- Utah's defensive coordinator Morgan Scalley shifts focus from sacks to overall disruption.
- Despite a drop in sacks, Utah achieved 211 pressures, 42 hits, and 144 hurries.
- Scalley emphasizes havoc plays, including fumbles and interceptions, to enhance defense impact.
SALT LAKE CITY — As Nate Orchard and Hunter Dimick roamed the field, wreaking havoc on opposing offenses in 2014, the two defensive ends combined for 28.5 sacks in a season in which Utah broke out of back-to-back 5-7 seasons in the early days of their Pac-12 tenure and finished 9-4.
It was the start to Utah's climb in the conference, and a year in which the mayors of "Sack Lake City" were born.
Orchard and Dimick consistently got into the backfield and made quarterbacks pay, setting a precedence for what Utah hoped to be a continuation of a dominate sack tradition in the years to follow.
Others came and went — Bradlee Anae, Mika Tafua, Jonah Elliss, and others — as Utah put pressure on offenses.
But 10 years after Orchard (18.5) and Dimick's (10) collective efforts to a team total of 55 sacks, Utah managed just 24 as a team in a trying 5-7 season that was mostly defined by its ineptitude on the offensive side of the ball.
The closest season to last year in recent history is the 2017 season, when the team had just 26 sacks and was led by eventual all-time career sack leader Bradlee Anae.
After consistently ranking inside the top 15 of college football in total sacks, Utah ranked 73rd last season.
That begs the question: Is "Sack Lake City" and crowning its mayor a thing of the past?
Utah defensive coordinator Morgan Scalley isn't quite ready to declare that era dead, though he said the emphasis — or the team's focus — has shifted a bit to that of "a productive, efficient pass rush than sacks."
Sacks are certainly a part of the equation — and the single largest disruptor to an offense — but the emphasis is more about being "disruptive," Scalley said.
"If I'm hitting a quarterback, if I'm being disruptive, then you're forcing him to get rid of the ball quicker than he wants to," Scalley said. "I felt like we did a pretty good job of that last year. Obviously, the sack count wasn't what it was in previous seasons, but I felt like we were effective at getting to the quarterback."
Last season, Utah managed 211 total pressures, 42 quarterback hits, 144 hurries and 18 batted passes, according to Pro Football Focus. In the collective, Utah was relatively on par with its total pressures; it was just distributed out among the other "pressure" stat categories.
For example, the team's 42 QB hits was the most in at least the last five seasons, but hurries fell right in the middle of the last five seasons.
For the Utah fan base, sacks have become the glory stat, and a quick reminder of how dominant the team's defense can be during the game — even as the other pressure stats aren't always as noticeable.
And though the focus may be on a collective disruptive effort, Utah's defense had some problems of its own last season that were generally uncharacteristic of its standard. The team graded out as the 49th best team in run defense (an 82.1 grade by PFF), 84th in pass rush (a 69.8 grade) and 127th in tackling (a poor 48.5 grade).
It's why Scalley has emphasized havoc plays — which includes fumbles and interceptions to the above pressure stats — and stopping the run as his top priority for his 2025 squad. The spring period was "really good" with those plays, he said, but that effort has to continue through fall.
For his part, Scalley said he's done the research to better understand where the most takeaways have come from in the Big 12 — No. 1 is interceptions in zone coverage, followed by interceptions in man coverage on tipped passes and the "safety coming over the top," and forced fumbles by the second guy in.
It all paints a picture on how Utah's defense can improve this season to have a larger impact on the game.
"There are certain takeaways, certain aspects of takeaways that you can practice — zone drops, catching footballs, you know, including footballs in your drill work — and then a focus on second guy in, how to strip the ball, how to take care of the ball, how to go down, how to recover ball in traffic versus how to recover a ball in space.
"So those are the things that we have to do a really good job of, the things that you can practice in terms of takeaways you better be practicing. And I feel like we're doing a good job of that."
So while sacks remain a key element of stopping an offense, Scalley is focused on a holistic approach to disrupt what Big 12 offenses hope to do against his defense. It's not just a singular focus on sacks — though more than 24 would certainly be desired.
