'Let's tag team': Why backup QB Byrd Ficklin decided to return to Utah with Devon Dampier

SALT LAKE CITY — Morgan Scalley didn't waste any time locking in one of the most important players on his roster for his first season as head coach.

Just minutes after celebrating his first victory as coach of Utah football in the Las Vegas Bowl, with the confetti still strewn across the field, Scalley sent a text to backup quarterback Byrd Ficklin.

"As soon as the bowl game ended, Scalley hit my phone first telling me he wanted to have a meeting with me as soon as I got back to Salt Lake City," Ficklin said.

Scalley wanted to make it clear to his non-traditional backup QB — a freshman who threw for for 301 yards and three touchdowns on 21 pass completions, and rushed for 513 yards and 10 touchdowns as the team's third-leading rusher — that there was a major desire to have him return for the next season.

There was no promise of a starting position but more of an increased role with the team — even if Devon Dampier returned to Utah for his senior season, a decision that wasn't a guarantee after his offensive coordinator took the same position at Michigan.

Ficklin was locked in. He told Dampier of his decision to return and hoped his best friend would return to Utah, too.

"Dev was the first one to know if I was coming back or not," Ficklin said. "I told him Day 1, like I'm coming back, so now it's on you; it's all you now. Me and him had a lot of deep, one-on-one conversations, a lot of feelings were dropped between me and him on if he should come back or if he shouldn't, where he sits with me and where I sit with him.

"And we were kind of just like, let's tag team. It's your last year, let's go ball; let's show we're still brothers, and let's go hoop."

During those tough conversations, Scalley hired Utah State's offensive coordinator Kevin McGiven, who immediately met with his two quarterbacks to pitch to them his vision of how he saw the two working with each other. It wasn't going to be the traditional starter-backup situation, where Ficklin only saw the field in blowouts or injury relief.

The two would both be contributors to the success of Utah's offense, even with Dampier still getting the heavier dose of reps as the team's starter.

"He pulled us into a meeting, talked to us both, told us what he wanted us to accomplish, his visions that he's seen and what he wants to do with the offense," Ficklin said of their meeting with McGiven. "It was kind of like we both loved it. Me and Dev, we're basically brothers at this point, like, at some points we even just live together, like he's at my crib, I'm staying at his crib.

"We see the vision as well, and we loved it, and we want to be a part of it."

It's a unique situation but one that both Scalley and McGiven believe can work at Utah to showcase each player's talent on the field. Each has undeniable talent, so why not utilize them both?

So what does that look like in McGiven's offense?

"Just being that Swiss Army Knife player," Ficklin said. "Playing the whole field, with or without the ball, whether that be a decoy or have the ball in my hands. You know, just holding a big role and being a decoy or having the ball scoring."

Ficklin will be utilized in several ways to attempt to throw off the defense, though how much of that's utilized or what it looks like will remain under lock and key to avoid tipping off future opponents. But Ficklin will see an increased role in some fashion.

And the hope is it will provide enough of an innovative edge to help Utah win games. The two quarterbacks were used at times together on the field last season late in the year, but few schemes actually utilized the second QB on the field as anything but a decoy.

"Without giving up the ship, there's a lot of different things that he can do on a on a play-to-play basis, and different places that he can line up," McGiven said. "We need to be able to utilize those and get creative with those packages."

Regardless of what role Ficklin will occupy this upcoming season, he's making strides to improve on every facet of his game now with a year of experience under his belt. And part of his biggest growth has come from quarterback coach Ryan Gunderson, who is attempting to help Ficklin (and Dampier) develop more high-level traits as a QB.

"Coach Gundy has been a really big part, whether that be full-field progressions, to getting the ball out my hand quick, just knowing coverages," Ficklin said. "He's been teaching me a lot, and that's a big thing I really like about coach Gundy. He was a really, really smart football player. And he might have been a pocket passer back in his day, but that's also really helping me to be a better quarterback."

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