Speaker 1: And spring football rolling along up on the hill about
Speaker 1: halfway down. A couple more practices this week than we
Speaker 1: got four next week in the Forever twenty two game.
Speaker 1: The defensive coordinator of the Utes and the head coach
Speaker 1: in waiting and my good friend for a number of years,
Speaker 1: Morgan Scalley on a beautiful Thursday.
Speaker 2: Morgan, Happy Thursday. How are you buddy?
Speaker 3: Doing well? Brother? Doing well? It's springball. The weather's great.
Speaker 3: I'm hoping it stays that way for the next six
Speaker 3: to seven practices that we have left. But fired up
Speaker 3: for this new crew, coming in love.
Speaker 1: It, love it all right, Let's start with the most
Speaker 1: important thing. Who is your pick to win the Masters?
Speaker 1: And who is your dark horse?
Speaker 3: Man? The pick to win the Masters would probably be Chefler.
Speaker 3: I don't know that you can go against him, and
Speaker 3: then man dark horse, the way that things are going, Man,
Speaker 3: give me more cowa, Okay, I haven't done anything in
Speaker 3: a minute.
Speaker 2: All right, No, I like it. I like it.
Speaker 1: I know that you have an affinity for golf, but
Speaker 1: as we were discussing off air, you'll have plenty of
Speaker 1: time to golf when you're not doing this job, and
Speaker 1: certainly when you're not doing your next job, so you'll
Speaker 1: get there.
Speaker 2: But in the meantime, you've got a lot going on.
Speaker 2: So let's just get a look.
Speaker 1: You know, spring football obviously, you know doing this as
Speaker 1: long as I have. And you with your eighteenth year,
Speaker 1: with the program, opportunity to get the new group on campus,
Speaker 1: opportunity to start learning new personalities, opportunities to start helping
Speaker 1: these young men understand what you ask for them. So
Speaker 1: let's go to the start of springball the boxes that
Speaker 1: you want checked, and let's fast forward to where we're
Speaker 1: at today and how how's the progress going.
Speaker 3: Morgan, Well, springball is ever since the mid year signing
Speaker 3: date was instituted, you see more and more of new
Speaker 3: faces that in the transfer portal coming in springball. Used
Speaker 3: to be faull camp that you wait to see what
Speaker 3: you really had. Now it's really spring football. Guys are
Speaker 3: coming in midyear, your transfer portal, guys, your high school
Speaker 3: seniors that are graduating early. So really it's the new
Speaker 3: faces that you're trying to get adjusted to the culture,
Speaker 3: to the scheme. The things that we wanted to work
Speaker 3: on this spring that we didn't feel we did a
Speaker 3: good enough job of. Is stopping the run and creating takeaways.
Speaker 3: I say midway through, we're seeing what we want to see.
Speaker 3: It can always be better. But you know, in the
Speaker 3: drill work that we've been doing, in the crossover drills
Speaker 3: that we've been doing, strong emphasis on stout run defense,
Speaker 3: you know, getting those defensive tackles up to par and
Speaker 3: then creating takeaways, which I believe we've done a pretty
Speaker 3: good job of that.
Speaker 1: So I do want to follow up with how the
Speaker 1: calendar has changed and how your job has changed as
Speaker 1: a result of where we find ourselves in the world
Speaker 1: of college football. I look the topic of the transfer portal,
Speaker 1: it gets a little tired because it's been around long
Speaker 1: enough by now Morgan to just have it be a reality.
Speaker 1: And I call it free agency. And then there's the
Speaker 1: nil portion, the collective and all of these things. Uh,
Speaker 1: you know, we had coach went on the show just
Speaker 1: a couple of weeks ago. It regardless of how many
Speaker 1: support staff you guys bring in, your individual individual jobs
Speaker 1: are going to change and evolve. How has your job
Speaker 1: been affected by the changes in college football?
