And spring football rolling along up on the hill about halfway down. A couple more practices this week than we got four next week in the Forever twenty two game. The defensive coordinator of the Utes and the head coach in waiting and my good friend for a number of years, Morgan Scalley on a beautiful Thursday.
Morgan, Happy Thursday. How are you buddy?
Doing well? Brother? Doing well? It's springball. The weather's great. I'm hoping it stays that way for the next six to seven practices that we have left. But fired up for this new crew, coming in love.
It, love it all right, Let's start with the most important thing. Who is your pick to win the Masters? And who is your dark horse?
Man? The pick to win the Masters would probably be Chefler. I don't know that you can go against him, and then man dark horse, the way that things are going, Man, give me more cowa, Okay, I haven't done anything in a minute.
All right, No, I like it. I like it.
I know that you have an affinity for golf, but as we were discussing off air, you'll have plenty of time to golf when you're not doing this job, and certainly when you're not doing your next job, so you'll get there.
But in the meantime, you've got a lot going on. So let's just get a look.
You know, spring football obviously, you know doing this as long as I have. And you with your eighteenth year, with the program, opportunity to get the new group on campus, opportunity to start learning new personalities, opportunities to start helping these young men understand what you ask for them. So let's go to the start of springball the boxes that you want checked, and let's fast forward to where we're at today and how how's the progress going.
Morgan, Well, springball is ever since the mid year signing date was instituted, you see more and more of new faces that in the transfer portal coming in springball. Used to be faull camp that you wait to see what you really had. Now it's really spring football. Guys are coming in midyear, your transfer portal, guys, your high school seniors that are graduating early. So really it's the new faces that you're trying to get adjusted to the culture,
to the scheme. The things that we wanted to work on this spring that we didn't feel we did a good enough job of. Is stopping the run and creating takeaways. I say midway through, we're seeing what we want to see.
It can always be better. But you know, in the drill work that we've been doing, in the crossover drills that we've been doing, strong emphasis on stout run defense, you know, getting those defensive tackles up to par and then creating takeaways, which I believe we've done a pretty good job of that.
So I do want to follow up with how the calendar has changed and how your job has changed as a result of where we find ourselves in the world of college football. I look the topic of the transfer portal, it gets a little tired because it's been around long enough by now Morgan to just have it be a reality. And I call it free agency. And then there's the nil portion, the collective and all of these things. Uh, you know, we had coach went on the show just
a couple of weeks ago. It regardless of how many support staff you guys bring in, your individual individual jobs are going to change and evolve. How has your job been affected by the changes in college football?
I would say the biggest difference is I mean, it's it's it is about relationships, but people want to know the financial part of coming to your program, what you're going to be able to do it for them financially makes it harder to main attain sustained culture. But you know, that just makes it more of a priority for us to in recruiting, recruiting the guys that fit our culture. Yes, we are going to need money, and our donors have done a great job and we'll continue to do a
great job. But ultimately, you know, recruiting used to be all about the relationships, and now there's that financial piece that no matter how much the recruit may love you, love what you do, love love your scheme. Sometimes if it's just about the money, you're not going to end up getting that kid, no matter how great the relationship. Is so a little bit different than in that aspect. But we've still got kids that love the culture, love that we what we do. We're financially being able to
take care of them. You know, it's the front office really now that has to take care of all those other things. You know, we're we're as coaches talking about, you know, how do we win games? And now you're hiring people and you're putting people in positions to deal with the professional side of things.
Sharif Shaw last year some interesting comments he gave to the Solid Tribune, And you know, I don't recall the exact figure, but I believe Shreif's said, as you're calling recruits, if you don't offer something like fifty k right out of the gates, you can't even get them on campus. I mean, is that where we're at? Are there a lot of because you and Sharif and the staff. I mean, once upon a time maybe the recruiting was a little bit more regional, but now you guys have a footprint
that spreads across the country. Are there really situations more than that you run into with a recruit out of state where you want to get them on the phone or get them on campus, and if you don't have something to offer right up front, you can't even talk to them.
Is that a real thing?
Well, it's economics, it's supply and demand. That's who you're talking to. Am I talking to a transfer portal deligneman that's looking for just a spot to be someone that's trying to prove themselves. There was a lower division school that thinks that they're better than that. A starter from another program that wants to be a part of a winning program. Everything is dependent upon their situation and supply
and demand. And you know, is this a high school kid that you know, maybe isn't a highly recruited kid versus your five star kid that's got every offer out there. Everything really is is situational, and you've got to be really good at understanding that. So this game, this, you know, college football has changed quite a bit over the past few years.
