Built for This Moment

Morgan Scalley is not afraid to cry. He feels deeply. It’s part of who he is and how he coaches. He’s a fierce competitor. Strict, but sometimes silly. Loves his family. Is wildly dedicated. And he believes the Utah football program can win a national championship.

The three C’s he lives by—character, competence, and connection—are echoed by his staff and could help him get that coveted title. But for the three C’s to work, he can’t hold back the tears when he talks about God, or gratitude, or even regret.

Fifteen seconds after he took the microphone at the January press conference where he was officially named the 24th head coach of University of Utah football, Scalley’s voice cracked with emotion. Then just as quickly, it switched to a growl.

“I’m a baby,” Scalley said. “But man, our team’s going to rip your face off.”

It was a fitting introduction to Ford Morgan Scalley BA’04 MBA’07, fearless, and full of heart. At a time when college sports are increasingly scrutinized and under pressure to adapt, perform, find funding, and uphold their academic mission, Scalley is all in, with a vision.

He is taking the helm of a team that has won multiple conference titles, including the Pac-12 Championship twice. In 2024, it suffered a 5-7 losing record. But in 2025, Utah Football finished the year ranked 14th in the nation by the AP poll, winning Scalley’s first game as head coach: the Las Vegas Bowl. Demands to keep the momentum going are high, but Scalley is up for the challenge.

“Morgan shares our values. He shares our history,” President Taylor Randall HBA’90 said at Scalley’s press conference. “Even more importantly, he’s got the brains and know-how to succeed in this new era of college athletics. I am confident that we have the right man for the right job at the right time.”

At the center of Scalley’s vision is another set of words that are his trademark: Relentless, Smart, Nasty Ballhawks—RSNB.

Relentless

Scalley opens the door of his home to welcome visitors, and his dog, Red, bursts through. He’s called Red because of the color of his coat, but also because Scalley is a die-hard Utah fan (and his backyard neighbor—who roots for a rival school—has a dog named Blue). The Scalley household is approachable enough to receive neighborhood trick-or-treaters and the occasional roll of toilet paper thrown into their trees by boys who have crushes on the Scalley daughters. (Although after the third time, Scalley was not amused.)

This is what it looks like to be as rooted in the community as Scalley is: one of those toilet-papering boys actually ended up on Scalley’s roster and fessed up in front of all the other players that he got caught. The team thought it was hilarious. Even Scalley chuckles about it now, saying it’s connection. A step on the path to knowing someone sincerely.

Scalley’s connections in Utah have history. People don’t just know him, they know his family. His dad played football at the U in the ’60s, and his siblings were competitive athletes. Coaches and fans cheered him on from when he was a teenage football star at Highland High School, to a standout college athlete at the U, to when he first became a full-time football coach at the U in 2008. His support from the community runs deep, earned by decades of relentless work.

That will help with the headwinds he now steps into. He takes the reins from Kyle Whittingham, who was head coach for 21 seasons, less than two years after the U realigned to the Big 12. In July 2025, the U began operating under new terms of the House v. NCAA settlement, which allows institutions to pay student-athletes up to $20.5 million annually through revenue-sharing agreements, with an increase of four percent over the next 10 years.

The U is competing against programs in conferences that bring in more revenue to fund those payments. To help close the gap, the Board of Trustees approved the creation of Crimson Brand Partners (formerly Utah Brand Initiatives), a for-profit company that will manage the business side of athletics, likely in partnership with a private equity group. All of that change has created a lot of movement that is hard to ignore.

“Normally, in January, I walk into the football team room, I introduce myself to newcomers, and there’s usually 11 or 12, maybe sometimes 13 or 14,” University Athletics Director Mark Harlan said at the announcement of the new company. “This last year, I walked in front of our football team in January and there were 53 new faces on a roster that’s approximately 90-100.”

That said, Scalley is undaunted. More than that, ask him about the challenges facing football today and he seems genuinely energized. In March, he and his wife, Liz BS’04, donated $2 million to the football program to show it’s not just Scalley’s blood, sweat, and tears they’re investing.

“I still see such a great opportunity to show that culture still matters and that you can still win at a high level without losing the ability to create relationships that matter,” Scalley says. “Guys will stick around for the right experience.”

For Scalley’s athletes, that experience includes RSNB—a unifying mentality that conjures tenacity and persistence in pursuit of everything from grades to goals. It represents mental toughness, situational intelligence, awareness, and treating your body well. It’s how they end practice; it’s their hashtag.

