Devon Dampier was only days removed from surgery — unable to walk and facing a months-long recovery — when his phone started buzzing in his Salt Lake City apartment.

On the line was Morgan Scalley, Utah’s new head coach.

“Hey, I have a surprise coming for you,” Scalley said when Dampier, Utah’s senior quarterback, answered the phone.

Then a knock came at Dampier’s door. It was Scalley. “It’s me, I’m the surprise,” he said with a cheesy grin before being beckoned in by Dampier’s mother, Kesha.

There, Dampier and Scalley settled in for a long-overdue talk.

“We had a heart-to-heart conversation, very much about our past experience and our upbringing in life,” Dampier told The Salt Lake Tribune.

“We talked about how we see things, how hard we worked to get to both our positions that we’re at right now, and how similar our goals were.”

At that point, Dampier was battling two distinct types of pain.

There was the physical aching and soreness following his procedure to repair a sports hernia just days before. Then there was the emotional anguish of losing his mentor, offensive coordinator Jason Beck, who had followed former Utah coach Kyle Whittingham to Michigan.

“I don’t want anything bad ever said about Beck. He’s been my guy. He still is my guy,” Dampier said. “It definitely hurt, though.”

Inside his apartment that day, Dampier decided staying with the Utes was the right choice. Now Utah’s star quarterback has two things to prove in 2026: that he’s a different quarterback when healthy and that he can thrive outside of Beck’s system.

“I’m a loyalty-first kind of person,” Dampier said. “[Scalley] gave me the apology that I felt like I didn’t really get from everyone that just picked up and left.

“He was that guy to comfort me.”

‘Hadn’t seen him above 70%’

Watching from the sideline at War Memorial Stadium on a chilly, overcast night, Curtis Dampier knew something wasn’t quite right with his son.

Devon Dampier wasn’t “moving normally,” Curtis said, and was wincing in pain on every throw.

“Devon said he didn’t know what was wrong with him, but it was bad,” Curtis told The Tribune.

Dampier played the entire game against Wyoming despite what was later diagnosed as a sports hernia.

Weeks later, still dealing with the initial injury and a nagging ankle issue, Dampier suffered a second sports hernia against Arizona State.

“I hadn’t seen him above 70% all last season,” Curtis said.

In the following weeks, Dampier dealt with severe pain. Kesha extended her stays in Salt Lake City — rebooking her flights to Phoenix — to drive her son to appointments and practices until he could manage on his own.

Routine tasks became major hurdles for Utah’s quarterback. Getting out of bed was difficult. Sitting and standing up was a struggle. As for the stairs at his apartment complex? Those were avoided entirely, his mom said.

“It’s hard to see your kiddo like that,” Kesha said. “If he saw fans or somebody, he tried to put on a strong face so nobody could see it.”

But it wasn’t always easy to mask the pain.

“It took me multiple days to recover from playing,” Dampier said. “I wasn’t practicing as much as I wanted. … By halftime, I could feel the pain kicking in, and I’d have to play a whole different game.”

Dampier said he “threw a lot of balls into the crowd” because he couldn’t move his hips. He was also extra “scared to get hit” in the pocket.

While running, Dampier was restricted to straight lines, unable to juke or spin. To protect himself, he often slid early or swerved out of bounds.

“I just felt like I couldn’t capitalize on those moments where I normally could,” Dampier said.

‘Such an odd time’

Last December, after Whittingham announced he was “stepping down” as Utah’s head coach, Dampier felt a growing sense of unease.

As the Utes left for their bowl game in Las Vegas on Dec. 23, whispers began to circulate among the team that the longtime Utah coach was bound for the Maize and Blue.

Then, on Dec. 26, those rumors became reality. During a team meeting, Whittingham confirmed his departure for Michigan.

“I was happy for him,” Dampier said, “but man, it was such an odd time for that to happen.”

Despite having signed a new deal just weeks earlier, the sudden leadership vacuum left Dampier questioning his future in Salt Lake City.

The primary concern? Whether Beck would follow Whittingham or stay in Salt Lake City.

Meanwhile, quarterback-needy teams, sensing blood in the water at Utah, began circling Dampier to see if he might just be available.

“It got really chaotic,” Kesha said. “With the phone calls, the messages ... he just got bombarded.”

According to his mother, Dampier ultimately decided to follow his own “48-hour rule” and postpone any major career decisions until after Utah’s bowl game on Dec. 31.

The dust had barely settled following Utah’s celebration against Nebraska when Beck delivered the news to his star quarterback: he was moving on as well.

“I had no clue,” Dampier said of Beck’s plans. “Just to be told the information after the game and stuff ... man, I was hurt. I was hurting.”

Making matters more complicated: Dampier had hernia surgery scheduled that upcoming week, just five days before the transfer portal opened.

He described the subsequent days as “a blur.”

“Emotions were definitely high,” Dampier admitted. “You could say I had other teams trying to chime in, just wondering what I’m doing.”

The possibility of leaving for Michigan was discussed within his inner circle, but the Wolverines already had a quarterback in Bryce Underwood, a former five-star recruit with a sky-high ceiling.

“If they came knocking on the door, I’m sure he would have talked to them,” said Mike Giovando, Dampier’s personal quarterback trainer. “But they had their guy. ... We all understood.”

That gave the Utes a chance to step up and keep their quarterback.

First, Utah made sure the surgery, which was performed in Philadelphia, went smoothly.

And when Dampier returned to Salt Lake City following the procedure, Morgan Scalley and the entire Utah coaching staff were at the airport to welcome him.

“Them taking care of my surgery, that’s No. 1,” Dampier noted. “That’s not cheap to get a jet to fly out to Philly and get you a place to stay.

“Whether or not I had the ability to transfer, they were still going to make sure I was OK.”

It helped, too, that the Utes took care of him financially, reportedly increasing his NIL deal.

“I think they did a good job of looking out for him,” Giovando said. “All the NIL stuff went the way that he wanted.”

By the time Dampier spoke one-on-one with Scalley and met his new coaches — offensive coordinator Kevin McGiven and quarterbacks coach Ryan Gunderson — his path forward was clear.

The greener pastures were still in Salt Lake City.

“Ultimately there was no need to go in the portal,” Dampier said. “I was content with what was going on here.”

What he learned

Months removed from the injuries and the chaotic offseason, Dampier’s patented beaming grin is back.

You can see it as he walks into the huddle or when he interacts with his teammates on the sideline.

But don’t let that smile fool you — Dampier still has a chip on his shoulder. This season, he wants to prove he can have success in any system and under any coach.

“One person or one situation doesn’t define you. I mean, people are gonna make decisions that best fit them — he learned that,” Curtis said.

Kesha added: “He and Beck were a great combo for sure. But I also think he wants to prove that he’s just as good as what he does.”

Now, the onus is on Dampier to become the quarterback he wants to be and lead Utah to the top of the Big 12.

For him, what matters most is that he has a team — and a coaching staff — that believes he’s the quarterback to get Utah there.

“It’s been engraved in me to play for people that see me the way I see them,” Dampier said. “To have that similar feel from a coach that says, ‘I want this quarterback, and I want him to take us places,’ is insanely convincing.”