Washington State’s Mark Atuaia will be Utah’s new running backs coach, the program announced Thursday.
The news was first reported by 247Sports’ Matt Zenitz.
Atuaia replaces Quinton Ganther, who returned to his former school to coach the running backs in 2022.
Atuaia, a former BYU running back, spent the last three season in Pullman under head coach Jake Dickert and most recently coached Wayshawn Parker. In his freshman season for the Cougars, Parker rushed for 735 yards and four touchdowns on 137 carries. Parker has entered the transfer portal and has a visit to Utah set up.
Prior to his time at Washington State, Atuaia spent six years as Virginia’s running backs coach under Bronco Mendenhall. At Virginia, he coached Jordan Ellis, who in 2018 became the program’s first 1,000-yard rusher in a season since 2013.
Atuaia coached the running backs at BYU from 2013-15, including mentoring Jamaal Williams. Williams rushed for 1,233 yards and seven touchdowns in a breakout sophomore season in 2013 and has enjoyed a lengthy NFL career with stops in Green Bay, Detroit and New Orleans.
Ganther, who spent three seasons at Utah, navigated difficult situations in the running back room while coaching Tavion Thomas, Ja’Quinden Jackson and Micah Bernard to successful seasons in each of the last three years.
Atuaia will have something of a blank slate to work with in the room, with every contributing running back gone, except for redshirt freshman Mike Mitchell. So far, the incoming players into next year’s running backs room are freshmen Raycine Guillory and Daniel Bray.