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Morgan Scalley did not get to ease into his dream job.
The new head coach of the Utes hit the ground running, coaching Utah to a 44-22 win in the Las Vegas Bowl, while also assembling a staff and retaining players. Then came the transfer portal, which opened on Jan. 2 — two days after the Utes’ bowl win — and closes this Friday.
There’s been a ton of movement in the transfer portal across college football, and with Kyle Whittingham’s departure to Michigan, Utah has seen plenty of transfer portal activity.
In total, 26 players from Utah opted to enter their names into the transfer portal. While that seems like a high number, 19 of those players either did not play or made minimal contributions for the 2025 team. The vast majority of those players will be taking a step down in competition, whether that is at the Group of Five or FCS level.
Among that group, there are a couple of players that had potential that are now gone, including four-star WR/S Salesi Moa — who enrolled at Utah for a week before entering the transfer portal — and four-star linebacker Christian Thatcher.
That leaves seven contributing players that are set to leave Utah. Starters leave Utah every year — see Cam Calhoun to Alabama and Keanu Tanuvasa to BYU last season — but the coaching change this year meant the transfer portal hit Utah a little harder than a normal offseason.
Four of those seven leaving contributors — cornerback Smith Snowden, tight end/wide receiver JJ Buchanan, defensive tackle Jonah Lea’ea and defensive end John Henry Daley — chose to follow Whittingham to Michigan.
Though Snowden didn’t have his personal-best season this year (he had a PFF grade of 68.4, including a tackling grade of 37.7), he was still integral to Utah’s defense, totaling 37 tackles, two interceptions and nine breakups.
A return to Utah would have given the Utes, who now need to fill two starting cornerback spots, needed continuity.
Lea’ea was the Utes’ best-performing defensive tackle in a spotty season for the group. He racked up 34 tackles, a sack and a forced fumble in his first full season as a starter at the position.
Daley, who transferred to Utah from BYU after the 2023 season, was one of the best defensive ends in the nation, positing an astonishing stat line in 2025 — 48 tackles, 17.5 tackles for loss, 11.5 sacks, two forced fumbles and one pass breakup. Daley’s season was cut short with a lower-leg injury against Kansas State, but he says that he will be “fully healthy” by spring.
Buchanan looked to be on track to become one of Utah’s go-to receivers next season after good performances in each of the Utes’ last three games, including four catches for 76 yards and a touchdown in the Las Vegas Bowl.
Michigan is also the favorite to land Moa, who was one of the highest-rated prospects that Utah has ever landed.
It wasn’t a mass exodus to Michigan, but it definitely hurt Utah. If Daley indeed plays next season, that’s four surefire starters gone, plus Moa, who had a great chance to start in his freshman season at Utah.
The other three contributors — safety Tao Johnson (UCLA), defensive tackle Dallas Vakalahi (Penn State) and cornerback Don Saunders (Purdue) — decided to play for other Big Ten teams.
In all, between the transfer portal, NFL draft and graduation, the Utes will be replacing 17 starters or heavy rotation players next season — no easy feat for Scalley in his first season as head coach. That includes the entire starting offensive and defensive lines, two starting receivers, and all but one cornerback and linebacker.
The good news for Utah on the retention front? The Utes kept arguably their three most valuable offensive players — quarterback Devon Dampier, quarterback Byrd Ficklin and running back Wayshawn Parker.
Those three will provide a good foundation for Utah’s offense, while linebacker Johnathan Hall, cornerback Scooby Davis and safety Jackson Bennee are key starters that were retained on defense.
Even with those pieces — Dampier returning to Utah is huge for the Utes — that’s a lot of production to replace. In the modern age of college football, however, it’s not unheard of.
Utah has some replacements in-house already.
Creed Whittemore and/or Larry Simmons should step up at wide receiver, Hunter Andrews will be back from injury and should be the Utes’ starting tight end, and Kelvin Obot, Keith Olson and Solatoa Moea’i are prime candidates to start along the offensive line.
Kash Dillon or Lance Holtzclaw could fill one — or both — defensive end spots, Karson Kaufusi should fill a defensive tackle spot and Trey Reynolds could be the other linebacker with Hall.
Rabbit Evans returns to safety after an injury last season with either Bennee or Nate Ritchie beside him.
Of course, Scalley also hit the portal to bring in some two-deep candidates. While few are from flashy name-brand schools, aside from Ohio State offensive lineman Isaiah Kema and Tennessee defensive tackle Jamal Wallace, Utah’s bread and butter in the past years has been developing players from Group of Six schools.
Just look at what Utah did with the “Group of Six All-Stars” this year en route to an 11-2 record.
Blake Cotton, from UC Davis, wasn’t exactly an eye-popping name in last year’s cycle, but proved to be an important player for the Utes. Dampier, Parker and Ryan Davis came from Group of Six schools and were among Utah’s most impressive offensive players.
Utah has currently signed 14 incoming transfers, with more potentially to come. While the portal closes to new player entrants on Friday, schools can add to their rosters through the portal past that date.
There’s been three main position group pickups for the Utes — wide receiver, cornerback and defensive tackle.
The standouts at the wide receiver position are Utah State’s Braden Pegan and San Jose State’s Kyri Shoels. Pegan, a junior, put up 926 yards and five touchdowns in new Utah offensive coordinator Kevin McGiven’s scheme with quarterback Bryson Barnes, while Shoels totaled 768 yards and two touchdowns on 59 receptions.
Pegan comes into Utah as the team’s potential WR1.
At cornerback, which needed its room replenished after six transfers and one graduation, the Utes picked up four players, including USF sophomore James Chenault (32 tackles, two interceptions and four pass breakups) and Akron’s Elijah Reed (47 tackles, two interceptions, a sack and four breakups).
Depending if Bennee plays nickel next year, one of Utah’s transfer portal pickups could be in line to start.
Another big position of need was at defensive tackle, where Utah picked up three players — Wallace (four tackles), San Jose State’s Jireh Moe (28 tackles and 1.5 sacks) and Wyoming’s Lucas Samsula (15 tackles and 1.5 sacks while starting in seven games).
North Texas’s Ethan Day (53 tackles, seven tackles for loss, 4.5 sacks and a forced fumble) could slot in right away at defensive end.
Interestingly, since Utah has to replace five starters, the Utes have picked up just two offensive linemen — Kema (31 snaps, 68.2 PFF grade, 76.4 pass blocking grade) and Cedric Jefferson, who started for FCS national champion Montana State.
The relative lack of offensive linemen additions could speak to the confidence Utah has in its internal replacements.
With having to replace the majority of starters, Scalley is facing an uphill climb in his first year, but he has navigated a tumultuous time the best he could while adding what Utah feels are some quality players along the way. Though they might not be big names or come from name-brand schools, Scalley and Co. believe that they will help Utah win games next season.
With the transfer portal closing and the roster just about set — starting this year, there is no spring portal — winter conditioning work begins to get players ready for spring football.
The Scalley era is off and running.
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