Through the opening three games, the beginning of the Morgan Scalley era has gone about as well as anyone could have hoped for.
Some of that is due to the soft nonconference schedule, which ranks No. 130, featuring home games against Idaho, Arkansas and Utah State. You can only play who is in front of you, though, and athletic director Mark Harlan certainly didn’t envision the Razorbacks being one of the worst Power Four teams when he scheduled the home-and-home between the two programs back in 2019.
“Oh, with the transfer portal, you don’t know what competition you’re going to get. My whole deal is you get who you get. Utah State, look at what they did to Washington on the road. I trust our administration and my job is to prepare this football team for whoever comes their way — and the competition is what the competition is,” Scalley said.
With the caveat that the Utes haven’t been truly tested yet, Utah has lived up to its No. 15 national ranking, defeating Idaho 66-14, Arkansas 43-10 and Utah State 33-0.
Now the real season arrives, starting with a trip to Ames this Saturday to face a rebuilding Iowa State team that could be ahead of schedule after Matt Campbell left for Penn State.
The Utes will face tough tests in Houston, BYU and Arizona in Big 12 play, which will tell us everything about this team and how far they can go in Scalley’s inaugural season.
After nonconference play, here are three things we’ve learned about the 2026 Utes.
Kevin McGiven’s offense is unique and has included a shift in thinking
When was the last time that Utah fans had this much fun watching an offense? Kevin McGiven has shown why his name was jotted down in Scalley’s book of potential offensive coordinators long before Scalley was named Utah’s coach.
When Scalley said before Week 1 that he wasn’t worried about showing too much of the offensive playbook during nonconference play, it was easy to dismiss that as coachspeak, but he was telling the truth.
“Kevin’s done a nice job of having enough throughout spring and fall that you’re always going to see something new. 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,” Scalley said. “... There’s something for every defense to be worried about. So not too worried about being vanilla.”
McGiven has opened his bag of tricks early and often, even in games where Utah could have cruised with a “vanilla” offense. Utah’s offensive coordinator is confident in his deep playbook and isn’t worried about putting trick plays on film since he has many more ready to go.
So far, McGiven has dazzled with a dizzying array of formations, concepts and plays.
There have been the two-quarterback sets with Devon Dampier and Byrd Ficklin, featuring a double pass, a handoff from Dampier to Ficklin, an option play with Dampier and Ficklin and even a handoff from Ficklin to Dampier, who pitched it back to Ficklin for a first down.
Having two quarterbacks on the field has been a hallmark of McGiven’s early offering at Utah and makes it a headache for defense coordinators to prepare for the Utes.
“When you have athletes that can play multiple positions, Daniel Bray could line up as a wide receiver, can line up as a running back. Byrd you see lining up as a wide receiver, he can also be a quarterback,” Scalley said. “When it’s a quarterback that can also throw the ball after a handoff or after a backwards pass, that creates, ‘Well, we got to stay on coverage, first of all, got to be aware that he can still throw the ball.’ These are the issues that you face every single snap.”
Utah can go from the two-quarterback set to the “no quarterback” set, which features a completely empty backfield until someone, either a quarterback or running back, is eventually motioned over. There have been other unique formations with the big “rhino” tight ends and even one with Ficklin, Bray and Parker lined up horizontally across the 45-yard-line.
Nearly every snap features some kind of motion or misdirection to test defenses.
“The shifts, the motions that force defenders to communicate throughout pre-snap communication. How good are they at pre-snap communication?” Scalley said. “How loud are they, particularly in loud environments? So the changing of the formation, the motions that can cause eye tricks, the changing of personnel groups and then the physicality.”
Utah has also been aggressive in going for two early in the last two games, with one successful two-point conversion featuring a “swinging gate” look where long snapper Logan Castor lined up a few steps away from where the five linemen and backfield were lined up and then shoveled the snap to Mana Carvalho.
It’s not all smoke and mirrors, though.
Dampier looks to have taken the next step as a passer. He’s thrown for 690 yards and seven touchdowns with just one interception on a 71.6% completion rate and has shown the ability to attack every level of the field. Helping matters is a cast of receivers, including Braden Pegan, who has lived up to WR1 billing with 235 receiving yards and three touchdowns. Tight end Noah Bennee stepped up big time against Arkansas and three other receivers — Larry Simmons, Creed Whittemore and Ricky Johnson — have 85 or more receiving yards.