The right experience also includes intelligent coaching from a guy with a photographic memory and an athletic record that includes Mountain West Scholar-Athlete of the Year and two-time first-team Academic All-American. Way back in high school, he played with a verve that earned the Highland High rugby team third place in the 1998 world championship, which made legendary coach Larry Gelwix reminisce, “I have never had a player with the drive to win like Morgan Scalley,” as Gelwix was inducted into the U.S. Rugby Hall of Fame in 2024.

At the U, he’s been defensive coordinator, recruiting coordinator, special teams coordinator, and safeties coach, all while building the three C’s and RSNB. He has been waiting for this moment, investing in this community, and building his life around the U for this long. And he wants to rip your team’s face off.

“It’s hard to imagine somebody as uniquely equipped and suited for this role as Morgan Scalley,” Harlan said. “He has proven over and over again that he is not only ready to lead, but he will excel in taking over our storied football program. Head coach is more than a job for Morgan, it is personal.”

Smart

On a Sunday evening in February, Scalley dons the same gray suit and red tie he wore at his introductory press conference and arrives at a local church. He has come, on his own time, to talk to hundreds of teenagers and their parents about self-worth and the seven things he wished he knew while growing up.

“I’m in a position, with my title and the things that I do as a coach, where a lot of people want to tell me how to do my job,” Scalley says. “A lot of people have opinions about me, and that’s okay, as long as I understand whose opinion matters the most. After a while, you learn to ignore the names people call you and just trust who you are. Until we come to truly value and love ourselves, we will be prone to live lives based on what we believe other people value and love.”

Scalley is banking on this idea to set Utah apart. In a day when retention is the name of the game, he is looking at building a program that keeps athletes for reasons beyond just money.

“If you have a good culture, which Morgan will have, then you don’t lose your guys as much,” says Bill Busch, longtime college football coach and DB coach for Scalley as an undergrad at the U.

Scalley started his team’s culture with a focus on trust. To get results, you need trust, and to build trust, you must demonstrate character, competence, and connection, Scalley says. Competence means a coach imbues athletes with their knowledge in a way that elevates their performance. Connection is the key to knowing how to support athletes in the way they need it most. Character is being authentic and trustworthy.

Scalley expects his coaches to abide by the three C’s, and he is the example. He shouts on the sidelines, he sings in the video room. He shows the good and the bad and that being vulnerable is a strength. He and his coaches are developing a culture where their players know they are valued, and that the knowledge and skills and training they receive is valuable.

“Yes, we have discipline. Yes, we give feedback,” Scalley says, acknowledging that sometimes the feedback might be difficult to receive, and sometimes it involves extra burpees. “But ultimately it’s the education process and helping them understand what’s going to make them become elite at the football level, but also at life level.”

The walls in the Spence and Cleone Eccles Football Center are in the process of being remodeled to reflect Scalley’s culture-building, but a glimpse at the defensive team meeting room gives a sense of where it’s headed. On the wall, a sign says, “Building a skill takes time and effort. I will invest the time and be tenaciously persistent. I understand that discomfort is part of the process. If I avoid discomfort, I prevent learning. I will make mistakes. And they will teach me. I want feedback and coaching.”

Scalley has all of the teenagers in the church building repeat this mantra word for word. After, he greets every person standing in line to meet him like a friend. Big smile, handshakes, hugs. He turns no one away.

“He yells all the time. He is a ferocious personality, but his heart is so kind,” says Sharrieff Shah, a longtime U assistant coach (and new associate head coach). “That kindness and love are two of the greatest attributes that can help the team become not just great football players but great men. They will put their cleats down and I will ask myself, ‘Did I make them better men?’ And I am glad that Coach Scalley will make us better coaches so we can make our players better men.”

Nasty Ballhawks

At 6 a.m. in February, the team is running through plays in the fieldhouse. It’s conditioning season, which hurts. A lot of times, the yard sprints and drills end with players puking outside, but today, they’re taking it light.

Scalley stands on the sidelines then moves around the field, calling out directions.

His own coaches from over the years are cheering him on still, remembering how they saw him grow, and how he managed his own occasional defeat. They know what it’s like to harness talent and build potential from a quintessential ballhawk. Coaching is a close metaphor to life.

“At the end of the day, no matter how many times you get knocked down, you keep getting up one more time,” says Larry Wilson, Scalley’s high school football coach who has been in the game for 52 years. “That is how Morgan is. A lot of people are afraid of failure, but Morgan is not. He will make mistakes, like everybody does, but he will make them while doing his very best. And he will learn from them, and he will find ways to be successful.”

When it’s time to break for the morning, Scalley gathers the coaches and tired players into a circle, and he shouts to be heard.

“We will not start slow. We will not be outmatched in energy,” Scalley says. “There is the pain of regret, and the pain of doing it, and we aren’t going to have the pain of regret.”

The players put in their hands. Together, they shout, “RSNB.”