Why players, coaches have full belief in Morgan Scalley as head coach

SALT LAKE CITY — Alone in the locker room of the Rose Bowl Stadium following Utah's narrow loss to Ohio State on Jan. 1, 2022, wide receiver coach Chad Bumphis and then-defensive coordinator Morgan Scalley had a final chat.

Bumphis had already agreed to return to his alma mater Mississippi State to coach the same position and was cleaning out his locker at the historic venue.

Scalley had a simple question for Bumphis: "Did you like it here?"

For Bumphis, it was an easy answer. "I loved it," he responded.

"He was like, 'All right, you'll be back,'" Bumphis recalled four years after that final conversation. "That was literally the last conversation we had."

The football program and the state left a big impression on Bumphis and his family, who was "thrilled" to return to a place that "has been so good to us."

"My wife was thrilled, our kid was born here, so it really does feel like home," he said.

So when Scalley was hired as the team's head coach, Bumphis jumped at the opportunity to return to Salt Lake City. Bumphis sent Scalley a text, where he recalled that moment at the Rose Bowl.

"Hey, do you remember our conversation?" Bumphis said of his message to Scalley. "Three minutes later, he called me, and he was like, 'Hey, I cannot hire you. I can recommend you to coach (Kevin) McGiven.' And so I got on the phone with McGiven, had a really good conversation, and everything flowed from there. So it was really good."

Bumphis had full belief in Scalley and wanted to be back as part of his inaugural season as head coach. But Bumphis wasn't alone in his belief in the man who has been a fan and supporter of Utah his entire life.

Sharrieff Shah, who has long been considered Scalley's best friend on the coach staff, said his belief in Scalley began more than 10 years ago. Before a head coaching opportunity was ever on the table, Shah said Scalley was already vetting potential candidates for his future coaching staff and would make notes in a notebook he carried around with him over the years.

"I think very few people recognize that he has been preparing for this position for a long time," Shah said. "When he became a coordinator 10 years ago, he was thinking 'one day I'm going to be a head coach.' So he would sit with me in my office and say, out of the blue, 'OK, who would you like if you could choose who would be your offensive coordinator? Who would you like to have a running back coach?'

"I'm like, I don't know. I mean, that was — I didn't even care about it," he added. "But he did so much so that he would come in and start writing down names in a little pad. And this pad became part of his notebook. The conversations formed a part of his head coach notebook, and I felt like it was what we're seeing now."

For Shah, it was the real life embodiment of someone who manifests what he wants and works incredibly hard to achieve his goal — a characteristic that showcases who Scalley is and what he's been doing to prepare for the opportunity at hand for several years.

"It just shows me when you work at it for so long and you recognize that this is what I want to manifest, and I will do it and believe in it, assemble the right people, coaches, players, that believe in what I think we can be. And it happens, you're just like, OK. So it's been awesome to watch him work now in this new role. Yeah, I've enjoyed it."

For Derrick Odum, the team's safeties coach who was in the same position at Utah before Scalley took the position over, it's an outward expression of someone who has "so much invested in the program."

"You can feel that. He's been here for so long, and just his leadership, you know, his push for the culture to be right. In this program, it permeates through every position group," Odum said. "It's really cool to try to jump in and fill in where I'm needed. With his leadership and his directing the whole ship, it's been really refreshing. I enjoy it every single day I come to work."

Odum admits there's still a bit of a "honeymoon phase" to Scalley's hire, but said the "feel in the building is really positive" and that "you can feel the genuineness of the whole thing, and it's moving in the right direction — that's for sure."

For quarterback Byrd Ficklin, who had a viable chance to enter the transfer portal and find a starting role at another program, it was Scalley's belief and support of him that really won him over and convinced him to stay with Utah. He saw a coach who took an honest interest in him and didn't just viewing him as a transferrable and temporary asset on the roster.

"Scalley kind of reassured me — 'I want you to still stay here, be a guy, be a ball player,'" Ficklin said. "And for Scalley to pull me in and to have that conversation, it really meant a lot — shows he really loves his players. He loves everybody on the field.

"He brings a lot more energy, but he's also everywhere and every place, every time. No matter if it's lift, practice, meetings, he's there, he's talking, he's showing his presence, and that's what I really love, because no matter he's showing his presence. He's also showing we're still a family. And no matter what happened from last year, it's a new season."

Even transfer wide receiver Kyri Shoels, who has been with the program for only a few months now, has already picked up on Scalley's energy and positivity as a coach.

"You just don't meet no coach like him, like, that's really all it is," Shoels said. "Honest, stand up guy. He's gonna tell you the real, he's gonna coach you hard. And everything you see is what it is firsthand. He preaches culture, but I feel like if nobody really can see it outside of the field, if you just come down and see what we do every day, then you'll know what he's talking about."

From many within the program, Scalley exudes the energy and confidence needed to keep the team pulling in the same direction, while serving as a coach who is focused on every detail. But Scalley knows he hasn't arrived yet and that wins will suddenly come because the vibes are positive.

It's why he's created a "get better" mindset that helps guide him and the team in his first season as a head coach. For as much as he's obsessed over the details of being a head coach and trying to make the right moves, he understands "building a skill takes time and effort" and he, just like the players, should want "feedback and coaching."

All of that resonates with his fellow coaches and the players, none more than former Utah great Jordan Gross, who has a steep learning curve as he returns to the program as its offensive line coach from the high school ranks.

"I carry a lot of sense of pride that I'm going to do this job very well, because coach Scalley," Gross said. "Man, this is his first opportunity, too, and he selected me to do this with him, and so I want to do right by him and the university and everybody. But he took a big chance. ... I don't take that lightly, that he put that faith in me. I want to do right by him."

The true test will come in fall to see if Scalley can be successful as a head coach as Utah looks to remain one of the best teams in the Big 12 and pursues a potential playoff bid. That will become apparent soon, but for the coaches and players in the program, there's full belief in Scalley as the head coach.

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