The one constant during the NIL era of college football has been change, and Utah experienced a lot of it this offseason.
Following one of the most disappointing seasons of the Kyle Whittingham era — the Utes went 5-7, missing a bowl game for the first time in a full season since 2013 — there was a lot of work to do for Whittingham and his staff.
In total, Utah replaced three full-time staff members, bringing in offensive coordinator Jason Beck and wide receivers coach Micah Simon from New Mexico and running backs coach Mark Atuaia from Washington State.
About half of the roster will be new in 2025 as well, thanks to a large graduating class and 24 outgoing transfers.
Unlimited transfers, alongside NIL money, has made constant roster turnover the norm in college football and Utah is no exception.
The Utes did well to keep some high priority players like offensive linemen Spencer Fano and Caleb Lomu, and the team added key players like New Mexico quarterback Devon Dampier (3,934 total yards in 2024) and Washington State running back Wayshawn Parker (137 carries for 735 yards and four touchdowns; 11 receptions for 108 yards and one touchdown in his freshman season last year).
“We feel like we’re able to hang on to the nucleus of our roster with a few exceptions,” Utah coach Kyle Whittingham said in a Tuesday press conference.
Transfer portal and Utah football
But just as the transfer portal giveth, it also taketh, and the Utes lost a few big pieces — most notably defensive tackle Keanu Tanuvasa to BYU and cornerback Cameron Calhoun to Alabama.
Other key losses for the Utes included running back Mike Mitchell and defensive tackle Simote Pepa.
“The absolute overriding factor was NIL. There’s no doubt about it in my opinion,” Whittingham said of Tanuvasa and Calhoun’s decision to leave Utah. (Tanuvasa’s father, Shawn, tweeted earlier this month that Utah offered Tanuvasa enough NIL to keep him, but he decided to go to BYU.)
“Cam ended up at a school in the Southeastern Conference and he would be battling for a starting job just like last year, he was in that rotation, and Keanu was a very good player for us last year, but they both felt it made more sense to move on for their own reasons. But NIL is something that was certainly in the equation,” Whittingham added.
Tanuvasa’s entrance to the portal shocked Ute fans, as he entered weeks after releasing a social media video that seemingly reaffirmed his commitment to Utah. But the pull of BYU ended up being strong, and after three seasons in Salt Lake City, he headed 45 miles down the road.
Defensive coordinator Morgan Scalley worked closely with Tanuvasa throughout this time at Utah, but he now has two holes to fill at the defensive tackle position after Junior Tafuna’s graduation.
It’ll likely be Dallas Vakalahi and Aliki Vimahi in the two starting spots next fall, unless Utah grabs a defensive tackle from the spring portal.
“I love every player that comes into this program and sacrifices and gives and buys into this culture. You love them and when they leave this program, you hope they go on to be the men that you’ve taught them to be,” Scalley said. “And at the same time, my job is to develop the guys that we have in this program and I do a disservice to them by spending much time on guys that aren’t a part of our team anymore.”
NIL at Utah
As far as Utah’s current NIL situation, Whittingham was happy to hang onto some of the key pieces from last year’s team and add some important players from the transfer portal, but said “we’re doing what we can NIL-wise, it’s always a challenge and you always are wanting for more.”
“The discrepancy between most schools and some of the real upper-echelon schools is dramatic. It’s five, six times the amount of resources at some of those schools as other P4 schools and so it’s far from a level playing field,” Whittingham said.
This offseason was one of the most unique in recent memory, coming months before the NCAA is set to unveil an official revenue sharing system with players for the first time in the organization’s history.
The settlement has still yet to be finalized — it is on track to be unveiled in April — but as of now, schools will be able to share up to $20.5 million with their athletes.
Utah athletic director Mark Harlan affirmed that Utah is “all-in” to distribute the maximum revenue sharing allowed.
Though there’s a cap on revenue sharing, that’s not going to suddenly create a level playing field. Schools will get around it one way or another, mainly though NIL deals on top of revenue sharing, which is still allowed.
“Going forward with the rev share, some people would think that’s going to level the playing field. I don’t, because the other schools will still have pots of money coming from somewhere, so I still don’t think that’s going to be the solution, but that’s the direction we’re going at least in the near future,” Whittingham said.
When signing players this offseason, revenue sharing was considered in the budget, and Utah followed an “NFL model” in deciding how much money to allocate to each position group.
Generally, the top highest-paid positions on average in the modern NFL are quarterback, offensive tackle, linebacker, edge rusher and top-tier wide receivers.
“We use the NFL model as far as ... positions that are weighted and more valued ... and (those) positions you sink more money into. That’s the bottom line,” Whittingham said.
He continued, “We use that Excel spreadsheet and had it all mapped out and we adhered to that pretty close. There’s a few discrepancies here and there, but for the most part more, where the NFL is sinking their resources into position-wise, we followed that same blueprint.”