Utah cornerbacks coach Sharrieff Shah had a tough decision to make, and not a lot of time to make it.
On Dec. 26, two weeks after stepping down at Utah following a 21-year run as head coach, Kyle Whittingham accepted one of the premier jobs in college football, becoming the head coach of the Michigan Wolverines.
It was just five days ahead of Utah’s New Year’s Eve Las Vegas Bowl clash with Nebraska, and many on Utah’s staff were being pulled in two different directions. While preparing for a bowl game, coaches had to decide to go with Whittingham to Ann Arbor or stay in Salt Lake City with new head coach Morgan Scalley.
Whittingham took a large chunk of his Utah staff with him to Michigan — offensive coordinator Jason Beck, offensive line coach Jim Harding, tight ends coach Freddie Whittingham, receivers coach Micah Simon, quarterbacks coach Koy Detmer Jr., defensive ends coach Lewis Powell and longtime strength and conditioning coach Doug Elisaia.
The only coaches that stayed in Salt Lake with Scalley were linebackers coach Colton Swan (promoted to defensive coordinator), running backs coach Mark Atuaia, defensive tackles coach Luther Elliss, and Shah.
Whittingham’s pitch to the veteran cornerbacks coach was persuasive. Opportunities to coach at Michigan don’t come around often, and it was a chance to follow the mentor that took a chance on him in the coaching world.
Shah, who graduated from Utah’s law school before becoming an attorney for Siegfried & Jensen, joined Whittingham’s staff in 2012. Shah starred for the Utes in the early ’90s, but had never coached before.
He turned out to be a natural, becoming one of the best recruiters on Utah’s staff and helped turn Keith McGill, Eric Rowe, Brian Allen, Jaylon Johnson and Clark Phillips III into NFL draft picks.
Shah has been a consistent force at Utah for more than a decade, and his position group is usually one of the best on the defense, if not the entire team.
Shah’s track record and relationship with Whittingham made him an attractive candidate for the former Utah coach’s staff at Michigan, and Whittingham wanted the guy he hired 14 years ago to join him on his staff in Ann Arbor.
“I would not be coaching had it not been for coach Whitt. I wouldn’t be here. So I will always love Coach Whitt, always, forever has a very special place in my heart. So when he initially left, it was something that I had to consider,” Shah said.
Whittingham put on a full-court press.
“I knew where I wanted to be. I know I wanted to be with coach Scalley, but coach has a way of being very persuasive, coach Whitt, he can be very persuasive,” Shah said.
Shah had a discussion with his wife, Jen, and ultimately came to the conclusion that he wanted to finish what he had started at Utah.
For years, Shah and Scalley had talked about the defensive coordinator’s plan to become a head coach, and what his staff would look like when he eventually got the job at Utah.
“He would sit with me in my office and say, ‘OK, out of the blue, if you could choose, who would be your offensive coordinator? Who would you like to have at running back coach?’” Shah said of Scalley earlier this year.
Those conversations flashed in Shah’s mind as he thought about which staff he wanted to be a part of.
“It was what was in my heart to be with Coach Scalley. We had a lot of plans that we sat in the corner in that defensive room for years, just, ‘Well, if I were this and if I could do that, wishing, and now some of these things are starting to come to fruition, you don’t want to go anywhere,” Shah said. “You want to see if you can make those dreams a reality.”
The largest of those dreams is to win a national title. That’s a goal that Scalley hasn’t shied from expressing, bringing it up in his introductory press conference.
“I absolutely love what I believe coach Whitt is going to build, but my home was here. It was with the guy that I was able to cut my teeth with, and on the defensive side of the ball, it’s with the thought and expectation that we want to win in a big way,” Shah said. “We want to do what Indiana showed everybody that you can do. If you can assemble the right young men, have the right culture, the right mindset, you can do that.
“That’s not a one-off. I think that’s going to become more apparent and more commonplace than people think, especially with what’s happening in college football, what’s been happening, transfers, more good players on virtually every team. So I wanted to be here.”
