Morgan Scalley has been waiting.
Now, his time is finally here.
A day after Kyle Whittingham announced he was stepping down as the University of Utah’s football coach, Scalley was officially named his successor.
“Being a part of the Utah Football Program was a childhood dream of mine that has turned into an incredible 25-year journey that I am blessed to say is continuing,” Scalley said in a news release. “This all would never have been possible without the support and sacrifice of my amazing wife, Liz, and my remarkable three children. I have been mentored by some of the best men and coaches I could have ever asked for along the way and learned infinitely more than just x’s and o’s from them.”
Scalley credited Whittingham for helping him reach this point.
“I am forever indebted to him for believing in me and giving me opportunity after opportunity to grow in this profession,” Scalley said. “He has mentored me, inspired me, and given me a vision for the future of the Utah Football Program, and I am ready and excited to see it through.”
Scalley has been on the Utes’ coaching staff for the past 20 years. He has served as Utah’s defensive coordinator since 2016 and was first named the Utes’ “head coach in waiting” in 2019.
Utah Athletic Director Mark Harlan called Scalley “uniquely equipped” to take over as the Utes’ next head coach. “He not only has great knowledge and perspective of what makes Utah football special, but his passion and love for the University of Utah position him to carry the mantle of leadership forward and continue the program’s legacy of success.”
Here’s what you need to know about the heir to Utah football’s top job.
A Utes captain
Born in Salt Lake City, Scalley was a hard-hitting safety from Highland High School who became a four-year letterman as a safety and returner for the Utes.
He was captain of the Utes’ undefeated 2004 Fiesta Bowl team. That year he was named co-Mountain West defensive player of the year and second-team AP All-America.
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Kyle Whittingham coaches then-safety Morgan Scalley during a game against BYU in Provo in 2003.
As a Tribune reporter wrote in 2016:
As a player, that effort and intensity defined Scalley. When Urban Meyer arrived in 2003, he quickly learned that if there was a problem with a player — someone was missing class, or wasn’t getting in the film room — Scalley was a teammate who would fix it.
He was a coach’s dream in every way: the conference defensive player of the year on the field, and a 3.96 GPA student off of it. Weber State coach Jay Hill, who was a graduate assistant when Scalley was a player, said Scalley’s self-motivation was unique.
“When Morgan made a mistake, Urban wasn’t really extra hard on him,” Hill said. “You knew Morgan was already going to be hard on himself.”
Coaching the Utes
(Leah Hogsten | The Salt Lake Tribune) Utes defensive coordinator Morgan Scalley coaches a game against the Idaho State Bengals in 2019.
Scalley graduated magna cum laude from Utah with a degree in business in 2004 and a master’s in business administration in 2006.
He joined the Utes coaching staff as an administrative assistant in 2006. He became a graduate assistant in 2007 and, over the next decade, rose through the ranks. He served as a safeties coach and a special teams coordinator before being named the team’s defensive coordinator in 2016.
“People always say it’s [Kyle Whittingham’s] defense, and basically, they’re right,” former defensive coordinator John Pease once said. “But the misdirection, the disguises, the innuendo and bringing guys out of the box — that’s Morgan.”
New title, text message investigation
In 2019, the year Scalley turned 40, he earned a new contract. That’s when he reached a verbal agreement to be the Utes’ head coach in waiting, ready to take over whenever Whittingham left the program.
But less than a year later, Scalley was stripped of the title in the wake of an investigation over a racist text he sent in 2013. Scalley admitted to using the slur. He denied some of the other allegations in the report.
(Leah Hogsten | The Salt Lake Tribune) Utes defensive coordinator Morgan Scalley in 2019.
Utah Athletic Director Mark Harlan cut the defensive coordinator’s salary in half and reduced his contract to a one-year deal.
“I know I’m not a racist. I despise people that are racist,” Scalley said years later. “You watch the movies and you’re like ‘How does that happen?’ And then all of a sudden you’re ‘it’ in other people’s eyes.”
But Scalley has said he spent the years after the investigation studying Black American history and trying to grow as a person.
In 2024, Utah gave Scalley a new contract — and his title of “head coach in waiting” back.
A seamless transition?
(Leah Hogsten | The Salt Lake Tribune) Utah Utes head coach Kyle Whittingham is hugged and congratulated by assistant coach Morgan Scalley.
Whittingham said that he felt Scalley would provide a seamless transition for the Utes when the time came.
Here’s how Whittingham put it to reporters at Big 12 media day in 2024:
“First of all, Morgan Scalley is an exceptional football coach. He’s a proven commodity. He’s a Utah guy, played high school ball in the state of Utah, played at Utah, jumped right into coaching at the University of Utah when he was done playing. He’s invested in this program as much as anybody ever has been.
“He knows our culture inside and out. To me, it’s very comforting for when that transition time does occur and it’s time for new leadership to have a guy that’s going to be able to carry on the values and the cultures that we’ve put in place.
“Now, that’s not to say he won’t put his own stamp on it, because I fully expect that, but I believe that he is the right choice. We have a lot of good coaches on our staff, guys that are going to be head coaches in the near future that are deserving as well. But for this program at this time, Morgan is the right fit.”