Coming home: Former Utes running back Quinton Ganther hired as RB coach

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SALT LAKE CITY — Off a roller coaster season with the Jacksonville Jaguars, former University of Utah running back Quinton Ganther is coming back to his alma mater.

Ganther, who played two seasons at Utah from 2004-05 and racked up 1,774 career rushing yards and nine career touchdowns, was hired by head coach Kyle Whittingham Wednesday to be the team's running back coach after a vacancy was made available when Kiel McDonald left for the same position at USC.

"I want to thank coach Whittingham for the opportunity to return to my alma mater and I am excited to get started coaching this extremely talented group," Ganther said in a prepared statement. "There is truly no place like home."

The return of Ganther to the Utah sidelines comes 10 years after he spent a one-year stint as a student assistant coach in 2012 following a six-year career in the NFL with the Tennessee Titans, Washington Football Team, Seattle Seahawks and Buffalo Bills.

Ganther was drafted by the Titans in 2006 in the seventh round of the NFL draft and appeared in 36 games. He rushed for 280 yards and three touchdowns in his career.

The California native spent the bulk of his coaching career at Weber State where he coached the running backs from 2013-2020 before accepting an offensive quality control coach position under his former coach Urban Meyer in Jacksonville.

In his return to Utah, Ganther gets a proven running back room that features All-Pac-12 first team running back Tavion Thomas, who announced on Jan. 6 he was coming back for another season with the Utes, Micah Bernard and Chris Curry, in addition to newly signed freshman Jaylon Glover from Florida.

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Josh Furlong

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Josh is the Sports Director for KSL.com and beat writer of University of Utah athletics — primarily football, men’s basketball and gymnastics. He is also an Associated Press Top 25 voter for college football.