It has, and you know it will continue to change and evolve. And we're hoping to get more information over the next couple of weeks, and we're actually getting some more information Morgan about the details of the House versus the NCAA settlements. And then come June, you guys, as a athletic department at the you and I use the football program, we'll have twenty million dollars to allocate. Are
any of these things on your radar? I mean, because for me covering the sport and covering the U, I think the House Versus NCAA segment will actually bring some clarity so people like you and people like coach Wit and even people like Mark Harland don't have to guess how to do this anymore. Are these benchmarks that we look at people that cover the sport, something that you're dialed into and maybe looking forward to to get more clarity and more guidelines in place.
Yeah, I think you have to be dialed into it. I mean, it's our profession, it's what we do. And and you know, ultimately people want guard rails, they want rules, they want a level playing field, and right now that's not necessarily the case. So hopefully here in the in the next a few weeks months, we're going to get a lot more clarity and hopefully a level playing field. And you're always going to have schools that try and uh, you know, walk that line, and there were there was
cheating before them. Still there's still cheating going on now and we'll continue to go on. But hopefully what this does is it's it levels the playing field.
So let's move off of this and talk about some actual football. And you know, last year, Morgan, of course, everybody both locally and nationally picked you guys to if not win the Big Twelve. You were one of the top two or three picks. You were the Vegas favorite, you were the media preseason favorite. And I would imagine no matter what you tried to do with your group. You cannot insulate them from information because we all have these computers in our hands that give us all the
info twenty four to seven. So there's no way to protect your team from the knowledge that we all thought you guys were gonna win the thing. I wonder if you feel like that extra added pressure or start the year.
Had anything to do with the way that everything went.
Of course, I always bring up last year with the context of a tremendous amount of injuries and health issues. But the pressure that you guys faced from the outside looking in, where we all thought you were gonna win the Big twelve and go to the CFP, how did that affect the way last year went.
I don't think it affected it all that that much. You know, we've got good kids that understand and it's all about what you do on the field an end. You know, you can point to a number of different things. Bottom line is turn on the film and what did the behavior say. You know, defense from a defensive perspective, we missed too many tackles, we didn't create enough takeaways.
We did some really good things on defense, but there's some things that we that we did that contributed maybe that five and seven season, right, and so what what did the film say? How can we improve? How can we get better on the offensive side? Obviously that's what they're working on and what coach Witt has worked to fix on the offensive side of the ball. Preseason talk, that's I mean, it is, it's what makes the game great. You get fans and they want to know about projections
and where is everyone ranked. At the end of the day. No one ever puts a preseason ranking on their resume. It didn't you know, these preseason awards, no one does. You don't see that on anyone's resume. It's what you do during the season. It's the behavior that matters. And you know, unfortunately we had some things that you know, we didn't do well enough. And you know, staying healthy is one of them too, that that in order to
have a great season, you got to stay healthy. That's that's just a part of it.
Yeah, no, for sure, and that's always something that we bring up in context in the past couple of years. But I asked you that to dovetail into this, which is this year, you guys will not be picked to when the Big twelve this year, chances are you're going to be picked like mid conference and most of the way too early preseason polls. I have no idea how they know how to do this because it is April
and you don't play until August. But is having that pressure removed from the equation something that you think could benefit you guys year two in the Big twelve?
Well, I don't know. I hope so my our main focus, And honestly, I don't mean to dismiss that because you know kids will look at that, what are we picked to do? And you can use that as motivation that at times people don't believe in you, But when the ball's kicked off, it's all about are you playing the way we need you to play? Are you playing with great fundamentals and technique or you know, it's no amount of anger, no amount of of preseason hype, whatever it
is is going to have a factor on you. Peddling the right way, breaking and driving the right way. That's that's what we do in practice, that's what we train for. So it's behavior that wins championships. It's teams that win championships, not talk.
For sure, for sure.
Ultimately, when it comes to spring football, you know we replay all the sound. It's nice to say with Kyle, it's nice to say with you. But occasionally coach will say something that kind of catches my attention in a different way than a spring football typical coach speak interview would go and Morgan. At least three, if not more, times, I've heard Kyle say there's more positive energy in the building during spring than has been in a long time.
And I'm not trying to run anybody down. And the past is the past, and you guys have moved on. But you know, you know Kyle, he doesn't pull any punches. He's gonna let you know how it is. So when he says publicly multiple times, there's more positive energy in our building right now than there has been a long time, how does that land with you?
What do you what do you think he's referring to.