Speaker 3: I would say the biggest difference is I mean, it's
Speaker 3: it's it is about relationships, but people want to know
Speaker 3: the financial part of coming to your program, what you're
Speaker 3: going to be able to do it for them financially
Speaker 3: makes it harder to main attain sustained culture. But you know,
Speaker 3: that just makes it more of a priority for us
Speaker 3: to in recruiting, recruiting the guys that fit our culture. Yes,
Speaker 3: we are going to need money, and our donors have
Speaker 3: done a great job and we'll continue to do a
Speaker 3: great job. But ultimately, you know, recruiting used to be
Speaker 3: all about the relationships, and now there's that financial piece
Speaker 3: that no matter how much the recruit may love you,
Speaker 3: love what you do, love love your scheme. Sometimes if
Speaker 3: it's just about the money, you're not going to end
Speaker 3: up getting that kid, no matter how great the relationship.
Speaker 3: Is so a little bit different than in that aspect.
Speaker 3: But we've still got kids that love the culture, love
Speaker 3: that we what we do. We're financially being able to
Speaker 3: take care of them. You know, it's the front office
Speaker 3: really now that has to take care of all those
Speaker 3: other things. You know, we're we're as coaches talking about,
Speaker 3: you know, how do we win games? And now you're
Speaker 3: hiring people and you're putting people in positions to deal
Speaker 3: with the professional side of things.
Speaker 1: Sharif Shaw last year some interesting comments he gave to
Speaker 1: the Solid Tribune, And you know, I don't recall the
Speaker 1: exact figure, but I believe Shreif's said, as you're calling recruits,
Speaker 1: if you don't offer something like fifty k right out
Speaker 1: of the gates, you can't even get them on campus.
Speaker 1: I mean, is that where we're at? Are there a
Speaker 1: lot of because you and Sharif and the staff. I mean,
Speaker 1: once upon a time maybe the recruiting was a little
Speaker 1: bit more regional, but now you guys have a footprint
Speaker 1: that spreads across the country. Are there really situations more
Speaker 1: than that you run into with a recruit out of
Speaker 1: state where you want to get them on the phone
Speaker 1: or get them on campus, and if you don't have
Speaker 1: something to offer right up front, you can't even talk
Speaker 1: to them.
Speaker 2: Is that a real thing?
Speaker 3: Well, it's economics, it's supply and demand. That's who you're
Speaker 3: talking to. Am I talking to a transfer portal deligneman
Speaker 3: that's looking for just a spot to be someone that's
Speaker 3: trying to prove themselves. There was a lower division school
Speaker 3: that thinks that they're better than that. A starter from
Speaker 3: another program that wants to be a part of a
Speaker 3: winning program. Everything is dependent upon their situation and supply
Speaker 3: and demand. And you know, is this a high school
Speaker 3: kid that you know, maybe isn't a highly recruited kid
Speaker 3: versus your five star kid that's got every offer out there.
Speaker 3: Everything really is is situational, and you've got to be
Speaker 3: really good at understanding that. So this game, this, you know,
Speaker 3: college football has changed quite a bit over the past
Speaker 3: few years.
Speaker 1: It has, and you know it will continue to change
Speaker 1: and evolve. And we're hoping to get more information over
Speaker 1: the next couple of weeks, and we're actually getting some
Speaker 1: more information Morgan about the details of the House versus
Speaker 1: the NCAA settlements. And then come June, you guys, as
Speaker 1: a athletic department at the you and I use the
Speaker 1: football program, we'll have twenty million dollars to allocate. Are
Speaker 1: any of these things on your radar? I mean, because
Speaker 1: for me covering the sport and covering the U, I
Speaker 1: think the House Versus NCAA segment will actually bring some
Speaker 1: clarity so people like you and people like coach Wit
Speaker 1: and even people like Mark Harland don't have to guess
Speaker 1: how to do this anymore. Are these benchmarks that we
Speaker 1: look at people that cover the sport, something that you're
Speaker 1: dialed into and maybe looking forward to to get more
Speaker 1: clarity and more guidelines in place.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think you have to be dialed into it.
Speaker 3: I mean, it's our profession, it's what we do. And
Speaker 3: and you know, ultimately people want guard rails, they want rules,
Speaker 3: they want a level playing field, and right now that's
Speaker 3: not necessarily the case. So hopefully here in the in
Speaker 3: the next a few weeks months, we're going to get
Speaker 3: a lot more clarity and hopefully a level playing field.
