohio State or Alabama, but with the right three-star and four-star talent, Scalley and the Utes have found diamonds in the rough and have remained relevant nationally, appearing in the College Football Playoff rankings every year aside from 2020.

Eight of the safeties he’s coached — Marcus Williams, Marquise Blair, Julian Blackmon, Terrell Burgess, Cole Bishop, Sione Vaki, Keith McGill and Robert Johnson — were drafted to the NFL. Many of those players were under-the-radar spots by Scalley.

“As a recruiter, very good evaluator,” Whittingham said.

“He’s a great evaluator of talent. He does a great job building relationships with the players and with their families. He’s direct, honest and families really appreciate that. He’s a guy that his track record as far as player development speaks for itself that recruits are very impressed with what he’s done development-wise and how he’s helped guys on the team.”

‘Intelligent, brilliant mind’

As he continued to refine his coaching chops underneath his old coach, Whittingham knew that Scalley would one day make a great defensive coordinator — but he’d have to wait a little bit.

Scalley kept plugging away with the safeties, impressing on the recruiting trail, and giving Whittingham nuggets from film study to help with game plans.

Finally, in 2016, he got his opportunity.

Scalley was elevated to defensive coordinator and safeties coach, replacing the retiring John Pease.

Since then, the Utes have had consistent success under Scalley’s defense, starting with stopping the run, which was a point of emphasis of Whittingham when he was the defensive coordinator and continues to be a pillar of what Scalley does.

The Utes were the Pac-12′s best rushing defense in five of the last eight years, including last season, when it ranked No. 4 in the nation and allowed just 82.8 yards per game.

The Scalley-coached defense led the Pac-12 in sacks and tackles for loss three times, and finished in the top-25 nationally in total yards allowed three times since 2016.

Scalley’s best coaching job was probably in 2019, when Utah finished second in the nation in total yards allowed, and surrendered just 16.2 points per game.

He coached two Pac-12 championship winning defenses in 2021 and 2022, when the Utes broke through and finally reached the conference mountain top.

The consistency of Utah’s defense — physical, tough, assignment-sound — has given them a reputation that has followed the team into their new conference, the Big 12.

“Got a physical brand of football. They play excellent defense,” Kansas coach Lance Leipold said.

Scalley’s defensive identity — RSNB (relentless, smart, nasty ballhawks) is one embraced by the program and its players.

Instilling that mentality, along with the countless hours Scalley spends grinding film to craft his defensive game plans, has produced results.

Playing for a Scalley defense has become a draw for high school recruits and transfers alike.

“In terms of developing guys for the next level, this is probably one of the best places they’re known for putting out (defensive) players. And so I was excited to be able to be coached by such an intelligent, brilliant mind like Coach Scalley,” said safety Alaka’i Gilman, who transferred from Stanford.

‘Knows our culture inside and out’

Over the years, Scalley has had plenty of suitors try and sway him away from Utah, but has remained steadfast in his loyalty, rebuffing calls from Texas, Oregon and Florida, per ESPN’s Pete Thamel.

The most recent advance came from Lincoln Riley and USC, who pursued Scalley hard to be the new defensive coordinator in Hollywood, according to reports from Thamel and 247Sports’ Steve Bartle, after firing defensive coordinator Alex Grinch in November.

Two weeks later, Scalley had inked a new contract , one that upped his salary as Utah’s defensive coordinator to $2 million per year, and restored his “coach in waiting” title.

Scalley had previously held that title, but had it stripped in 2020 after an external investigation found that he had “inadvertently texted a racial slur to a recruit in 2013 while exchanging texts with another coach.”

Following the investigation, Scalley’s pay was cut in half for a year, and he participated “in regular and ongoing diversity and inclusion education.”

“This language is offensive and hurtful to not only the African American community, but to all. Immediately after sending it, I apologized to the recipient and his family,” Scalley said in 2020. “I am also heartbroken over the potential breach of trust with my fellow coaches and with the young men in our program, both past and present. I am truly sorry, and I own up to the hurtful effects of my choice.”

After reviewing the report, Harlan and Whittingham retained Scalley on staff.

“He’s here because the young men professed their — in some cases — love for him, and that was a critical part of my thinking and Coach as well,” Harlan told ESPN at the time.

“A man is not judged solely by moments in time. A man is judged by the body of his entire work, and this does not take away anything of the seriousness of what we’re talking about here. Believe me, I was flat-out angry when it happened, not pleased with everything in the report at all, but also lifted by the qualities that were shown by so many of our young men about what they like about Morgan. The consequences here are more than appropriate.”

