On Thursday night after the Utah Utes football program landed a commitment from Texas high school safety Jeffrey Udo, many people on Twitter commented that even without knowing anything about Udo, it was a good addition simply because Utah has had great success over the years landing under-the-radar talent from the Lone Star State, especially the Houston area.
Virtually all of the credit for that goes to defensive coordinator/safeties coach Morgan Scalley, who has been in charge of recruiting Texas for many years now.
High school coaches in Texas have taken notice. Just a few hours before Udo made his announcement on Thursday, The Athletic published a piece by Sam Khan Jr. and Chris Vannini in which they asked coaches a bunch of recruiting-related questions, and Scalley received some high praise.
Perhaps more impressive is that the praise came alongside compliments about coaches from schools such as Alabama and Oklahoma, among other blue blood programs.
On the question, “Which out-of-state schools do the best job of recruiting your players or the state of Texas?” a head coach in the Houston area responded, “Utah. I think (defensive coordinator) Morgan Scalley does a better job of recruiting Texas than any other out-of-state assistant. He’s done it for over 10 years. He finds guys early.”
Another coach from the Houston area responded, “Utah has done a great job over the years in the last 20 years. They’re getting the two- and three-star kids and doing well. Morgan Scalley has had this state for a long time.”
Incidentally, a number of other coaches with Utah ties now coach in Texas and were mentioned in the lengthy piece. Former BYU quarterback Steve Sarkisian is now the head coach at Texas, former Utah State coach Matt Wells leads Texas Tech and former BYU offensive coordinator Jeff Grimes now holds that same position at Baylor.