Speaker 3: And you're always going to have schools that try and uh,
Speaker 3: you know, walk that line, and there were there was
Speaker 3: cheating before them. Still there's still cheating going on now
Speaker 3: and we'll continue to go on. But hopefully what this
Speaker 3: does is it's it levels the playing field.
Speaker 1: So let's move off of this and talk about some
Speaker 1: actual football. And you know, last year, Morgan, of course,
Speaker 1: everybody both locally and nationally picked you guys to if
Speaker 1: not win the Big Twelve. You were one of the
Speaker 1: top two or three picks. You were the Vegas favorite,
Speaker 1: you were the media preseason favorite. And I would imagine
Speaker 1: no matter what you tried to do with your group.
Speaker 1: You cannot insulate them from information because we all have
Speaker 1: these computers in our hands that give us all the
Speaker 1: info twenty four to seven. So there's no way to
Speaker 1: protect your team from the knowledge that we all thought
Speaker 1: you guys were gonna win the thing. I wonder if
Speaker 1: you feel like that extra added pressure or start the year.
Speaker 2: Had anything to do with the way that everything went.
Speaker 1: Of course, I always bring up last year with the
Speaker 1: context of a tremendous amount of injuries and health issues.
Speaker 1: But the pressure that you guys faced from the outside
Speaker 1: looking in, where we all thought you were gonna win
Speaker 1: the Big twelve and go to the CFP, how did
Speaker 1: that affect the way last year went.
Speaker 3: I don't think it affected it all that that much.
Speaker 3: You know, we've got good kids that understand and it's
Speaker 3: all about what you do on the field an end.
Speaker 3: You know, you can point to a number of different things.
Speaker 3: Bottom line is turn on the film and what did
Speaker 3: the behavior say. You know, defense from a defensive perspective,
Speaker 3: we missed too many tackles, we didn't create enough takeaways.
Speaker 3: We did some really good things on defense, but there's
Speaker 3: some things that we that we did that contributed maybe
Speaker 3: that five and seven season, right, and so what what
Speaker 3: did the film say? How can we improve? How can
Speaker 3: we get better on the offensive side? Obviously that's what
Speaker 3: they're working on and what coach Witt has worked to
Speaker 3: fix on the offensive side of the ball. Preseason talk,
Speaker 3: that's I mean, it is, it's what makes the game great.
Speaker 3: You get fans and they want to know about projections
Speaker 3: and where is everyone ranked. At the end of the day.
Speaker 3: No one ever puts a preseason ranking on their resume.
Speaker 3: It didn't you know, these preseason awards, no one does.
Speaker 3: You don't see that on anyone's resume. It's what you
Speaker 3: do during the season. It's the behavior that matters. And
Speaker 3: you know, unfortunately we had some things that you know,
Speaker 3: we didn't do well enough. And you know, staying healthy
Speaker 3: is one of them too, that that in order to
Speaker 3: have a great season, you got to stay healthy. That's
Speaker 3: that's just a part of it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, for sure, and that's always something that we
Speaker 1: bring up in context in the past couple of years.
Speaker 1: But I asked you that to dovetail into this, which
Speaker 1: is this year, you guys will not be picked to
Speaker 1: when the Big twelve this year, chances are you're going
Speaker 1: to be picked like mid conference and most of the
Speaker 1: way too early preseason polls. I have no idea how
Speaker 1: they know how to do this because it is April
Speaker 1: and you don't play until August. But is having that
Speaker 1: pressure removed from the equation something that you think could
Speaker 1: benefit you guys year two in the Big twelve?
Speaker 3: Well, I don't know. I hope so my our main focus,
Speaker 3: And honestly, I don't mean to dismiss that because you
Speaker 3: know kids will look at that, what are we picked
Speaker 3: to do? And you can use that as motivation that
Speaker 3: at times people don't believe in you, But when the
Speaker 3: ball's kicked off, it's all about are you playing the
Speaker 3: way we need you to play? Are you playing with
Speaker 3: great fundamentals and technique or you know, it's no amount
Speaker 3: of anger, no amount of of preseason hype, whatever it
Speaker 3: is is going to have a factor on you. Peddling
Speaker 3: the right way, breaking and driving the right way. That's
Speaker 3: that's what we do in practice, that's what we train for.