He's probably referring to market ottawaya yelling and screaming and singing all day that that enough in the office is enough energy? No, I mean, to be perfectly honest with you, This offensive staff they do, they've they've got a lot of energy the way they coach, the way they teach, and you know, Jason's done a great job really bringing everyone together and helping them understand what he's looking for and establishing their culture on that side of the ball.
And it's been it's been fun, you know, not only to obviously, if you ever come to practice, you're always going to hear the defensive coaches yelling and screaming, and now you hear it from all angles and it's you know, it's very lively and guys are having fun. It's just it's a fun environment to be a part of. And that's what Coach WIT's talking about.
I know this is not your silo, but we've had Jason and Coach went on. Jason back and Coach went on, and I've asked them both just because of what we've been through over the past few years, is Devin the guy?
Is Devin the starting quarterback?
And they both said yes, if we went and went to play tomorrow, he's the guy. And Cameron Rising should always be remembered as an absolute legend for what he did for you guys at quarterback. But what sort of dynamic or relief, if at all, does it bring that you guys know who the quarterback is going into the season, and there's no ambiguity about how that's going to play out.
Webally just gives him him confidence. I mean he should have confidence. It's his offense. You know, it's a scheme that he's been comfortable with the past couple of seasons. So Devin is a guy that's very competitive. He's got he's got great character, very football savvy, high football intelligence, and you know, I just love going against and Cam was the same way, going up against quarterbacks that are just competitive. They hate to lose. They're going to get
their guys right where they need to be. And and Devin is that guy and excited for his continued development and what he has in store for the season.
You're losing some very talented defensive lineman as you know. Of course, Keno Town of Austa is now playing for Brigham Young and Junior Tifuna is trying his hand.
To pro football. Those are big losses. Morgan, what's the contingency plan how you guys looking up front?
Yeah, I am elited I should say about what we have a defensive tackle and I think it's probably going to come as a surprise to a lot of people, but the guys that we brought in, the things that Luther Ellis is doing, you know with the dtackles that we have with Jonah lay As, a kid that's been in the program that has just struggles to gain the weight and he's now weighing what we need him to weigh.
He's quick, he's athletic, he's long levered. Dallas Bacala, he is a freshman who was so productive and now you add another season and the spring ball where he's gaining a little bit more confidence and a little bit more power and strength. He looks fantastic. H You look at Aliki vi Ma. He's a returning one of our returning starters that played started last year for us during times and you know he's taken on a leadership role and is doing great with it. Carson Kfusi is a is
a fresh shman that we absolutely love. He's probably the pleasant surprise of spring football right now. Is this incoming freshman from Skyline High School is just tearing it up. Add to that, Sony Multap walk from Bishop Gorman is looking really good. We've got a couple walk ons and the two incoming freshmen. This is going to be a very stout defensive tackle group. And I could not be more excited.
All right, buddy, before I say you lose, I've always described you as a combination of a guy that really loves to have a good time, but it's also deathly serious about anything he's involved in. And that goes back to when you were like eighteen years old. Is a running back in Highland High School. You know, kind of a goof when you want to have a good time, but when it comes to the task at hand, a
very serious, serious person. But I've noticed Morgan from outside looking in whenever I hear you interviewed, or whenever I kind of have a chance to be around you a little bit, this kind of matation period where emotion has been replaced by pragmatism. And I don't know if that's a result of a lot of things that you've been through. You guys are coming off a hard season. Life is hard. It's not linear, it's not a straight line. But before
I set you lose. For our ute football fan listeners, how have you grown and changed in the eighteen years you've been in Utah?
Oh man, that could be a podcast in of itself.
I want all of it. You go for a while, you know.
More from the losses than you do from the wins. And that's not just on the you know, the win loss record. That's just adversity that you face throughout your time, throughout your life, trials that you have, stuff that you go through with your players. And I think what I've
learned most is just empathy. People go through tough times, hard things, and you can be resilient and you can come back stronger, and you can be more understanding of other people struggles and be there for others, lift others, and instead of why me, you know, why did this happen to me? Why did this happen for me? And what am I supposed to learn from it? And how
can I be better? So I would just say that definitely have learned a ton from adversity and tough times that I faced and learned from really good people, really good mentors, and have had an unbelievable staff to love and support me as I love and support them.
All Right, my friend, Well, I always appreciate the time.
You know.
I'm pulling for you over here in MySpace. If I can ever do anything, please let me know and enjoy the rest of spring ball.
Okay, Spencer a stud Take care, brother.
Morgan, scally defensive coordinator University of Utah head coach in waiting a couple of more practices this week. We've got four next week, and it's time for the Forever twenty two game on Saturday, April nineteenth. Go to you Tell You dot com for ticket information