Morgan Scalley has made the walk from Utah’s locker room to the Rice-Eccles Stadium field hundreds of times, first as a player, then as a position coach and defensive coordinator.
Thursday’s walk will be a little bit different.
There will be new music and a new introduction video, and for the first time ever at Rice-Eccles Stadium, Scalley will lead the Utes out of the tunnel to kick off his inaugural season as Utah’s head coach.
Utah football head coach has long been Scalley’s dream job and was part of the reason that he stayed in Salt Lake City, even as schools like Texas, Oregon, Florida and USC reportedly came knocking over the years with offers for Scalley to coach their defense.
“I’m one of you. All of you that are sitting in here that went through the same thing, I’m a fan. I’m a Ute. Have been, forever will be,” Scalley said at his introductory press conference.
Scalley has already coached his first game — a 44-22 win over Nebraska in the Las Vegas Bowl — so there’s no added nerves or pressure of it being his first game and no heightened emotions.
“I don’t plan on it being too much different and no, I don’t plan on crying,” Scalley joked Monday.
The biggest difference on game day for Scalley now that he’s the head coach? Adjusting to not talking as much while the Utes are on defense.
“Just for me to shut up, just to turn off the mic, I guess, let (defensive coordinator Colton) Swan do his deal and I’m excited for him,” Scalley said. “That’s another aspect of this, that Colton Swan’s worked his tail off to be in this position and they’ve done a great job in fall camp of having these guys fly around.”
After enduring an offseason that saw longtime coach Kyle Whittingham step down, accept the Michigan job, and take six assistant coaches and five players with him, the next era of Utah football is finally here.
Scalley certainly isn’t making it about himself, though.
“I guess I’m not one for nostalgia. You just go from day to day. Obviously Utah means a lot to me. The program means a lot to me and I’ve had unbelievable coaches to learn from on my way up and very blessed to have learned from some really good minds, really good leaders,” Scalley said.
“But this is not a Morgan Scalley deal. This is a University of Utah deal and we’ve got an entire staff and facility. It takes a village to really run this group and we’ve got unbelievable people, so we expect to do good things.”
The Utes seemingly get to ease into the season with a home opener against FCS Idaho (7 p.m. MDT, ESPNU), which lost its first game against Cal Poly 38-34 last week. The game will likely provide opportunities for Utah’s depth players to see action in the second half.
Scalley, of course, isn’t looking at it that way.
“I never think about that. Our whole goal is to play the best we can. Now as the game progresses and we feel like (depth players can get in), but you go into it with that mindset and be prepared to be on ESPN for all the wrong reasons,” Scalley said.
Thursday’s game will give Utah fans their first look at new offensive coordinator Kevin McGiven, who came to Utah from Utah State last year. The expectation is that McGiven will be fairly vanilla to avoid putting too much on tape for Utah’s Week 2 opponent Arkansas, but Scalley said he’s not too worried about giving anything away because McGiven’s offense will always be providing something new each week.
“I think Kevin’s done a nice job of having enough throughout spring and fall that you’re always going to see something new,” Scalley said. “With this offense and the amount of threats that we have, playmakers that we have, you may see something new every single week in terms of not just play selection, but personnel.”
“That’s what I think makes this offense difficult to defend is that, OK, they’re sitting there in a four-wide group. They’re sitting there in 12 personnel and then all of a sudden it’s 13 personnel with your two ‘rhino’ tight ends. There’s something for every defense to be worried about. So not too worried about being vanilla.”
While Scalley says the Utes have arrived at the opener after a “really healthy fall camp,” there will still be more rotation on the offensive line than usual because of some injuries.
“Fall camp went really well. Established a two-deep at the majority of our position groups with some injuries still lingering a little bit. So we’ll see come game day, nothing that’s going to keep guys out of the mix for the most part,” Scalley said, noting that everyone is back and healthy on the defensive line.
Scalley placed an emphasis on being physical this spring and fall camp, which is why there’s been some injuries.
“There’s been, I think, a chip on everyone’s shoulder about the run game, how we ended it last year. So it’s been a pretty physical spring and fall for us, which is why I think you see some of the injuries, but thankfully nothing season ending,” Scalley said. “But you need that. You need the scarring. You need to know you can do it when it matters. So I’m excited to watch these guys against the run.”
Scalley says he is comfortable with administrative support at Utah
BYU coach Kalani Sitake made news this month when his comments about program resources from an interview in July resurfaced.
“I’m just trying to tell you guys how real it is and the fact that we’re this close to making the playoffs, it’s like, come on. Let’s not make the same mistakes that we’ve made in the past overall. Let’s keep investing in BYU football and it doesn’t take much,” Sitake told Cougar Sports Media’s Ben Criddle.
Since then, BYU has restructured its athletic department, splitting football off from the rest of its sports. Sitake will now report directly to university vice president Keith Vorkink instead of athletic director Brian Santiago.
Asked Monday about the support at Utah, here’s what Scalley had to say.
“Oh wow. That came out of left field. Yes. Very blessed with the president that’s a Utah guy and AD that is fully supportive,” Scalley said. “We have a really good thing going on right now. So our focus is on these players and on putting the best product out there. We have an unbelievable fan base and it’s a great time to be a Ute.”