Speaker 3: So it's behavior that wins championships. It's teams that win championships,
Speaker 3: not talk.
Speaker 2: For sure, for sure.
Speaker 1: Ultimately, when it comes to spring football, you know we
Speaker 1: replay all the sound. It's nice to say with Kyle,
Speaker 1: it's nice to say with you. But occasionally coach will
Speaker 1: say something that kind of catches my attention in a
Speaker 1: different way than a spring football typical coach speak interview
Speaker 1: would go and Morgan. At least three, if not more, times,
Speaker 1: I've heard Kyle say there's more positive energy in the
Speaker 1: building during spring than has been in a long time.
Speaker 1: And I'm not trying to run anybody down. And the
Speaker 1: past is the past, and you guys have moved on.
Speaker 1: But you know, you know Kyle, he doesn't pull any punches.
Speaker 1: He's gonna let you know how it is. So when
Speaker 1: he says publicly multiple times, there's more positive energy in
Speaker 1: our building right now than there has been a long time,
Speaker 1: how does that land with you?
Speaker 2: What do you what do you think he's referring to.
Speaker 3: He's probably referring to market ottawaya yelling and screaming and
Speaker 3: singing all day that that enough in the office is
Speaker 3: enough energy? No, I mean, to be perfectly honest with you,
Speaker 3: This offensive staff they do, they've they've got a lot
Speaker 3: of energy the way they coach, the way they teach,
Speaker 3: and you know, Jason's done a great job really bringing
Speaker 3: everyone together and helping them understand what he's looking for
Speaker 3: and establishing their culture on that side of the ball.
Speaker 3: And it's been it's been fun, you know, not only
Speaker 3: to obviously, if you ever come to practice, you're always
Speaker 3: going to hear the defensive coaches yelling and screaming, and
Speaker 3: now you hear it from all angles and it's you know,
Speaker 3: it's very lively and guys are having fun. It's just
Speaker 3: it's a fun environment to be a part of. And
Speaker 3: that's what Coach WIT's talking about.
Speaker 1: I know this is not your silo, but we've had
Speaker 1: Jason and Coach went on. Jason back and Coach went on,
Speaker 1: and I've asked them both just because of what we've
Speaker 1: been through over the past few years, is Devin the guy?
Speaker 2: Is Devin the starting quarterback?
Speaker 1: And they both said yes, if we went and went
Speaker 1: to play tomorrow, he's the guy. And Cameron Rising should
Speaker 1: always be remembered as an absolute legend for what he
Speaker 1: did for you guys at quarterback. But what sort of
Speaker 1: dynamic or relief, if at all, does it bring that
Speaker 1: you guys know who the quarterback is going into the season,
Speaker 1: and there's no ambiguity about how that's going to play out.
Speaker 3: Webally just gives him him confidence. I mean he should
Speaker 3: have confidence. It's his offense. You know, it's a scheme
Speaker 3: that he's been comfortable with the past couple of seasons.
Speaker 3: So Devin is a guy that's very competitive. He's got
Speaker 3: he's got great character, very football savvy, high football intelligence,
Speaker 3: and you know, I just love going against and Cam
Speaker 3: was the same way, going up against quarterbacks that are
Speaker 3: just competitive. They hate to lose. They're going to get
Speaker 3: their guys right where they need to be. And and
Speaker 3: Devin is that guy and excited for his continued development
Speaker 3: and what he has in store for the season.
Speaker 1: You're losing some very talented defensive lineman as you know.
Speaker 1: Of course, Keno Town of Austa is now playing for
Speaker 1: Brigham Young and Junior Tifuna is trying his hand.
Speaker 2: To pro football. Those are big losses. Morgan, what's the
Speaker 2: contingency plan how you guys looking up front?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I am elited I should say about what we
Speaker 3: have a defensive tackle and I think it's probably going
Speaker 3: to come as a surprise to a lot of people,
Speaker 3: but the guys that we brought in, the things that
Speaker 3: Luther Ellis is doing, you know with the dtackles that
Speaker 3: we have with Jonah lay As, a kid that's been
Speaker 3: in the program that has just struggles to gain the
Speaker 3: weight and he's now weighing what we need him to weigh.