Utah has at least five trusted pass catchers that Dampier can go to at various points in the game depending on who has the hot hand, which is a vast improvement from last season.
Wayshawn Parker has also improved his game, especially in pass catching and blocking.
So while Utah has the offensive weapons to beat teams playing “vanilla” football, the chaos that McGiven brings with all the different looks and formations makes defensive coordinators have to spend extra time in the film room.
That’s a mindset shift from a previous era of coaching, where teams would save “trick” or unique plays for important games to avoid showing them on film. Now, Utah is more than happy to put a lot on film to force teams to prepare for a variety of different looks, some of which they won’t use in future games. McGiven can also use opposing teams’ aggressiveness toward things they’ve seen on film to Utah’s advantage.
Tackling has improved and defensive tackle play has exceeded expectations
Two of the biggest improvements that were needed in 2026 were better play from the defensive tackles and better tackling from the entire team.
Through three games, Utah has checked both of those boxes.
One of the biggest preseason question marks on the team was the young defensive tackles room, but they have turned into a strength on defense.
Jireh Moe, the San Jose State transfer, has eight sacks, including two tackles for loss and a sack. Karson Kaufusi has six tackles, a sack and two pass breakups. Both Moe and Kaufusi have been stout against the run, an area that got away from the 2025 Utes in their final two games of the regular season.
Utah boasts the No. 15 rushing defense in the nation, allowing just 75 rushing yards per game, and a big part of that has been the play of the defensive tackles.
“I like the improvement in the defensive run game,” Scalley said.
The Utes have been a sure tackling team, missing only 20 tackles combined in their first three games. That was something Utah worked on a lot in the offseason and the results are showing up now.
“We’re tackling really well right now, particularly in space. Those one-on-one tackles in space, we were very, very efficient,” Scalley said.
The offensive line is ahead of schedule in pass blocking, but still has work to do in the run game
With five new starters on the offensive line, the Utes are ahead of schedule in some aspects as they turn the corner into conference play.
Utah’s starting group of Zereoue Williams, Solatoa Moea’i, Alex Harrison, Roger Alderman and Cedric Jefferson have protected Dampier well, allowing just two sacks through three games. Per Pro Football Focus, they’ve kept Dampier clean nearly 75% of the time.
Williams has been rock-solid, especially in pass protection, and has been drawing some early NFL buzz.
“Our preparation is, I think, the biggest thing that we can attribute all that to. During the week, we take what we see on film and then we try to replicate it as best we can, especially with the scout guys. They do an amazing job doing that. It’s incredible,” Williams said. “We got some really fast guys coming off the edge trying to really test that pass rush. So it’s been really helpful.”
Williams, Moea’i, Harrison, Alderman and Keith Olson, who is getting back into the mix after a fall camp injury, had extensive experience playing alongside one another last year during Utah’s blowouts. That is shining through in the group’s play this year.
“Oh, it helps a lot. You look at last season, I was next to Keith a lot, Roger, those guys, Toa. You get used to playing with those guys. You kind of get a chemistry and you get used to playing next to each other. You can kind of tell what everyone’s going to do. So the chemistry we have just working together really helps,” Harrison said.
The line has also been flagged minimally, though Harrison’s holding penalty on a 95-yard touchdown run by Wayshawn Parker hurt.
One area where the offensive line needs to take the next step is in run blocking. The Utes have put up good rushing numbers against lesser opponents, but will need more consistency in run blocking as the competition ramps up in Big 12 play.
“Personally, pad level for me, that’s definitely something we’re trying to work on and just being attached. We’re working on our second level (blocking) and we’re really going to grind that in this week,” Williams said of where he needs to improve in the run game.
The Utes haven’t surpassed a 63 grade in run blocking this year, per PFF.
‘I think the big thing is just going to be understanding the movement. I mean, not a lot of teams are going to play you head-up. And I think you saw that last week, Utah State ran a lot of gap schemes and they ran some really good twists that everyone runs to counteract gaps schemes,” Harrison said.
“So all that is, is making the adjustment of, hey, maybe slow down a little bit, look where you can collect and just kind of understanding, hey, nobody’s going to play you head up. There’s going to be some kind of movement. Understanding that and just working off of it.”