Now, the “head coach in waiting” title is back — for good.

It had been unofficially understood that Scalley was next in line to take over after Whittingham retired, but it’s now in writing.

“I’ve had a chance to watch Morgan day-in and day-out, as a person, as a coach, and his leadership is extraordinary,” Harlan said.

“So it just made perfect sense for us to formalize what had been really in my mind for a while. … it’s a blessing for the University of Utah to have somebody like that, as (Kyle Whittingham) just described very well, who can continue on the culture and the ethos of the program.”

It’ll be tough for anyone to follow Whittingham, who has built Utah into a consistent power in the West, guided the Utes through three conference changes as head coach, an undefeated season and Sugar Bowl win over Alabama in 2008 and back-to-back Pac-12 championships, while making regular appearances in the top 25.

The logical choice to try and continue the identity, culture and success of what Whittingham has grown at Utah is someone who has been part of it — as a player and as a coach — for over two decades.

“He knows our culture inside and out. To me, it’s very comforting for when that transition time does occur and it’s time for new leadership to have a guy that’s going to be able to carry on the values and the cultures that we’ve put in place,” Whittingham said.

“Now, that’s not to say he won’t put his own stamp on it, because I fully expect that, but I believe that he is the right choice. We have a lot of good coaches on our staff, guys that are going to be head coaches in the near future that are deserving as well. But for this program at this time, Morgan is the right fit.”

No coach on Whittingham’s staff has been with him for longer — or learned more from him.

BYU head coach Kalani Sitake, who coached alongside Scalley on Whittingham’s staff from 2006-2014, brought up the importance of being mentored by Whittingham.

“Great coach, and he’s had great mentoring from Kyle Whittingham,” Sitake said.

“We speak a lot of the same language when it comes to football and brand of football, so I’m excited for Morgan. I talked to him about it. I mean, we didn’t see this in the future, but we were all on the same staff, and now I’m head coach of BYU and he’s going to be head coach at Utah.”

Scalley, of course, won’t be a carbon copy of Whittingham, and he’ll put his own spin on things in the program when the time comes, but much of the longtime Utah coach’s hallmarks will likely continue on through Scalley.

An emphasis on defense, finding under-the-radar recruits that can develop into stars, preaching and instilling toughness into his players and demanding accountability and discipline.

One of Scalley’s head coaching traits that shines the most right now in his role as defensive coordinator, says senior defensive tackle Junior Tafuna, is how he holds his players accountable.

“That’s what you got to have as a good coach, man, let alone a head coach,” Tafuna said.

“If you let things slip, then your team’s going to be allowed to do whatever they want. But I think with Scalley, I think what Coach Whitt has showed Scalley is that there’s no room for mistakes and even though we’ll make those mistakes, you got to be held accountable and I think that’s one of the greatest qualities that Scalley has done for us defensively all around and all in all positions.

Of course, there’s also the wealth of football knowledge and meticulous game-planning Scalley brings, and another attribute that will be on display from the moment he takes over is his ability to relate to his players and coach them in a way that makes the most of their potential.

He’ll continue the “family” culture Whittingham built and nurtured, which the program leaned on especially in 2021, following the deaths of Aaron Lowe and Ty Jordan.

As he prepares for what could be the pinnacle of his coaching career, Scalley has ringing endorsements not just from Whittingham and Harlan, but his current players.

“I’m so happy for him. We’re so happy. I wish I would be around to see it,” said senior linebacker Karene Reid. “Obviously this is my last year, but the culture, the energy, the mentality, the defense that you guys all see all came from him, so don’t be surprised when that spreads to the whole team. when he becomes the head coach.”

Tafuna says that the program is in “great hands” with Scalley.

“It just shows that, man, that’s the right guy for the position. The program is in great hands, defensively, but the team overall, the program is in great hands. Coach Scalley has been a great defensive coordinator, great coach, a great friend to me. … He deserves it.”

Though the exact date is unknown, in the near future, Whittingham will hand the whistle off to Scalley as the newest head coach of Utah, just as Meyer did to him in the locker room after the 2005 Fiesta Bowl, with Scalley looking on as a player.

When that time comes, Scalley’s loyalty will be rewarded, and he’ll step into the dream job he’s waited two decades for.

“Utah Football and Utah Athletics have always been home to me and my family, and I am honored to receive this distinction,” Scalley said in a statement.

“I want to thank President Randall, Coach Whittingham and Mark Harlan for the trust they have shown in me, and I remain committed to my continued growth as a coach and person, and as a member of the amazing University of Utah community.”