Speaker 3: He's quick, he's athletic, he's long levered. Dallas Bacala, he
Speaker 3: is a freshman who was so productive and now you
Speaker 3: add another season and the spring ball where he's gaining
Speaker 3: a little bit more confidence and a little bit more
Speaker 3: power and strength. He looks fantastic. H You look at
Speaker 3: Aliki vi Ma. He's a returning one of our returning
Speaker 3: starters that played started last year for us during times
Speaker 3: and you know he's taken on a leadership role and
Speaker 3: is doing great with it. Carson Kfusi is a is
Speaker 3: a fresh shman that we absolutely love. He's probably the
Speaker 3: pleasant surprise of spring football right now. Is this incoming
Speaker 3: freshman from Skyline High School is just tearing it up.
Speaker 3: Add to that, Sony Multap walk from Bishop Gorman is
Speaker 3: looking really good. We've got a couple walk ons and
Speaker 3: the two incoming freshmen. This is going to be a
Speaker 3: very stout defensive tackle group. And I could not be
Speaker 3: more excited.
Speaker 1: All right, buddy, before I say you lose, I've always
Speaker 1: described you as a combination of a guy that really
Speaker 1: loves to have a good time, but it's also deathly
Speaker 1: serious about anything he's involved in. And that goes back
Speaker 1: to when you were like eighteen years old. Is a
Speaker 1: running back in Highland High School. You know, kind of
Speaker 1: a goof when you want to have a good time,
Speaker 1: but when it comes to the task at hand, a
Speaker 1: very serious, serious person. But I've noticed Morgan from outside
Speaker 1: looking in whenever I hear you interviewed, or whenever I
Speaker 1: kind of have a chance to be around you a
Speaker 1: little bit, this kind of matation period where emotion has
Speaker 1: been replaced by pragmatism. And I don't know if that's
Speaker 1: a result of a lot of things that you've been through.
Speaker 1: You guys are coming off a hard season. Life is hard.
Speaker 1: It's not linear, it's not a straight line. But before
Speaker 1: I set you lose. For our ute football fan listeners,
Speaker 1: how have you grown and changed in the eighteen years
Speaker 1: you've been in Utah?
Speaker 3: Oh man, that could be a podcast in of itself.
Speaker 2: I want all of it. You go for a while,
Speaker 2: you know.
Speaker 3: More from the losses than you do from the wins.
Speaker 3: And that's not just on the you know, the win
Speaker 3: loss record. That's just adversity that you face throughout your time,
Speaker 3: throughout your life, trials that you have, stuff that you
Speaker 3: go through with your players. And I think what I've
Speaker 3: learned most is just empathy. People go through tough times,
Speaker 3: hard things, and you can be resilient and you can
Speaker 3: come back stronger, and you can be more understanding of
Speaker 3: other people struggles and be there for others, lift others,
Speaker 3: and instead of why me, you know, why did this
Speaker 3: happen to me? Why did this happen for me? And
Speaker 3: what am I supposed to learn from it? And how
Speaker 3: can I be better? So I would just say that
Speaker 3: definitely have learned a ton from adversity and tough times
Speaker 3: that I faced and learned from really good people, really
Speaker 3: good mentors, and have had an unbelievable staff to love
Speaker 3: and support me as I love and support them.
Speaker 2: All Right, my friend, Well, I always appreciate the time.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 1: I'm pulling for you over here in MySpace. If I
Speaker 1: can ever do anything, please let me know and enjoy
Speaker 1: the rest of spring ball.
Speaker 3: Okay, Spencer a stud Take care, brother.
Speaker 1: Morgan, scally defensive coordinator University of Utah head coach in
Speaker 1: waiting a couple of more practices this week. We've got
Speaker 1: four next week, and it's time for the Forever twenty
Speaker 1: two game on Saturday, April nineteenth. Go to you Tell
Speaker 1: You dot com for ticket information