Utah strength and conditioning coach Greg Argust resigned on Monday, a university spokesperson confirmed to the Deseret News.
After Morgan Scalley took over as Utah’s head coach in the wake of Kyle Whittingham stepping down, the Utes promoted Argust to the director of football sports performance role. Longtime football strength and conditioning coach Doug Elisaia, who held the role since 2006, followed Whittingham to Michigan in the same position.
Argust had been with Utah for over 20 years and was recently praised by Scalley during spring camp for his work with the players in the weight room.
“Greg Argust and his staff did an amazing job during the offseason of building guys up, developing them, getting the weight on, getting the strength and the power,” Scalley said on March 19.
At the conclusion of spring camp, Scalley described the team’s health as “really good.”
“Cut down on the soft-tissue injuries. And really it was, I think, maybe a hamstring or two, a concussion, and then maybe a sprained knee. But other than that, with as much live work as you’re doing, stuff happens, but very pleased with how we came out of this spring ball.”
Utah wasted little time naming Argust’s replacement, promoting Steve Saunders to director of football sports performance, a university spokesperson confirmed. Saunders was previously the Baltimore Ravens’ head strength and conditioning coach and joined Utah’s staff ahead of spring football this year as an assistant strength and conditioning coach.
Saunders joined Baltimore in 2016 before being promoted to its director of performance in 2017. Former Utah safety Eric Weddle said in 2017 that 2016 was the healthiest he has finished a season, and Saunders was a big part of it.
“A lot of credit for the way I played and how my body held up goes to Steve — the time and energy he spent with me, and the program he gave me for my specific body type,” Weddle said at the time. “He’s going to make our team 10 times better than it’s ever been.”
On Monday, Weddle called Saunders “the best strength coach I’ve ever had in my entire career.”
In 2018, Saunders was named the Ravens’ head strength and conditioning coach, coinciding with a run of team success that featured 10-plus win seasons in four of the next five campaigns.
In 2021, however, a rash of injuries to key players saw the Ravens miss the playoffs with an 8-9 record.
In early 2023, the NFL Players Association released their inaugural player report cards, and Baltimore’s strength staff was rated the worst in the league.
Baltimore’s strength staff received an “F-” on the NFLPA report card for the 2022 season.
“30 of the 32 teams in the NFL gave their strength coaches fairly positive reviews. Baltimore was one of the two teams that fell well below the rest, and they were even significantly below the second-worst team,” the report card read.
“Players do not feel like the strength staff helps them be more successful. The team recently parted ways with head strength coach Steve Saunders, so we will be interested to see if this area improves in his absence.”
The Ravens and Saunders parted ways in early 2023. In the next NFLPA report card, released after the 2023 season, Baltimore’s strength coaches improved to a “B.”
“He is one of the finest strength and conditioning coaches in the business,” former Ravens coach John Harbaugh said in a statement announcing the move. “His methods, passion and commitment are well proven throughout his career. Steve helped our players be the strongest and best conditioned athletes they could be. He is an outstanding coach, father, husband and friend. We wish him and his family all the very best going forward with their pursuits.”
Argust did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Deseret News on Monday.