This month’s Big 12 media days were a new experience for Morgan Scalley.
Now leading the Utes, it was Scalley’s first time going through the media “car wash” — doing interviews with various media outlets, having his photo taken for ESPN and Fox and filming segments that will be aired on future broadcasts.
“Oh, it’s awesome. Yeah. Answering all the questions multiple times,” Scalley joked when asked how his first Big 12 media day went.
“Utah football has had a brand that’s very recognizable. It’s a physical brand and it’s very family-oriented. I don’t know that I want to necessarily change that recipe for success. It’s maybe just the way the meal’s prepared is a little bit different. The way we lift and condition.”
— Utah head coach Morgan Scalley
One of those questions that was posed multiple times, of course, was what Scalley wanted the identity of the team to be.
Scalley, of course, took over as Utah’s head coach following 21 seasons of Kyle Whittingham at the helm. In that time period, Whittingham oversaw the growth of Utah football from an overachieving Mountain West school that took down Alabama to a two-time Pac-12 champion.
Whittingham’s team had a clear identity — a tough, hard-nosed and defensive-minded team. Whittingham won more with less, overachieving compared to the average star level of his recruits.
As he takes over from his long-term mentor, Scalley doesn’t necessarily want to change the “recipe” for success that Whittingham built, but instead put his own spin on it and try to elevate the Utes even more.
“Utah football has had a brand that’s very recognizable. It’s a physical brand and it’s very family-oriented,” Scalley said. “I don’t know that I want to necessarily change that recipe for success. It’s maybe just the way the meal’s prepared is a little bit different. The way we lift and condition.”
Scalley has taken plenty of lessons from the winningest head coach in Utah football history. The culture is still built around toughness, physicality, a great defense, and an emphasis on family. But Scalley has added his own elements, overhauling the strength and conditioning staff and training regime. He’s also added his own twist on the way Utah recruits and values players, from the high school level to the transfer portal.
He’s also going to have a different offensive philosophy than Whittingham, and you might see the ball thrown a little bit more than those classic Whittingham offenses.
Despite having to fill the shoes of the most successful coach in Utah football history, Scalley isn’t worried about how he’ll compare to Whittingham — he’s just trying to be himself and do everything in his power to make the team as successful as possible.
“I just try and be me, yeah, and I am. I feel like if you’re not passionate about something, then why are you doing it?” Scalley said.
Passion is something Scalley has in spades, and his energy since taking over the team in late December has been palpable.
He’s set a clear culture and standards, and players have bought into what Scalley is doing at Utah.
“Our culture is relentless, smart, nasty, ballhawks,” Scalley said. “And within that, I could spend two hours talking about our culture, but ultimately it’s skillsets and mindsets that it takes to be elite. Elite men, elite football players.
“And that’s what we teach every day. We practice it, we promote it. We don’t permit behavior that’s countered to that culture, and that’s what I hope shows up on game day.”
After Whittingham “stepped down” from Utah and ultimately ended up as Michigan’s head coach, star players like quarterbacks Devon Dampier and Byrd Ficklin, running back Wayshawn Parker and more had options to go elsewhere. While they were of course undoubtedly compensated well monetarily, each player that chose to stay at Utah did so in part because they believe in what Scalley is building and that he can improve them as players.
While it will be business as usual as the Utes kick off fall camp on Aug. 3, there’s an anticipation for the Scalley era, both from the team and the fanbase.
“I think this season, it does mean a lot. I think this is the first year of the new era of Utah is what we’re calling it, and first time Scalley gets to be a head coach,” Dampier said. “I think there’s a lot of pressure for us coming into this year, but nothing we can’t handle.”
“I think the way Scalley’s came in, the way our team’s buying in, just the way this summer’s been, a lot of player-led things, just feels like we’re coming together as a team. So I’m pretty excited just to kick off the new era of Utah football.”
Scalley insists that he isn’t out to prove anything in his first year — he just wants to win games.
“We’re out to win games and there’s a certain recipe that you have to follow to win those games and I’m not out to prove anything other than that the culture matters,” Scalley said.
On Sept. 3, when the Utes kick off the 2026 season against Idaho, the Scalley era — and a new chapter of Utah football — will officially begin, and it will be time to put all of the work from the offseason into action on the field.
“Our guys have bought into the culture. I’m very excited for it to show up on the football field,” Scalley said.
