Morgan Scalley ‘very involved’ in Utah offensive coordinator search

With the end of the college football regular season less than two weeks away, preparations have already started for next year.
The coaching carousel continues to spin, and even for those programs that don’t need a head coach, there will be coordinator and position coach vacancies to fill.
Utah has a vacancy to fill of its own, and it’s a big one.
Offensive coordinator Andy Ludwig stepped down after Utah’s third-straight loss of the season, and third straight game in which the offense failed to score more than 27 points. Since then, Mike Bajakian has filled in as the offensive coordinator, and while Brandon Rose gave Utah a spark against BYU before suffering a season-ending injury near the end of the first half, results have been mostly the same.
To be fair, Bajakian is pretty much working out of Ludwig’s playbook and hasn’t had consistent play from true freshman quarterback Isaac Wilson. The running game has also been less and less productive as the season goes along.
While Bajakian will surely get some consideration for the full-time offensive coordinator position after the season, this is going to be a nationwide search — something Utah hasn’t had to do since before the 2019 season, when coach Kyle Whittingham hired Ludwig for his second stint at the school.
This time, it won’t just be Whittingham making the hire — defensive coordinator, and head coach in waiting, Morgan Scalley will be involved in the hiring process for Utah’s offensive coordinator.
“Very involved. Very involved. Yep, very involved. And it would be an injustice if he wasn’t. And so given our situation, he’s working side by side with me,” Whittingham said.
It makes a lot of sense to have Scalley heavily involved, given that he will take over the program in the future, whether that’s next season, 2026 or beyond.
The process of hiring the next play-caller at the University of Utah is already underway, and it’s something Utah is hoping to get wrapped up soon, due to the transfer portal opening up in 21 days.
Offensive players considering whether to transfer from Utah need to know what the future of the offense will look like, players considering transferring into Utah likely want to have the position finalized before committing — ditto with high school recruits.
“Evaluating what we’re doing, what attractive candidates outside the program and evaluating everything right now and getting the short list ready,” Whittingham said. “That’ll be job one as soon as the timing is right to get that filled. Recruits want to know who the coordinator’s going to be and that’s something that we will need to have solved sooner rather than later.”
The transfer portal will play a role in Utah’s new offense. Gone are the days where players stayed at the same school for three or four years, which meant that you could have a more complex offense that players would learn as they grew within the program.
Whittingham estimates that Utah will have approximately 40 to 45 new players next season between transfer portal players and high school commits. Ideally, the next offensive coordinator at Utah will have an offense that’s easy enough for players to learn it during an offseason.
“You got to take a hard look at your schemes because your schemes better be plug and play … you can’t have a scheme that’s so complicated and so in-depth that it takes a guy two or three years to learn it. You don’t have that time anymore,” Whittingham said.
“And so that’s another conversation we’re having and another facet of what we’re doing that needs to be streamlined because, like I said, you collect all the talent you can in the offseason then just hope it gels and has chemistry and they better be able to assimilate the offense and the defensive schemes in that short period of time in order to function. And so that’s something that we are looking at hard and making sure we get corrected.”
It’s going to be a whirlwind closing stretch for Utah’s coaching staff, which, in addition to going through the process of hiring an offensive coordinator, will also meet with players who are considering transferring out, finalize their high school recruiting class, and prepare to offer players from other schools that enter the transfer portal.
All of this is happening as Utah tries to snap a six-game losing streak and win its next two games.
“Even with all the adversity and all the disappointment we faced this year, our guys still have a really good attitude and a lot of fight in them and we’re trying to play for a bowl game these last two weeks and that’s still in play for us,” Whittingham said.